What is "radar_sweep" and why is it misbehaving under Activity Monitor?

[TheMac19]

I just opened activity monitor to check something else out, and there seems to be something titles "radar_sweep" running rather erratically, making my data-written graph look like a wild earthquake is in progress.

Basically the graph of data written shows 0 for one second, then about 794kb for the next, then 0kb, then 794, etc. I'm not sure it's radar_sweep, but that keeps appearing and disappearing on my application list. I'll post a screenshot, but having trouble uploading...

I tried searching here and google for "radar_sweep" with no luck. Any ideas?

 

[ruzzian]

These may sound like odd questions but hear me out:

1. Is it a widget that you've left open if you have them at all?
2. Is it a screen saver that gets information from the internet so to show new information each time it pops up? Much like that SETI screen saver (?)


It does sound like something that might be connected to the net and might even be a trojan file of some kind. I'm not too sure. Maybe you should download 'Little Snitch' to find out if there is something connecting to the net without you knowing.

 

[mkrishnan]

Are you per chance using a Mac version of xmms to listen to music? Libvisual for xmms has a plugin by this name.

 

[bruderfranz]

It's a part of the Airport Radar-widget

Hi!

I had the same problem, seems to me as if it is part of the Airport Radar-Widget:

# ps ax
(...)
4155 ?? Rs 0:00.01 /Users/(...)/Library/Widgets/Airport Radar.wdgt/radar_sweep -s
(...)

It's started periodically to recognize new WLAN networks.

Greetings, br.