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You Gotta Have Connections!
Aug 17, 2024
In my last blog entry, I lamented that my efforts just weren’t going my way on a number of fronts. Among the numerous things wrong in my world at the time was some outright strange behavior in our home computer network system. At first, computer and network performance started to slow down but rapidly came to a screeching halt. Not only was internet access impacted, but connecting to our file server (which sits literally three feet from me) began to run extremely slow. It made doing the simplest task take much longer than had previously been the case.
In our home, we have Wi-Fi in addition to being fully wired for computer use – even the garage. That’s so I can do any Internet research or parts lookup without tracking any dirt or grease into the house when I’m working on the GTO. The wired portion of our network connections get connected at a central location via a 16-port automatic (unmanaged) network switch. That’s the larger of the two devices in the picture. The smaller one is my trusty test unit. At first, I thought it was just Jan’s computer but mine was affected as well. Some machines weren’t affected at all.
Wireless connected devices could reach the Internet without issue, but still had difficulty reaching the file server. Other wired units behaved similarly. The server reported no issues, so this told me that the trouble was in either the wired portion of our network, or something in our two workstations. Initially, I was convinced that it was a software issue with our two computers, perhaps an update of some kind that didn’t go down well with the hardware. Although anything is possible, Microsoft updates generally work out fine. That was when I determined that our network switch (a fancy hub) was malfunctioning, even though the activity lights on the front of it were happily blinking away. This was verified when I substituted a smaller unit in its place with a minimum of connections. Like they say, SHAZAM! The system was back at full speed and network performance was just like before.
As I said, the first replacement switch was bad out of the box and had to be returned. The next replacement was a different model from a different manufacturer whose equipment I have been using successfully for years. The new switch seemed to work fine when I connected everything to it. However, after a few days I noticed that overall performance still wasn’t quite back to previous levels. That steered me back to a potential software issue.
Over the course of the last three to four weeks, I’ve tried any and all tweaks and remedies designed to solve network performance issues on a Windows 10 workstation, but to no avail. I thought it impossible that I would have two defective switches in a row from two different manufacturers, but that’s where my thought process was beginning to take me. So, I once again broke out my trusty little 5-port switch. I relocated two workstations, the server, and Internet connections from the big switch to the little one. SHAZAM! Aye Captain! Now she’s givin’ it all she’s got!
It seems that the new switch, while technically working, is just a little slow. The fact that dividing up the workload between two switches improved the overall performance told me that the current new switch was not quite up to the task, although it would be adequate as a spare in case of an emergency. Looking at the two switches, I suppose I should have bought the 300-series switch instead of the 100-series unit. It never occurred to me that there could be a performance difference between different unmanaged switches. What to do now? Not wanting another round of chancing an unmanaged switch purchase with the outside possibility of having to return it, I decided to look into a managed switch instead.
A managed switch is just that. Just like you can login to your internet router to make some changes, you must do the same with a managed switch. However, a little more work can yield big results. With a managed switch, I can divide up my network traffic into smaller segments called VLANS (Virtual Local Area Networks) which perform much more efficiently. It’s something I never thought I’d have the opportunity (or need) to do but am looking forward to seeing how it works out. I’ll report back with results – stay tuned!
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