Packet Storm/Noise Tracking?

[jmair]

Every now and again we have somebody that will plug both ends of a Cat5 into the wall. This will cause some noise and over time a lot of noise slowing down our network.

 

There has got to be a better way to find the location of the noise other than going to every port in every building. Is there an easyish way to get the IP of the noise?

 

Any suggestions?

[mullet_man]

You could ensure Spanning Tree protocol is enabled on your switches to stop loops.

[jmair]

You could ensure Spanning Tree protocol is enabled on your switches to stop loops.

 

That looks like it's done something. Made the change to 7 switches and my main switch now doesn't seam to be going as crazy.

 

Thank you!

[funkymunky]

Depends what switches you've got. If you have semi recent HP then enable loop protect, it'll save your arse on many occasion and the switch will be happy to tell you the last time it happened. It's a pain in the arse when it happens but if you can identify it then you're half way there

[browolf]

surely a loop doesnt have an ip..... What we do: ping thru the main switch and unplug network segments until the ping stops dropping packets. Since our segmented buildings have multiple switches, we can do the same in the building to identify a specific switch and then check a lot less sockets.