VBox and steady stream of 6Mbps UDP packets
Posted: 4. Jun 2016, 01:16
I cannot believe I've never noticed this before, so something must have changed on my system. But as soon as I start any VBox guest, I'm seeing a steady stream of UDP packets on my host, staying at just below 6Mbps. It doesn't matter what kind of guest I start, 32-bit, 64-bit, Windows or Linux.
The stream starts up as soon as the virtualbox guest starts, before the guest has even had a chance to boot. If I start 2 guests, the stream stays at 6Mbps. When I shut down the guests, the UDP stream continues for a few seconds after the last guest has terminated, then goes back down to zero. The packets contain 1328 or 1332 bytes of binary payload, and are all going to multicast address 232.9.3.115.
Another interesting clue: I tried starting Wireshark to look at the traffic. But as soon as I start capturing packets, that same UDP stream starts up. Even before I start a VB guest. Is this a pcap issue, or some other sort of network hook that is common between VB and Wireshark? (All my VB guests use bridge mode.)
My host is Ubuntu 16.04, running Ubuntu's 4.4.0-22-generic kernel and VBox 5.0.20r106931. I did reboot the host earlier this morning after installing a bunch of updates. Anyone else seeing traffic like this?
The stream starts up as soon as the virtualbox guest starts, before the guest has even had a chance to boot. If I start 2 guests, the stream stays at 6Mbps. When I shut down the guests, the UDP stream continues for a few seconds after the last guest has terminated, then goes back down to zero. The packets contain 1328 or 1332 bytes of binary payload, and are all going to multicast address 232.9.3.115.
Another interesting clue: I tried starting Wireshark to look at the traffic. But as soon as I start capturing packets, that same UDP stream starts up. Even before I start a VB guest. Is this a pcap issue, or some other sort of network hook that is common between VB and Wireshark? (All my VB guests use bridge mode.)
My host is Ubuntu 16.04, running Ubuntu's 4.4.0-22-generic kernel and VBox 5.0.20r106931. I did reboot the host earlier this morning after installing a bunch of updates. Anyone else seeing traffic like this?