(@Richard.Dane not sure this is in the right category?)
I’ve had two incidents now of something happening that I don’t understand.
I have a powered network switch hardwired into my LAN at home. Twice now in the last six weeks, it seems to have dropped off the network. It is still powered up when this happens, and all the connections are still there. But it is now invisible to the network, and so is everything that is connected to it.
However, what seems to happen is that if I just switch everything off reboot it or perhaps leave it overnight, it magically reappears again. You can perhaps now understand why I am mystified.
Has anybody else experienced this and have any possible explanations?
It’s an EE 8 Switch according to Neil’s profile. It’s perhaps also worth enquiring about the router. I mention this because I experienced similar problems of things disappearing when I had a mesh network. I’ve ditched it and - touch wood - everything has stayed visible for quite a while. I now have a straightforward Netgear Nighthawk, with an EE switch for the NAS and the Nova, with no other switches or complications.
I believe the EE switch to be unmanaged, ie you can’t set up sub nets, groups, etc., which probably rules out management keep alive packets and such.
As the network is hardwired, it looks as if something is timing out and then is kicked back into life by powering off/on renewing DHCP lifetimes, etc., assuming not a meshed network such as you described.
Possibly an intermittent fault on the EE switch, so if still in warranty, I’d chase up a replacement. Also consider the EE PSU, if that’s flicking off/on, again intermittently, might cause the network dropouts being experienced……
Just a few thoughts, appreciate it’s not a solution, but troubleshooting this kind of thing is quite tricky.
What is “everything connected to it”? A good way to start is to remove one thing at a time and see if problem is removed. Might be other products you have connected to it that is making it nervous.
Sometimes there is no obvious reason and it can sort itself out on its own. I had exactly that with a Netgear GS105 some years ago. It suddenly dropped off the network and everything connected to it dropped off too. Restarting it didn’t help. So I bought a new one which was delivered the next day. In the meantime the original one reappeared overnight and it has continued to work with no problems for about ten years since then. The replacement GS105 is still in its box.
@davidhendon@HungryHalibut This seems to be exactly what’s happened to me, and twice now. It is the EE that’s dropping off, and that (@Blackbird ) has my NDX2 and NAS connected to it. It is wired back to my TP-Link AXE5400 Tri-Band Wi-Fi router. That arrived in September, and the first time this happened was in December.
I’ve had the NDX2 and the NAS running off the EE for about 2 years now…
One has to ask, what is EE’s (Chord’s) history in networking hardware……?
Perhaps, only perhaps, that’s why folk appear to have fewer issues with recognised networking manufacturers, or even quite old Cisco , kit.
BTW, I realise that the EE switches, and possibly others, are a bought in/rebranded item with some reworking to justify the price, though there are several excellent options for circa £500, albeit minus the audiophile badge.
Out of interest, how do you know it’s the EE? If I look in my list of devices I can’t see it. When I had big problems with my stuff, everything on the EE was dropping off, but also a Qb that was upstairs and not connected to the EE. I had even worse problems when I had a Cisco 2960. It’s all very odd, and really really frustrating. You sit down to listen to an album and…… bugger, where has my streamer gone.
Hi HH, I’m working on it being the EE because both the NDX2 and NAS disappear off the network, but are both still running (The NDX2 work still using my CD transport). It could I suppose be the connection from the router to the EE? But the lag between the (so far) 2 faults doesn’t suggest to me a dodgy cable?
I would always try a different cable in case you have a faulty one. Also try a different port on both router and switch in case the problem lies there. Start with the basics!
The rest of the network is fine. WiFi and hardwired. The way I found it the first time was that my Mac mini suddenly couldn’t see the NAS. I connected the NAS direct to the router and there it was… so either the cable or the EE.
Can you explain what you mean when you say that the switch drops off the network? It’s unlikely that your switch is listed as a connected device on your DHCP server, so how would you know?
Do you mean that all the peripheral devices connected to it disappear, therefore you are blaming the switch?