Privacy

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Ethernet port being used while PC is turned off? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by prousername@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Greetings! So recently, i spent a few hours coding software. After i was done and i shut off my pc, i noticed both of the ethernet lights were on and blinking. Does this mean that Microsoft is sending data to their servers before the PC fully shuts off? I am scared that this might be the thing it does. How can i get rid of this issue? I have no idea if it's related to Windows or the PC itself.

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[–] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 50 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does your PC support Wake-On-Lan? Effectively, leaving the port powered to allow switching on over the network

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN

[–] prousername@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

It does, but wake on lan is disabled in the BIOS.

[–] sneaky@r.nf 14 points 2 months ago

Power to the port may be hardwired for that feature to exist even though you have it disabled. Usually older models, but some do stay on just from being powered.

If it's a privacy concern check at your router and see if it holds an address.

[–] Majestic@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

Try toggling ErP setting or similarly named EU energy setting in your UEFI. This should resolve the lights being on.

[–] scutiger@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Windows by default doesn't fully power off when you tell it to shut down. It goes into hibernation and keeps the network open for updates and will sometimes power back on to complete these updates.

If you want to fully power off, hold the left shift key when you click shut down. Or turn the power off elsewhere (eg. psu or power bar.) I'm sure there's another way to do it, or to prevent the behavior entirely.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This isn't correct at all. You are confusing fast boot and sleep. When Windows goes to sleep (I think it is S4) is when it can come back up for updates. However, during sleep networking is not active. It just wakes back up on a timer. Fast boot isn't sleep at all. It just a fancy shutdown mode that doesn't unmount the boot disk before shutdown. It also caches the system state to improve the startup time.

[–] scutiger@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fast boot is just Windows logging you out of your session, then hibernating.

Sleep is keeping the computer in a low-power state with RAM powered on..

Both of these have been known to result in laptops powering on unbeknownst to their owners to perform updates and remain powered on afterward.

[–] Bitswap@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Windows is never responsible for this. It is errors in the EC code or BIOS wake timers. When you click shutdown, the system is powered off. Windows hands off execution to Bios code for shutdown after the cycling dots saying "shutdown".