I'm tired and need network help - Is the switch on its way out?

[Pyroman]

Heya,

 

I've got a fibre link that goes to another building in school.

 

Usually everything works fine, occasionally after a weekend or sometimes first thing in a morning they lose the ability to pick up an IP and can't get network access (switch on visual inspection appears to be on and working and the fibre link light is on)

 

If you switch the cab off and back on again everything works fine for a few days.

 

Is the switch just on it's way out?

 

It's an old non-managed Blue Netgear 24 port thing

 

Cheers

 

Roll on half term!

[PotNoodleTech]

Probably just the switch slowly dying. Probably full of dust and getting overheated every now and again. May even be getting too cold on the weekend when the heating is not on.

[crc-ict]

Heya,

 

I've got a fibre link that goes to another building in school.

 

Usually everything works fine, occasionally after a weekend or sometimes first thing in a morning they lose the ability to pick up an IP and can't get network access (switch on visual inspection appears to be on and working and the fibre link light is on)

 

If you switch the cab off and back on again everything works fine for a few days.

 

Is the switch just on it's way out?

 

It's an old non-managed Blue Netgear 24 port thing

 

Cheers

 

Roll on half term!

 

I've got exactly the same setup (even down to the blue Netgears) and have the same issue occasionally.

 

I've always put it down to overheating because one of the pair of switches has a very noisy fan.

[Pyroman]

I've got exactly the same setup (even down to the blue Netgears) and have the same issue occasionally.

 

I've always put it down to overheating because one of the pair of switches has a very noisy fan.

 

I'd not thought of heat, they're racked on top of each other without an air gap (blame the installers) I'll separate them and see if it makes a difference. Cheers

[Pyroman]

Probably just the switch slowly dying. Probably full of dust and getting overheated every now and again. May even be getting too cold on the weekend when the heating is not on.

 

The cab in in a little closet and the temperature tends to stay fairly constant but I'll have a look at the temperature thing as they're racked on top of each other with no air gap. They're relatively new (3 years old) so don;t think they'll be too full of dust but I'll have a look.

 

Cheers

[AlanD]

Exactly which Netgear switches are you using? Do they have fibre modules - or are the fibre connections built in? Are they 100MB/s or 1Gb/s links? When you say unmanaged, do you mean you are choosing not to manage them - or that they can't be managed?

 

If built in - I think there should be another pair of fibre connectors on the switch - have you tried those?

 

Is the problem always at the remote end? DHCP continues to work OK at other end? If you leave a PC on at the remote end - does it continue to ping stuff across the link after DHCP stops working? And when DHCP has failed - can you still ping devices/PCs on the same remote end (- in other words does the switch continue to work)

 

Switches do fail from time to time - and branded fibre modules are particularly prone to failing. Somehow, this doesn't sound like a failed switch. I think you need to diagnose a bit more carefully before you simply waste money just chucking in a replacement.

[RichardZh]

Are your school using the old wires? Or you can check whether your switch's connection has loosened or the ports were damaged.