troubles with "managed" switches vs. at-home network
Does anyone know why I must reset my network switches every so often to enable data traffic to move? This problem started recently after months of trouble-free operation.
Please don't bury me in "drop wire, use wifi" comments and suggestions. Wifi is great, but much slower than giga-bit wire for interactions internal to the home-office. It also offers better streaming from the gateway-DVR to the various set-top-boxes. We usually learn that we have a problem because the set-top-boxes refuse to connect with the gateway. Power-on causes a DHCP request that times out when the switches are not working. Since the gateway also delivers wifi, laptops, tablets and phones typically don't notice the outage because they avoid the switches. My house is pre-wired with CAT-6 everywhere. The distribution center uses Netgear GS-108E giga-bit switches. These are so-called "managed" switches. I have to reset these to get traffic flow to wake up. They operate as factory default so I'm not using any of the "managed" features because it requires admin software that only runs on win-dose. (Also, I don't understand many of the config options so I leave them alone.) The from-house switches connect to another giga-bit switch near the ISP Motorola gateway. This switch provides wire-net to various entertainment components, the set-top-box, and an all-in-one printer. This switch keeps working and does not need reset. The network serves as internet for my small-home-office and family. The data network offers file and print services for win-dose, Mac and Linux workstations or laptops as well as iPad, iPhone along with Android tablets and phones. In addition, it distributes AT&T UVerse video through the home. Thanks in advance, ~~~ 0;-Dan |
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A working switch should never have to be reset or power-cycled. Quote:
Note: I've never come across a switch that required Windows-only software for management. On D-Link, Asus and Linksys switches, the Windows software is only used to change the default IP address of the switch. |
I agree with Ser Olmy, it sounds like the switch is borked. Basic consumer-level gigabit switches tend to last about 3-5 years in my experience before they either fail altogether or start dropping ports or causing other problems.
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It's cousin, the GS108T(tango) has a web-page interface. (blush,grin) This likely explains why I found the 108E switches at a clearance price. Cheers, ~~~ 0;-Dan |
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Also, My switches are connected to surge protected power, but the CAT6 runs without any protections. Wire runs make good antennae for RFI/EMI and other pulse energy surges (motors, lightning, etc). I'd expect that sort of failure to be hard and not affected by factory-default reset. Thanks, ~~~ 0;-Dan |
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Let to factory-defaults, will these switches learn about the traffic and make decisions that somehow close off paths? The factory-default reset would then clear those decisions ... until next time. Curiously frustrated, ~~~ 0;-/ Dan |
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Follow-up: The network is a simple tree: Code:
GW --> {all things wifi} The server cannot communicate with house part B workstations. At the same time, wifi users lose connections to the server but keep connections with the printer. STB-1 continues to operate correctly. Reset-to-factory for SWy and SWz clears all troubles. I've exchanged SWy with SWz without any change in failure symptom. I've replaced SWx without problem resolution. |
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When you power them up, they know nothing about the network and will forward a frame received on one port to all other ports. However, each time it does this, it makes a note of the source MAC address of the frame, and creates an entry in its MAC address table, associating the address with the port the frame was received on. As traffic flows, the switch will eventually know which MAC addresses can be reached via each port, and will forward frames only to the relevant port. The only frames that get "flooded" to every port are broadcast frames and frames with an unknown destination MAC address. Quote:
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Another part of the quandry lies with the GS108E(echo) requirement of a win-dose-based application to connect with the switches. The cousin switch, GS108T(tango), has a web-page interface. I'll upgrade as the check-book permits. ASIDE -- I'm having troubles finding detailed reading about how a managed switch works internally and how each of the available parameters might be used to steer network operation and performance. I welcome any suggested readings my LQ colleagues might offer. |
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It follows from this description that:
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OOPS!! I just realized that STB-1, in my diagram, is the DVR-box. The DVR-box supplies recording services to the entire LAN as well as serves as a STB in its on right. Regards, ~~~ 0;-Dan |
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One of the better explanations I've seen is in the Cisco CCNA/ICND1 book by Wendell Odom. Switches are really quite simple beasts, and explaining how they work shouldn't require a 10000-word article. If I ever come across a really good web page explaining Ethernet switching, I'll let you know. Quote:
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If either SWy or SWz (or both) have ceased functioning, no ports on those switches will work and two hosts connected to the same switch (either SWy or SWz) should not be able to communicate. If on the other hand the problem is related to a link between two switches, traffic between ports on the same switch will still flow. Quote:
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Your setup is really quite straightforward. The puzzling part is that equipment connected to two separate switches seem to drop off the network simultaneously. That would be understandable if the switches were daisy-chained, as equipment at the end would depend on the middle switch, but your topology is a star with SWx in the middle. Either there's something about SWy and SWz that causes them to fail at the exact same time, or the problem is related to SWx. |
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Thanks for the dialog, ~~~ 0;-Dan |
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