Solved Unusual suspect / Unmanaged switch

Halo…

Question is at the end.

I just spent 4 weeks troubleshooting with my internet service supplier about an erratic connection. The modem is new, I got in the roof to check due to recent termite issues but the network cables are secure and undamaged. The system I built has been running without incident and unchanged for 14 years.

Some of the outlets in some of the rooms wouldn’t even connect at times. So I vaguely suspected it was a problem at my end.

2 days ago, I decided to turn off the unmanaged tp-link switch, unplugged and turned back on again, it hadn’t occurred to me earlier to do so.
This seems to have fixed the issue.

My question is: what in this unmanaged switch would of needed a reset? Like I said, it never occurred to me to even try it.

(Please excuse the mess)

I've seen switches glitch when the MAC address table goes bad, and it stops forwarding traffic. Some ports may get traffic, and others don't. With unmanaged switches, the absence of a management layer means you gotta power cycle it.

garlin said:

I've seen switches glitch when the MAC address table goes bad, and it stops forwarding traffic. Some ports may get traffic, and others don't. With unmanaged switches, the absence of a management layer means you gotta power cycle it.

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Thanks. I was having trouble finding an answer online.

antspants said:

Halo…

Question is at the end.

I just spent 4 weeks troubleshooting with my internet service supplier about an erratic connection. The modem is new, I got in the roof to check due to recent termite issues but the network cables are secure and undamaged. The system I built has been running without incident and unchanged for 14 years.

Some of the outlets in some of the rooms wouldn’t even connect at times. So I vaguely suspected it was a problem at my end.

2 days ago, I decided to turn off the unmanaged tp-link switch, unplugged and turned back on again, it hadn’t occurred to me earlier to do so.
This seems to have fixed the issue.

My question is: what in this unmanaged switch would of needed a reset? Like I said, it never occurred to me to even try it.

Click to expand...

I have a TP-LINK TL-SG105 5-port Gigabit Switch that I have plugged into my router. I have only had it for a few months so maybe I haven't had it long enough to have any problems. I learned decades ago that a basic troubleshooting step is to power cycle electronic equipment. If it solves the problem then just accept it worked and don't worry why it worked.

BTW, over the last 20 years my Comcast Gateway sometimes had to be rebooted or power cycled to solve problems. However, the last several years Comcast does maintenance after midnight often enough that this is done automatically.

MisterEd said:

I learned decades ago that a basic troubleshooting step is to power cycle electronic equipment.

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I totally agree with you. It was just the last thing in the chain. I’ll call it a dumb moment (like the time I once spent an hour trying to get my computer to work only to discover when preparing to move it to a bench top that the cable was unplugged)

If it solves the problem then just accept it worked and don't worry why it worked.

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Absolutely. I was just curious what was in it that registered connections. I blindly assumed it was a simple patch box. I should know better. Networking isn’t my strongest point, in fact I am terrible at it.
Setting up the network was easy, laying the cables and putting in wall plugs. But I had to pay someone to connect it all because in Australia it has to be connected by a registered professional network/electrician. For insurance reason, this is important (fire etc)

cheers

MisterEd said:

I have a TP-LINK TL-SG105 5-port Gigabit Switch that I have plugged into my router. I have only had it for a few months so maybe I haven't had it long enough to have any problems. I learned decades ago that a basic troubleshooting step is to power cycle electronic equipment. If it solves the problem then just accept it worked and don't worry why it worked.

BTW, over the last 20 years my Comcast Gateway sometimes had to be rebooted or power cycled to solve problems. However, the last several years Comcast does maintenance after midnight often enough that this is done automatically.

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I don't know about my Comcast Modem/Router but I do know that every morning around 4:00, my cable box updates and reboots.

Winuser said:

I don't know about my Comcast Modem/Router but I do know that every morning around 4:00, my cable box updates and reboots.

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That would be good. I don’t have a cable box, I am connected via copper wire and have to use DSL modem @ 115/40. (Because Australia sucks MB’s, bigtime) But I could get a powerboard timer for the switch. hmmm

antspants said:

That would be good. I don’t have a cable box, I am connected via copper wire and have to use DSL modem @ 115/40. (Because Australia sucks MB’s, bigtime) But I could get a powerboard timer for the switch. hmmm

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Even here in the U.S. there are areas that don't have access to high speed internet. The area of town where I live took years and a new cable company to get cable. Cable became available shortly after I paid off my 10' satellite dish and when the channels started scrambling.I'm not sure but I think it was part of the deal for them to get the franchise rights. The new company also ran all new cable wire through the whole town. When Comcast took it over they Upgraded all of cable wire again. The new cable gave us access to even faster internet speeds. I have read that Comcast is getting ready to upgrade to the the newest DOCSIS to allow for faster upload speeds. I basically only upload files to my OneDrive account so I don't see me getting much of an advantage from it. I do love my Wi-Fi 6 modem they supplied. With Wi-Fi 6 I can wirelessly upload a file or folder from computer A to computer B at the same speed it takes to transfer files or folders from two drives connected to my computer.

