(no subject)

[torkell]

Hmm, that's the first time I've ever seen a 5-port cheap'n'cheerful switch stop forwarding packets. The normal failure mode is to turn into a hub, not a black hole.

I think this falls into the category of "It did *what* to the network? Cool!"


(for those who are curious, I managed this by unplugging a wireless bridge and instead plugging a wired link into a different port. I think the switch kept forwarding all packets to the port the bridge was in, rather than be sensible and broadcast until it worked out where to send them)

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[tau-iota-mu-c.livejournal.com]

We have them all over the telescope. Small power fluctuation on the site wide UPS, and all of a sudden the spectrograph won't talk to the CCD. "OK, so Bob, where's the netgear 5 port switch between these two instruments?" "OK, let's go down and replace it with something better?"

We've found most of them now.

And my own ADSL modem stops talking to the outside world, and quite often the inside world[1] simple whenever the UPS takes over from the mains. A small little 5ms long interuption of power. Haven't switch manufacturers heard of line filters?

[1] You can't write a script to monitor and then telnet to the switch to reset it, when it doesn't respond to the packets. And when it does respond, but doesn't otherwise indicate that it is going to sit there and hum a little tune to itself instead of talk to the outside world, it doesn't do much good to monitor it. Am I going to have to build a parallel port controlled "reset the mains, you idiot" box?