Switch troubles - Some systems work on it, others do not


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Following is a quick layout of my network.

 

post-168771-0-46113500-1382216135.jpg

 

Blue connections are connections that work fine, I have other devices on the 5-port switch that work perfectly fine I just didn't draw them in.

 

On device 7, the yellow and green connections work fine (device 7 is only connected to one other device at a time, either yellow, green or red, never more than one at a time), but the red connection does not work. When the red connection is active, device 7 reports that no lan cable is detected. Yet it works just fine on the router and 5-port using the same device and the same cable. Other devices (1 through 6) work just fine on the 25-port switch, even using the same cable as device 7.

 

Even if I remove devices from the 25-port switch, device 7 will not work on it. I actually have 2 other devices that exhibit the same exact behavior as device 7. All three of them report that no cable is attached when plugged into the 25-port switch, but work just fine when plugged into the router directly or the 5-port switch.

 

Is my 25-port switch going bad or something? Makes no sense to me, I just spent the past 2 hours fiddling with my setup and I am unable to get any of the three devices to work on the 25-port switch, even though they work flawlessly on the router or 5-port switch.

 

Any ideas what the issue could be? If it helps, the router and 25-port switch are both gigabit, as is one of the devices that does not work on the 25-port switch. I am not sure if the 5-port is gigabit and I know the other two devices I am having issues with are only 100mbit.

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Nobody has any ideas? Something else I noticed, when I have the six normal devices plugged in, one of my gigabit devices only runs at 10mbps, if I unplug that sixth device, it goes back up to gigabit Ethernet on that other device.

 

Could it be for some reason my switch has failed to the point of only being able to provide a certain amount of bandwidth, thus causing the 7th (or more) devices incapable of establishing a connection, and being unable to provide enough bandwidth for all my gigabit devices to run at that speed when I have six devices connected?

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Ideas, sure. things that may relate, not sure. I have been in and out thinking of how to respond but never do because I cant think of something solid for you lots of things to try though.

Being that you posted your second post with a little more info lets try some things.

Fisrt off, the entire switch is not supposed to slow down. This is a problem with the switch. You probably want to look at getting a new/better switch.

That 7 device is a little strange, what is its purpose? Vm? Why does it need 3 legs that looks to be on the same network? Are they vlan'd out?

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That 7 device is a little strange, what is its purpose? Vm? Why does it need 3 legs that looks to be on the same network? Are they vlan'd out?

What I mean in that illustration is device 7 is only ever connected to the router OR the 5-port OR the 25-port, it is never connected to all three at one time (I drew the three lines to show the potential connections...probably should have made them dotted lines instead of solid).

 

It works fine when it is connected to the router OR the 5-port, but it does not work when it is connected to the 25-port, even if I disconnect all the other devices from the 25-port switch.

 

Device 7, if it helps, is a laptop (devices 1 through 6 are all desktops), I even tried disabling it's wireless adapter thinking that could somehow be interfering, but it didn't help

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What make model is the 25 port switch? I have had similar weird issues with cisco switches but only with servers and other swiches, never a laptop or pcs.

 

 

Yeah I am sure that the ports would go into errdisable mode in this setup.

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Not necessarily, the laptop (7 device) is not connected to all 3 at the same time. Besides you can have multiple nics connected to the same network. It is not advisable but it is possible without the switch disabling the port. It is just a very bad diagram.

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What kind of Switches are you using in your network?

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Kind of embarrassing, not sure where I got 25-port from, it's actually a 16-port.....it's a Netgear GS116.

 

So stepping back and looking at this as a much lower-end switch, it's more likely that the switch is just not functioning properly...but I'd like other opinions on potential issues before shelling out money for a replacement switch.

 

The other switch (5-port) is just a simple ASUS 5-port gigabit switch.

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Unfortunately I bought it a year or two ago, they require proof of purchase for the lifetime warranty and I highly doubt I kept any proof of purchase for that long so I'll probably be stuck buying a new one. Worst case I buy a new one and continue having the same issues and return the new one.

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Its a lifetime warranty. I would contact them. Proof of purchase usually is not required for products with a lifetime warranty as they do not need an original purchase date to see if you are in warranty.

It isn't going to cost you anything to attempt.

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Under normal conditions you would be correct, but they only apply the lifetime warranty to products purchased after May 1st of 2007. I'm not sure when they first manufactured the GS116, but without knowing that or having the proof of purchase I cannot prove it was purchased after May 1st of 2007.....I'll contact them and see what they say though, thanks.

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What cables are you using CAT4/CAT5/CAT6 straight through/crossover, not all devices are MDI-X compatible?

Gigabit is...it is written into the gigabit protocol.
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Check the duplex settings of your port on the #7 device that is having issues. Make sure the duplex is set to auto so it accepts whatever the switch tells it, assumming the ports on the switch are also set to auto if they are configurable.

 

If one or the other side is not set to auto and is set to a specific expected speed and the other side is set to something else, you may experience an issue as you describe.

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so that is just a dumb switch, there is no way to set anything on the ports from what I can tell

 

so do you get lights on your connection - does it come up 10/100 or 1000?

 

So do other devices connected to this switch have issues?

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so that is just a dumb switch, there is no way to set anything on the ports from what I can tell

 

so do you get lights on your connection - does it come up 10/100 or 1000?

 

So do other devices connected to this switch have issues?

On device 7 the only lights that light up is the 100mbit light, and it only pulses every couple seconds, I guess a form of heartbeat pulse or something, but no connection is ever established (the device reports no cable is plugged in). From my testing, any device over 6 is unable to connect to the switch. Device 7 is a laptop, I tried hooking up an 8th device (tablet on a docking station) and it did the same thing, works fine on the router and 5-port but not the 16-port (labeled 25-port in my image), even if I make this 8th device the 7th device instead it still doesn't work.

 

And it doesn't matter what ports I use. I can plug devices into ports 1 through 6, and anything else in any of the other ports won't work, if I move the first 6 devices to ports 11 through 16 and wait for them to establish a connection, the 7th device still does not pickup a connection no matter which port it is plugged into.

 

To add to that, if I remove some of the first 6 devices, and plug the currently device 7 or 8 (not shown in the image) in as a replacement to one of the first 6 devices, they still do not work on the 16-port switch. The 6 other devices have no issue at all with the 16-port switch.

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well as already suggested - call them, those devices are lifetime warranty.. But they are dumb so if having issues there is not much you can do..   But I show that one on sale on newegg for $149 currently..  But again its under lifetime - so maybe they can send you a new one for free.

 

Its a dumb switch. If you connected any 2 devices they should connected at gig.. And be able to talk to each other..

 

If your only showing connection at 100mbit -- then either something wrong with the cable, your nic or the switch..  You can swap out the cable and the switch - if your device connects at gig fine with a different switch than yeah it points to this switch as having an issue.

 

every now and then you do run into hardware that just doesn't like to talk to each other -- but your not using odd ball stuff here.  And I there should be no issues - but if you call them and spend a few minutes on the phone you should be able to get a replacement for free, etc.. even if you don't have your proof of purchase.

 

do you really need 16 ports?  If not maybe look to getting a smart switch - this gives you ability to troubleshoot issues, hard code ports, etc. etc..  Netgear stuff is normally pretty good.

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