Network tester

[Matt Lawrence]

I've got a user who is experiencing network failures several times an
hour.  Since his connection works the vast majority of the time, testing
is going to be challenging.

It's a 1Gb connection on a Windows notebook with a USB-C docking station

It works fine for him at home with a fairly long cable run

Swapped cables at his desk & swapped ports running back to the wiring
closet, which swapped ports on the far end as well.

Plugged his connection into a desktop switch, waiting to see if that helps

So, I think testing is going to require a fairly sophisticated tester
that does a lot more than continuity testing.  What do y'all suggest?

-- Matt

[Doug Hughes]

For the budget conscious cable verifier, I like the Byte Brothers RWC. I
see they are currently about $400 on Amazon and $200 used on Ebay. It
will do cable map, continuity, and a bunch of frequency/capacitance
testing to certify the cable at 1 gbit connectivity. It can also tell
you how far into the cable there is a problem with TDR functionality.
Fluke has traditionally been the gold standard of these ilk, but those
tend to be thousands of dollars.

[Keen, Andrew]

Tried a different docking station or a USB-Ethernet adapter with a different Ethernet chipset?

-Andy

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[Gus Correa]

+1.

We had much trouble with various USB-C docking stations, on Macs and Windows, which can go bad quite early.

More so if the user plugs in the laptop power adapter to the docking station together with Ethernet.

I've been asking users to use either the adapter's power or the Ethernet feature, not both together.

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[Miles Fidelman]

For starters, just open a dos window, and start ping running.  Every
time there's a gap, move the connection one step closer to host your
testing against.  When you stop having gaps, you've identified the
segment that's problematic.

Miles Fidelman

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In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra

Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
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nothing works and no one knows why. ... unknown

[Matt Lawrence]

Not yet.  I don't think there's another one that does what he wants
here.  Also, the fact it works at his home with no problems reduces the
probability that it is the issue.  It could be that the chipset is
lacking in drive or receiver sensitivity.  Or, it could be something else.

-- Matt

[Edward Ned Harvey (lopser)]

It sounds like you've got it pretty well diagnosed already. Why do you need a tester? Try replacing the jack(s), which will obviously require re-punching down. That would solve a lot of possible problems, and if it doesn't, you're going to need a new run.

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From: ma...@technoronin.com <ma...@technoronin.com> on behalf of Matt Lawrence <ma...@technoronin.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 1:11 PM
To: te...@lists.lopsa.org <te...@lists.lopsa.org>
Subject: [lopsa-tech] Network tester

 

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[John Stoffel]

>>>>> "Matt" == Matt Lawrence <ma...@technoronin.com> writes:

Matt> I've got a user who is experiencing network failures several
Matt> times an hour.  Since his connection works the vast majority of
Matt> the time, testing is going to be challenging.

Matt> It's a 1Gb connection on a Windows notebook with a USB-C docking
Matt> station

Matt> It works fine for him at home with a fairly long cable run

Is he taking the docking station home, so the only thing changing is
the cable to the ethernet situation at work?

Matt> Swapped cables at his desk & swapped ports running back to the
Matt> wiring closet, which swapped ports on the far end as well.

Good check.

Matt> Plugged his connection into a desktop switch, waiting to see if that helps

Still at 1g?

Matt> So, I think testing is going to require a fairly sophisticated
Matt> tester that does a lot more than continuity testing.  What do
Matt> y'all suggest?

I'd first spend the money on a new docking station, or if he's using
the same one at home and at work, I'd try to figure out what he's
doing differently at each space.

How is the dock powered? What model laptop? Does he use the left
hand port at home for the dock, and the righthand port at work?

What is he doing when the netowrk goes down? Can you maybe stress
test will a large filezilla upload/download to some internal server to
make sure it's not heat or something like at.

John

[Matt Lawrence]

Yes, he is taking the docking station home.  It's a Starlink USB-C unit
hooked up to an HP laptop.

The network problems typically show up as dropped audio or video calls.

Yes, the desktop switch is also at 1Gb.

-- Matt

[John Stoffel]

>>>>> "Matt" == Matt Lawrence <ma...@technoronin.com> writes:

Sounds like the starlink is flaky to me, but I'd also check which port
on the laptop he uses in each location.

Matt> Yes, he is taking the docking station home.  It's a Starlink
Matt> USB-C unit hooked up to an HP laptop.

Matt> The network problems typically show up as dropped audio or video
Matt> calls.

If you run a contact ping at his device from somewhere else, do you
see it drop off the network and for how long? IS there a VPN in use,
even in the office?

What OS is the laptop? Have you tried another dock? And it sounds
like it never drops at home, which is also wierd... since generally
home systems are crappier than work network gear. Or at least we'd
like to think so. *grin*


Matt> Yes, the desktop switch is also at 1Gb.

Matt> -- Matt

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