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| Thread ID: 24953 | 2002-09-22 09:49:00 | Network router/hub problem | tbacon_nz (865) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 82101 | 2002-09-22 09:49:00 | I have a 100 mps router, no name, ex Dick Smith runout, which most of the time works fine. Then all of a sudden, all the connected port lights start flickering as though there is network traffic, and the collision light flickers constantly also. This continues until I power off the connected machines, but then restarts immediately I reboot. Sometimes it seems to reset itself quickly, but on occasion it continues like this for a long time. Even powering off the router doesn't fix it - it starts again as soon as power is applied again. If I add a new PC (laptop) to the network, that port immediately starts flickering as well. Questions: This sounds like a problem with the box rather than a problem with the network itself - reasonable assumption? Are there any tools that could help me better isolate/identify the problem? What is the difference between a $150 and a $500 router (apart from the fact that maybe the more expensive one would not cause me this grief!) TIA |
tbacon_nz (865) | ||
| 82102 | 2002-09-23 07:34:00 | Is it actually a router? Or is it a switch, or a hub? If it's a router, you should be able to log in to it (either through a serial port or by telnet) and monitor its operation. If it's a cheap switch or hub, it won't be "managed". I don't know the difference between a $150 and a $500 router ... but the difference between either and a $2500 or a $14000 one is that the very expensive one usually works. :D My guess is that your device is periodically polling its ports to see what's there ... and getting confused. It must be talking too much, and wanting responses from the hosts.If they are all answering at once you will get lots of collisions. Is it pinging the hosts? You can get TCP monitoring programmes to have running on one machine. There may even be one with Windows. |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 82103 | 2002-09-23 11:45:00 | Is it a bird, is it a plane... My understanding is that it is a router - but there is nothing on it to identify it specifically. What I know now that I didn't know when I bought it is that for a 3-machine network I only need a hub - true? Is there a resource that can help me identify it? And if it is a router, how do I actually log into it? What is the difference between a managed and an unmanaged device - and for my network, is it of relevance, i.e. do I need/want a managed device? I suspected that the extra money would bring better reliability - if I end up replacing it, I would almost certainly go for a name brand - any recommendations? You will have guessed I am sure that although I am computer-literate, I am not a network person at all! |
tbacon_nz (865) | ||
| 82104 | 2002-09-23 12:03:00 | If its a router, it will often have a 9 pin serial (D9) connecter as well. At the price its more likely a 10/100 switch? Switches are better than hubs, but on a small network its probably academic. I run a 6 node network with a hub, and have a router attached to connect to ADSL. The router has a serial port, plus an IP address that I can load in the browser to configure it. Have you had to configure your router, and if not were there any instructions on doing it? If not, call it a switch or a hub (but its a bit expensive for a hub, about right for a 10 port switch) |
godfather (25) | ||
| 82105 | 2002-09-23 13:31:00 | Godfather, I was under the impression that switches had memory for the MAC addresses of the NIC's so that this made collisions far less numerous and transmissions speeds were therefore faster. Also it is harder to run a sniffer on a switched network as compared to a hub based one so there is a slight increase in security. |
Gorela (901) | ||
| 82106 | 2002-09-23 14:28:00 | That would be correct Gorela :) | -=JM=- (16) | ||
| 82107 | 2002-09-23 19:30:00 | OK, so it looks like its a hub - no serial connector, no means of configuring it, no IP address. Getting back to my original problem then, does this means it is stuffed, or is there possibly something else going on? Obviously I don't want to replace it only to find the same thing happening again. BTW, thanks to everybody for their input so far - most educational :-) |
tbacon_nz (865) | ||
| 82108 | 2002-09-23 21:05:00 | After messing about with the hubs at work I all of a sudden had the same problem- 100% network utilisation, collision lights on.... until I realised that in my eagerness to plug everything back in that I had plugged both ends of the same patch cable in to the Hub. Chaos at all ports. Anyone for feedback? regards |
future (1979) | ||
| 82109 | 2002-09-24 11:38:00 | How is the network set up? As soon as a machine starts on a network it will usually broadcast and tell everyone that it's on-line. You don't mention whether you are running static addresses or DHCP assigned. If it's a windows home network running DHCP it needs to access an external source to obtain IP addresses for the connected computers. Obviously this can cause a tremendous amount of traffic. As mentioned earlier the easiest way would be to go to http://www.ethereal.com and download ethereal. There is actually a windows version! I use ethereal all the time and if you put it in promiscuous mode (and you have a hub) it will tell you what all the traffic is. |
Gorela (901) | ||
| 82110 | 2002-09-24 19:32:00 | They are static addresses on a standard Win98 peer-to-peer network. There is also some Internet sharing software (All-Aboard) running. The problem does not occur when a machine first starts up, but at some unidentified time. Alas the hub is not immediately visible, and that the problem is occurring is not immediately apparent, so I have not been able to identify the circumstances that make it go crazy. It is not happening at the moment, for instance. I'll try ethereal and see if I can get any sense out of it, Thanks. |
tbacon_nz (865) | ||
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