I am pretty sure that the Pogoplug will probably communicate with the My.Pogoplug service from time to time to check for firmware updates, as those are pushed to the device automatically, although I am not sure if that happens at pre-programmed intervals (or how often those are.) Also, if you have Active Copy running, that would be another reason for the Pogoplug to periodically access your network.

Peter Redmer
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When you say "periodically" how frequently are you seeing it?

Peter is correct - the Pogoplug will spin up and periodically check in with the service (about once an hour) to see if there is a new firmware update.

A few other things that will cause activity - not necessarily responsible for what you're seeing but in the interest of putting info out there for the community:

Active Copy - as Peter mentioned
Drive app listfiles - looking at a directory on your hard drive via the drive app will cause activity both on the device's ethernet port and on the drive

Shares - if you do decide to share with folks, their access of your drive will of course cause activity on both the drive and the ethernet port

Any sort of file access - this may seem obvious, but using the drive app, web app, any of the mobile phone clients, or any other method to access your drive will create activity.

Those are the major ones.

So that's likely what you're seeing - it should be a quick action. If the check can't occur because the device is not connected, it's not a problem - the check will fail silently and try again - won't affect any other function.