LAN activity (blinking light) ... how to?

[bjrichus]

What I miss with "7" is that the network icon does not show activity, even in the unscientific way that the old XP "two screens connected by a line" thing in the system tray used to do.

There may be a way to get "7" to do that... if so, I have completely missed it!

Not a deal breaker by any means, but there were times when something as basic and as visual as that would really help....

 

[TheSchaft]

This was discussed a while ago in a different thread, and one suggestion was to use Lan Lights which was originally developed for XP. In looking at the release notes, it has recently been updated to account for Windows 7 colors and to address large memory systems.

I have it running on my Windows 7 systems (32 bit) - I missed the blinking tray icon also.

A nice side benefit is that it shows a lot of other information as well, like totals, network activity, etc.

 

[Gazzasore]

Good stuff eh

Now if we could just get the start menu back to the classic

 

[bjrichus]

This was discussed a while ago in a different thread, and one suggestion was to use Lan Lights

Oh yes.. I remember that package from ages ago!!!

Thanks for that. I'll dig it up and see what happens.

 

[bjrichus]

Good stuff eh

Now if we could just get the start menu back to the classic

I used to LOVE Windows 3 style menus.... then I discovered DOS.... Well, at the time, we WERE migrating apps from CP/M

 

[bjrichus]

No delete a message button (when you clicked the darn thing in error), huh?

Sorry 'bout the double posting.

 

[bjrichus]

This was discussed a while ago in a different thread, and one suggestion was to use Lan Lights which was originally developed for XP.

The author has some problems with it on 64bit systems.

Guess its not going to work for me then... Confirmed by the author - 32bit ONLY!

 

[TheSchaft]

bjrichus -

Sorry it doesn't work on 64 bit systems. Looks like the transition from 32 to 64 will be more difficult than the one from 16 to 31 was.

(BTW, you can get rid of a double post by clicking "edit" on the one you want to dump and then "delete" in the edit box. Don't fill in a reason, and then hit delete and it should automagically disappear. Worked for me.)

 

[Barman58]

One totally "off the wall" option - Comodo's free Firewall has an animated Tray icon that shows Upload & Download activity. Over the top for an activity indicator but if you want a good firewall and indication in x64

 

[24740]

This was discussed a while ago in a different thread, and one suggestion was to use Lan Lights which was originally developed for XP. In looking at the release notes, it has recently been updated to account for Windows 7 colors and to address large memory systems.

I have it running on my Windows 7 systems (32 bit) - I missed the blinking tray icon also.

A nice side benefit is that it shows a lot of other information as well, like totals, network activity, etc.

Thank you for the post up, it works well with my 32 bit
Nice to have it back

Cheers

 

[bjrichus]

bjrichus -
(BTW, you can get rid of a double post by clicking "edit" on the one you want to dump and then "delete" in the edit box. Don't fill in a reason, and then hit delete and it should automagically disappear. Worked for me.)

Got it!

Thanks for pointing it out... I must have been asleep or something!!! LOL!!!

 

[bjrichus]

One totally "off the wall" option - Comodo's free Firewall has an animated Tray icon that shows Upload & Download activity. Over the top for an activity indicator but if you want a good firewall and indication in x64

I downloaded and installed it on my system. Works well.

As you say, over the top, but until something better comes along, it'll do.

Thanks for the pointer Barman.

 

[Barman58]

Don't forget to disable the windows firewall if you are using it, and if you take a little time to get used to the set-ups you'll find Comodo a very good firewall - can be a little intrusive when starting off but once it learns your system you hardly know it's there

 

[Generator]

I've been trying out an application that makes your keyboard lights flash with the network activity! it won't be everyone's cup of tea depending on how bright your keyboards lights are.
it works pretty well IMO, it does exactly what my router light does for my pc.

IT Samples - Network Lights

It's a bit of a novel idea but it might be worth a try.

 

[bjrichus]

I've been trying out an application that makes your keyboard lights flash with the network activity!

Ah yes.

Got it - very cute too (works fine on 64bit too).

 

[rocsen]

After trying Lan Lights on Windows7 32 bit I noticed it takes a constant 3-5% CPU usage. Has anyone else encountered this?

 

[weh]

I'm using a free-ware utility called NetWorx. It's compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit Win.7 and does the job for me. It creates a tiny animated graph icon and can creat an enlarged version for placement in an out-of-the-way corner of your desktop. It is also highly configurable.

 

[bjrichus]

I'm using a free-ware utility called NetWorx. It's compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit Win.7 and does the job for me. It creates a tiny animated graph icon and can creat an enlarged version for placement in an out-of-the-way corner of your desktop. It is also highly configurable.

Nice looking little utility.

Thanks for the pointer.

 

[rocsen]

Networx is nice but not really a replacement for the network activity lights. It shows either a static bar icon, or an animated graph which I find difficult to see because it's so small.

It samples - Network lights work well but it doesn't respond to all traffic. If you ping a server for instance the LED's wont light up. Perhaps because the packets are too small. But this then defeats the whole point.

LanLights use 3-5% constant CPU usage and also found it kept sending data?
This didn't happen on my XP box, but I don't need it for XP.
Hopefully these bugs will be ironed out by the developer.

Is there nothing else similar to LanLights?

I'm not a programmer but I imagine writing an app just to monitor traffic is relatively easy. I think the majority of people don't need fancy HW monitoring. But just a simple tool that can replace the XP lights.

 

[weh]

I changed the colors and settings on NetWorx so that incoming is green, bidirectional is yellow and outgoing is red. I also set the scale to corespond to my broadband upload speed. That way, the small icon changes color quickly in response to any activity. I don't care that it saturates on incoming data -- it still tracts the actual numbers. Even with the limited scaling, I can tell easily when something is wrong. Plus, I can switch to automatic scaling anytime I like.