Why do they blink and what do they mean?
In: Engineering
On such devices there are usually a few different kinds of lights:
A light to indicate the device is powered on. This should indicate that the device is turned on vs. off or without power.
A status light to indicate if there is some kind of error. This light might be able to change colors or flash in various patterns to give more information about what has gone wrong.
Lights to indicate activity such as uploading or downloading. These would be the ones that rapidly flicker, and they don’t really convey much information other than if something is happening or not.
Beyond those general classes of lights the particulars of any device would need to be looked up individually.
So for broadband coax cable modems, It’s different between brands but generally on modems you will have a power light, and downstream signal light, an upstream signal light and a online.
Power- on or off pretty self explainitory
Downstream- incoming signal from ISP(internet service provider)The lights vary but generally blinking slowly means attempting to aquire a DS connection.
Quick blink, means signal acquired and now attempting to “lock” in that signal and make sure it’s the correct type and power level to function.
Solid means it has successfully locked in these downstream channels
Upstream-this is the return signal back from the modem to your ISP.
Same light format as downstream, slow blink is acquiring fast is locking and solid is all good ready to go
“Some models use 2 different colors for these 2 connections depending on how many of the down and up stream channels it is able to lock into, if they are able to lock in a certain number of these channels it will change the colors, again this changes by brand and model.
Online- this generally just means that down and up stream have completed their jobs and you now have access to the internet service from your ISP. usually do not have different blink speeds, blinking means it’s verifying the previous steps and finalizing your connection. Solid means it’s done.
Routers have different sets by brand and model but generally the same few lights and reasons for blinking. Their is a power, online, link, Wi-Fi, and Lan lights.
Power- obvious
Link- generally only a blinking or not light, blinking means it’s receiving data from a modem or device capable of talking to it over a ethernet line
Wifi- generally solid means it’s radio is on and it’s creating a wifi signal, some blink or change colors depending on the type of wifi it’s producing or will have multiple wifi lights such as a 2.4 and 5 Ghz light.
Lan- again generally only on/off on means there is a physical connection to some kind of device from the Lan ports on the back which are where ethernet lines dock with the router.
Each LED typically represents different functions like power, internet connection, and Wi-Fi activity
They’re just indicator lights. Solid green means online, blinking means attempting to connect, red means not connected. Some routers you can actually turn them off. They’re just there to help the user know the status of the wifi via the router.
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