Why are there multiple inbound network connections via Microsoft QWAVE protocol (Port 2177) from the DoD, Department of Defense Network Information Center?

Question

Why are there multiple inbound network connections via Microsoft QWAVE protocol (Port 2177) from the DoD, Department of Defense Network Information Center?

Kismet0 0

Windows 11 Home

IP addresses establishing inbound connections belong to DoD, Department of Defense (DNIC).
Via UDP port 2177, Microsoft QWAVE (Quality Windows Audio Visual Experience)

I logged 5 IP addresses from DoD Network Information Center (AS749) establishing inbound connections to the computer over several days time.

How is this possible?

(screenshots attached, IP address highlighted in red.)

(EDIT: Microsoft removed my screenshots. I've linked to them via imgur below)

144.18.106.53 - DoD - HIGHLIGHTED 144.18.187.108 - DoD - HIGHLIGHTED

https://imgur.com/a/t0qbPc1

https://imgur.com/a/gtPte3u

Kismet0 0 Reputation points

2025-04-18T15:31:27.6966667+00:00

Somehow the 2 screenshots got removed.
MotoX80 36,291 Reputation points

2025-04-18T22:35:17.1566667+00:00

Just an observation here; 144.18.187.108 is in the Local Address column, not the Remote Address column. So that would imply that that address is somehow assigned to your Laptop1 machine. Except that the Protocol column says UDPv6 and 144.18.187.108 is an IPv4 address, not IPv6. Maybe it's a bug in TCPView that is interpreting an IPv6 address incorrectly as IPv4. I don't know that's a guess.

On my laptop I see a connection to 48.0.0.0, and I have no idea where that came from.

You would probably need to run a network trace to see if you can capture that data.