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Or you could just assume you are having network activity when on a always on internet connection...Seriously what is the point of having a flashing little icon in the taskbar? I find the whole premise of this a laugh riot.
Glad I could amuse you. The idea is to see how much bandwidth you are using. Not to have the flashing indicator. I think it's a neat little tool. But then I amuse easily. A Guy
Actually, that item USED to be in windows XP, until some ding-dong at Microsoft decided to remove it entirely from Vista and Windows 7 (it was enabled or disabled by checking a box). Leave it to MS to get rid of a feature that many users found useful.
I'm fairly certain it was in Vista too... I distinctly remember the icon flashing when you had network activity. It just wasn't always obvious behind the little globe that came up when you had Internet.
I kind of agree with logicearth, If you want to know whether you have network activity, your likely to be monitoring it anyway. I personally never paid any attention to whether the icon was flashing or not, unless something wasn't working.
You'd be surprised at the activity going on in the background. I run a Gadget called Network Meter. It has a graphic representation of activity as well as some bandwidth buckets. I don't use the auto update because it just loads another service I can do without. Other than that, it's pretty nifty. You can find it at Addgadget.com.
I think the program may be badly named. It's more about monitoring how much bandwidth, or at least that is how I took it. Some may like it. A Guy
Mis-named or not it presents activity better than a flashing light.
Another point of view.... it serves well as a simple (low overhead/small size) warning indicator. If the system is idle and it does light up in a steady or somewhat constant fashion then more investigation using better tools may be warranted. Similar to having a dumb disk activity indicator that never turns off. Would you also argue that it is not needed as well?