Linksys 802.11g wireless router + activity light

Just installed a new 802.11g Linksys router for the GF connected to her cable modem. I noticed that even when our notebooks are suspended (lid down) the WiFi indicator on the router was blinking to indicate activity.

I do know from scanning that there are at least 3 WiFi networks accessible from within her condo. I'm wondering if this WiFi chatter is responsible for the flickering indicator, or if the indicator only shows "valid" WiFi traffic through the router.

I did lock it down with WEP (would have used WPA, but I'm still on 802.11b), MAC filtering and disabling the SSID broadcast. I can't believe that even in a worst-case scenario, if someone had the utilities to do so that they would have cracked the WEP within 5 minutes of me turning it on.

Am I being a little bit paranoid or is this nothing to worry about? I'm not familiar with Linksys wireless, and my own NetGear router doesn't show the same behavior in my apartment (where I have at least two WiFi networks accessible).

Thanks for any input!

Cheers,
KV

It may be picking up innocent access requests off the other local wireless users within your footprint but blocking them anyway because of the security on the system.
So you may just be seeing the request and denial traffic.

Even with your laptops in suspend mode there will still be a ton of WiFi traffic. WiFi was developed with mobile devices in mind so there are many power-saving features incorporated into the protocol. In suspend mode your laptops are probably still sending out a PS-Poll signal occasionaly to check to see if the access point has buffered any frames destined for them.

Depending on the device the activity light could "blink" for any type of WiFi traffic - either data frames or management frames. If it "blinks" for management frames then you might see the activity light blinking continuously from becon frames which the access point will always be broadcasting.

Also - other WiFi traffic in the area may cause the activity light to blink. This doesn't mean that someone has cracked your WEP key and MAC filtering - it's just a matter of how the 802.11 MAC/PHY layers work.

I'm not very familiar with Linksys's "wireless routers" (hate them) so I can't confirm or deny any of these possibilities, but like you said - it's very unlikely that someone cracked your WEP key in less than 5 minutes. I'd relax if I were you.

By the way - just as a notice - WEP is very "broken". If someone wants to spend the time to access the network they can. If you absolutely need better security I'd look into 802.1x, WPA or VPN.

Thanks for the replies, I figured it was nothing to be concerned about, just thought it was odd.

Once I've replaced my 802.11b card with a g, I'm planning on enabling WPA but it's just not an option now.

Most of our sensitive stuff is done over VPN or SSL anyways, so I'm not too concerned, just wanted to make sure the AP wasn't being used by anyone else.

Cheers,
KV