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Forum Discussion
GS305EPP - latency or no reply when pinging the IP address of my switch
Hello Community,
I am utilizing various managed switches from Netgear, among which are three GS305EPP models. For monitoring purposes, I have been pinging these managed switches every 90 seconds. While my network has been generally stable, I've recently experienced an issue: following a power outage that lasted 5 minutes, all three of my GS305EPP switches began to sporadically appear and disappear. Meanwhile, the other switches in my setup continued to operate without a hitch.
This reminds me of the known issue described in the Netgear knowledge base: "Why is there latency or no reply when pinging the IP address of my switch?".
I've attempted various troubleshooting steps:
- Replacing the cables.
- Operating the GS305EPP switches without any devices connected.
- Updating the firmware.
- Performing a factory reset.
Unfortunately, none of these measures resolved the problem.
I have a few questions for the community:
- Why are only the GS305EPP switches showing instability?
- How can I stabilize them and consistently detect their presence via pinging?
- How do I enable SNMP on the GS305EPP switches?
Thank you for your assistance!
Kind regards,
Alex
3 Replies
Dear Alex,
Welcome to the Netgear Community!
Here again ...
- The GS305EPP isn't a managed switch -at- -all-.
- Much more, most Plus switches are unmanaged switches paired with a micro controller attempting to listen to the traffic flowing over the switch - all traffic.
- This allowed the implementation of an IP stack (kind of), adding some nice features like IGMP Multicast handling (another job done by that very same uC).
- On top of all that, a simple Web UI was added to configure e.g VLANs plus some.
In absence of a managed core, there is no management VLAN, any any processing - including answering to pings depends hardly on the other traffic on your network Said that, your wonderful ping results re just a random result when the - highly limited- processing power is available.
Said that:
smart-iot wrote:
I have a few questions for the community:
- Why are only the GS305EPP switches showing instability?
- How can I stabilize them and consistently detect their presence via pinging?
- How do I enable SNMP on the GS305EPP switches?
- It's not an instability. It's just a hard fact of the implementation of these non-managed core Plus switch models.
- Nothing you can do except of starting to understand that network devices have other, more important jobs to do than replying to pings, traceroute, ..... Simply a fact for 40+ years since I'm doing networking. On these switches, the limitations are just becoming much more obvious.
- SNMP? 3a) It's nowhere on the product description 3b) nor is there any resource available (in memory, processing, ....) to collect the data, and implement SNMP. These switches come on the per port price (leaving the PoE+ part alone) of a non-managed switch. And you seriously ask for SNMP?
In no aspect, it's a reliable way to monitor these switches. About the same like ping or tracert (traceroute) ICMP echo requests is handled on the common routers, or the big routers in place in the Internet backbones: These switches have other jobs to do at higher priorities.
Scratch all the wonderful theories of PingPlotter fans boys & Co, and all the wonderful KB entries (which does explain a lot already). Except of one: I never understood what the unmanaged switches are making in the list of this KB "applies to" list. Lack of any IP stack, these unmanaged switches will never reply to.
Welcome to real-life networking - without any changes in the year 2023!
Sorry for destroying your very idealistic dream.
Regards
-Kurt
Dear Kurt,
First and foremost, I want to express my sincere appreciation for sharing such a detailed and enlightening explanation. Your 40 years of experience in networking shines through, and I feel fortunate to benefit from your insights.
I must admit, I was unaware of some of the limitations you pointed out regarding the GS305EPP switches, and your clarification helps me understand the situation much better. Your perspective has provided me a broader view of real-life networking, and I'm thankful for that.
Given your vast experience in the field, may I inquire if you could recommend another 5-port managed switch with POE (120W) that I could reliably monitor via ping and does not share the issues you highlighted about the GS305EPP?
Once again, thank you for taking the time to educate and guide me.
Kind regards,
Alex.
Dear Alex,
Any Smart Managed, Managed Switch, or even the decent MultiGig Plus switches will do the job.
Instead of just replacing the hardware, consider to change your monitoring strategy for the Plus switches like the GS305EPP. Being aware of the limitations now, consider to monitor connected devices more tightly, instead of starting event handling or troubleshooting early. There re many more factors to check, before being alerted because a switch does not answer an ICMP echo request.
Nothing to loose.
Thank you for the flowers. Have fun with your network!
Regards,
-Kurt.
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