CAT5 nightmares
Oct. 26th, 2006 11:13 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
viper0775.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
techrecoveryI'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here goes!
My job requries that I modify existing computer systems and segment them off onto their own sub network for the purpose of establishing a VPN tunnel and protecting our equipmet from the rest of the customer network.
First I take the existing 8 port 10/100 switch that is plugged into the customer network and plug it into the LAN port on my VPN/firewall appliance, then I plug the WAN port into the wall, where that hub used to be plugged in. The rest of the steps are unimportant, the problems I had at the site on Wednesday and Thursday of this week are what have me (and all of my associates) baffled. I did three out of five projects at this location with no problems, until....
The first happened on Wednesday, I did the above steps and the WAN link light would blink slowly. Standard operation is a solid link light and a flashing activity light.
I first suspected a bad cable, so I swapped it out. then I suspected a bad port on the router, so I tried the LAN port (just for grins) and it showed the same problem. I plugged the original wire back into the wall and it worked fine, so I thought perhaps I had a crossover vs straight through issue, I tried various combinations to no avail. Finally as a last attempt I used a spare network cable that the customer had laying around, a heavy duty shielded cable, and BOOM solid link light.
*** A *** What wiring mistake would require that a shielded/grounded CAT5 cable be used to go from the wall to a network device???
The second problem occurred today (actually they both happened yesterday but I didn't feel like troubleshooting this one then so I got some sleep and came back to it today)
I did the same thing in a different room, pulled the original wire out and plugged my appliance in, this time NO link light at all! This, I thoguht for sure, was a crossover issue, so I swapped out the straight through in favor of a crossover, no luck. so I tried another new of each cable, still nothing. Here is where it gets interesting,
* I plugged a Dell PC into the wall and it worked.
* I plugged the original swithc, using my cables, into the wall and it worked.
* I plugged a NEW switch into the wall using my cables, and it worked.
* I plugged my appliance into the wall using the EXISTING cable and it did NOT work.
* I plugged my appliance into the switch and it worked (using any cable I tried)
* I plugged my appliance into the wall using a shielded cable and it did NOT work
NOTHING that I could do would let me use my appliance in THAT wall jack, other jacks worked fine and my spare appliance showed the same symptoms. I had the customer show me the switch port in his equipment room that was patched over and my appliance linked up fine with the switch directly. My conclusion is that something was wrong with the way that port was punched down or patched over, but I can't figure out why EVERY other device that I tried would work, except my appliance.
Oh and all devices were set to auto-sense and all are capable of reaching the same speeds. My solution was to use a different jack in the room.
My job requries that I modify existing computer systems and segment them off onto their own sub network for the purpose of establishing a VPN tunnel and protecting our equipmet from the rest of the customer network.
First I take the existing 8 port 10/100 switch that is plugged into the customer network and plug it into the LAN port on my VPN/firewall appliance, then I plug the WAN port into the wall, where that hub used to be plugged in. The rest of the steps are unimportant, the problems I had at the site on Wednesday and Thursday of this week are what have me (and all of my associates) baffled. I did three out of five projects at this location with no problems, until....
The first happened on Wednesday, I did the above steps and the WAN link light would blink slowly. Standard operation is a solid link light and a flashing activity light.
I first suspected a bad cable, so I swapped it out. then I suspected a bad port on the router, so I tried the LAN port (just for grins) and it showed the same problem. I plugged the original wire back into the wall and it worked fine, so I thought perhaps I had a crossover vs straight through issue, I tried various combinations to no avail. Finally as a last attempt I used a spare network cable that the customer had laying around, a heavy duty shielded cable, and BOOM solid link light.
*** A *** What wiring mistake would require that a shielded/grounded CAT5 cable be used to go from the wall to a network device???
The second problem occurred today (actually they both happened yesterday but I didn't feel like troubleshooting this one then so I got some sleep and came back to it today)
I did the same thing in a different room, pulled the original wire out and plugged my appliance in, this time NO link light at all! This, I thoguht for sure, was a crossover issue, so I swapped out the straight through in favor of a crossover, no luck. so I tried another new of each cable, still nothing. Here is where it gets interesting,
* I plugged a Dell PC into the wall and it worked.
* I plugged the original swithc, using my cables, into the wall and it worked.
* I plugged a NEW switch into the wall using my cables, and it worked.
* I plugged my appliance into the wall using the EXISTING cable and it did NOT work.
* I plugged my appliance into the switch and it worked (using any cable I tried)
* I plugged my appliance into the wall using a shielded cable and it did NOT work
NOTHING that I could do would let me use my appliance in THAT wall jack, other jacks worked fine and my spare appliance showed the same symptoms. I had the customer show me the switch port in his equipment room that was patched over and my appliance linked up fine with the switch directly. My conclusion is that something was wrong with the way that port was punched down or patched over, but I can't figure out why EVERY other device that I tried would work, except my appliance.
Oh and all devices were set to auto-sense and all are capable of reaching the same speeds. My solution was to use a different jack in the room.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}