Winuser said:

my 10' satellite dish

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I have one of those on my roof, with a dedicated modem. I never removed it. It’s pretty big, but not 10', probably 5' diameter.
We couldn’t get ADSL when we built, something I regretfully didn’t check when picking a property as my business relied on the internet,. I built/picked it for the surrounding bushland (in suburbia) This made it even worse due to the satellite signal. We worked that out but the speeds.. OH MY GOD! Slower than a dial-up modem.
It was 3 years until I was able to get ADSL. The horror… the horror.

antspants said:

I have one of those on my roof, with a dedicated modem. I never removed it. It’s pretty big. We couldn’t get ADSL when we built, something I regretfully didn’t check when picking a property as my business relied on the internet,. I built/picked it for the surrounding bushland (in suburbia) This made it even worse due to the satellite signal. We worked that out but the speeds.. OH MY GOD! Slower than a dialup modem.
It was 3 years until I was able to get ADSL. The horror… the horror.

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I just recently got fiber optic . . . wait for it . . . from 50 mbps to 617 (500 official) mbps!

Wynona said:

I just recently got fiber optic . . . wait for it . . . from 50 mbps to 617 (500 official) mbps!

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They told me it will get to my address... eventually. I waited 10 years for them to get to my address with Fibre to the node, so I am not holding my breath for an apparently promised 1000Mbps download and 50Mbps upload

antspants said:

I have one of those on my roof, with a dedicated modem. I never removed it. It’s pretty big, but not 10', probably 5' diameter.
We couldn’t get ADSL when we built, something I regretfully didn’t check when picking a property as my business relied on the internet,. I built/picked it for the surrounding bushland (in suburbia) This made it even worse due to the satellite signal. We worked that out but the speeds.. OH MY GOD! Slower than a dial-up modem.
It was 3 years until I was able to get ADSL. The horror… the horror.

Click to expand...

I still have bad memories of the time I only had dial up. I disliked Windows Vista so much that I switched to Mandrake Linux. At the beginning my only option was to download any new versions I wanted to use. At first there was no download managers or any that I knew of. It would take me days to download and without a download manager if it failed I would have to start all over. Luckily Best Buy started selling the Mandrake Linux disk. Out of curiosity is your satellite dish a C band dish or a KU dish. My dish was a C band dish and a was a solid fiberglass dish. It's still in my backyard. Last year a large branch broke off and broke the receiver end off. Now it's just a big curved dish.

Winuser said:

It would take me days to download and without a download manager if it failed I would have to start all over. Luckily Best Buy started selling the Mandrake Linux disk.

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Oh God no… you’re giving me flashbacks and I am breaking out into a cold sweat.

Now it's just a big curved dish.

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Great for outdoor Wok parties.

Out of curiosity is your satellite dish a C band dish or a KU dish

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Now you’re getting technical, I am not that knowledgeable. I still have the modem.
This is a manual I found, sorry, it’s a horrible website.

Winuser said:

Even here in the U.S. there are areas that don't have access to high speed internet. The area of town where I live took years and a new cable company to get cable. Cable became available shortly after I paid off my 10' satellite dish and when the channels started scrambling.I'm not sure but I think it was part of the deal for them to get the franchise rights. The new company also ran all new cable wire through the whole town. When Comcast took it over they Upgraded all of cable wire again. The new cable gave us access to even faster internet speeds. I have read that Comcast is getting ready to upgrade to the the newest DOCSIS to allow for faster upload speeds. I basically only upload files to my OneDrive account so I don't see me getting much of an advantage from it. I do love my Wi-Fi 6 modem they supplied. With Wi-Fi 6 I can wirelessly upload a file or folder from computer A to computer B at the same speed it takes to transfer files or folders from two drives connected to my computer.

Click to expand...

I am fortunate that I have a choice of multiple Internet providers including two that are Fiber. I have chosen to stick with the cable provider Comcast. Sure Fiber gives equal download/upload speeds but that doesn't make up for the fact that both of the Fiber providers have dropped conventional TV service. All they offer is streaming which my wife would never go along with. Here Comcast offers up to 2Gbps but that is a lot more than I want to pay. I have Gigabit Extra 1200/200 Mbps DL/UL. I rent the XB-8 gateway from Comcast. It supports WiFi 6E but I don't have any WiFi 6E devices yet. Both my phone and laptop are WiFi 6. That makes backing up my laptop not too bad using WiFi.

Winuser said:

I still have bad memories of the time I only had dial up. I disliked Windows Vista so much that I switched to Mandrake Linux. At the beginning my only option was to download any new versions I wanted to use. At first there was no download managers or any that I knew of. It would take me days to download and without a download manager if it failed I would have to start all over. Luckily Best Buy started selling the Mandrake Linux disk. Out of curiosity is your satellite dish a C band dish or a KU dish. My dish was a C band dish and a was a solid fiberglass dish. It's still in my backyard. Last year a large branch broke off and broke the receiver end off. Now it's just a big curved dish.

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I started with the well known Hayes Smart Modem. It was a blazing 300 baud. Note that in 2001 High Speed Internet was advertised as being up to 50 times as fast as dial-up).

Download speeds (1981 to present)

Dialup
300 baud = 37.5 bytes per second
1200 baud = 150 bytes per second
56K baud = 4000 bytes per second

High Speed Internet
1.5 Mbps = 187,500 bytes per second
50 Mbps = 6,250,000 bytes per second
200 Mbps = 25,000,000 bytes per second
1200 Mbps= 150,000,000 bytes per second

I remember downloading the free Linux version of StarWriter from Star Division. It was only 50MB but took 6 hours to download using dial-up. It was real annoying to have to restart the download several time when it failed. Note the StarWriter later went on to become part of OpenOffice.

I also disliked Vista so much that I stuck with Windows XP until Windows 7 came out. I went to one of the Vista launch events in January 2007 given by Microsoft. Participants were given a key to unlock the trial version of Office 2007 Professional. Note that Vista and Office 2007 were released at the same time. Surprisingly, I have read a lot of negative comments on the forums about the ribbon interface introduces with Office 2007. I liked it so much that I replaced Office 2003 Pro with Office 2007 Pro.

I drool at your current speeds.

antspants said:

I drool at your current speeds.

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Here in Iceland speeds of 1gbps are routine and 1tbps and even 10 tps are being rolled out in populated areas otherwise its via satellite but not too bad. I'm glad of that because who wants to watch boring TV with say a Finnish language film with Russian subtitles !!!!!!. Being able to download stuff in seconds has it advantages as well as fast network-- especially when stock market trading.

I use a cheap 5 port switch with a small single LAN cable to a Nighthawk wifi extender -- for some reason the single cable works better than using 5 cables to the extender. I have my devices connected to the switch individually. Then the extender uses FULL DUPLEX (typical wifi uses half duplex) and uses both the 2.4 and 5 ghz bands concurrently for max throughput. This extender is wifi rated at a theoretical maximum of 1.2 gbps and the ISP fibre box connects to the isp at 1.0 gbps and dishes out wifi at 1.0 gbps ( theoretical maximum).

Often I'm working in a "man shed" 100 metres from the main house and this system gives me the best of both worlds fast LAN from devices (some older wifi cards in laptops are only 54g - old technology so this method is streets faster - plus a lot less cabling needed. Very useful when I'm banished to the shed by "she who must be obeyed" !! with a few mates and crates of beer to watch some UK premier league soccer or other sport !!! The Nighthawk has a range of around 200 metres in clear uncongested space so no prob with that -- its a bit pricy though -- has 3 antennas on it for maximum tx and rx.

Most of the times I'm getting 200 - 300 Mbps with this setup -- that's fine for me.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Here in Iceland speeds of 1gbps are routine and 1tbps and even 10 tps are being rolled out in populated area

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I can’t take it, you’re torturing me.
I think 200/300 Mbps is good enough for anyone. Unless you’re constantly downloading massive files or performing remote surgery, what can you possibly do with anything faster? Especially when you’re only as fast as the server that’s serving you.

antspants said:

I can’t take it, you’re torturing me.
I think 200/300 Mbps is good enough for anyone. Unless you’re constantly downloading massive files or performing remote surgery, what can you possibly do with anything faster? Especially when you’re only as fast as the server that’s serving you.

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There's many "Server farms and Data centres here etc" here because of the cheap energy costs - unlimited hydro and geothermal - many get a 30 year fixed cheap contract - so obviously the internet infrastructure has to be highly robust have enough capacity for all those cloud servers and be stable -- plus be as resistant as far as possible to N.Korean, Russian, Iranian etc disruption.

Iceland is a strategic Nato observation place too -- you can't have the military lacking "eyes in the sky" etc etc. So for good or ill us poor residents will take the crumbs off the table and enjoy them. !!!!!

I see in the UK a proposed new data centre in W.London (Hammersmith or Chiswick not that far from Heathrow airport) got refused permission because the electrical grid couldn't supply the current !!!) . I'm all in favour of decent green (sensible ones though) energy policies but when you see all these politicians (not just from the UK) rabbitting on about Green and renewable energy but haven't got a clue how to get the wretched stuff into the grid - then you can see most places are Bonkers with this stuff. Mind you we aren't immune to some bad self serving politicians either -- seems a world wide problem !!.

It;s a bit slower today -- zillions of roadworks etc, running also 4 concurrent VM's and downloading a nice 4K UHD "flick" from Netflix.





cheers
jimbo