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GS724T: Network is stalled and all connected ports have synchronised pulsing activity lights

ferg1
Guide

GS724T: Network is stalled and all connected ports have synchronised pulsing activity lights

I have a GS724Tv3 running firmware 5.4.2.30.

 

For the past few months I get a problem where most internal devices are inaccessible.

 

Rebooting the switch does not restore functionality although rebooting the connected router does.

 

It’s a home LAN but there’s multiple buildings connected to it. With multiple Draytek AP-800 and AP-900 access points and 2 other switches (GS116) connected directly to this switch. Plus there’s many devices (multiple Macs, one PC, many Sonos devices and IP cameras).

 

When this happens i see that the activity light of all connected pots is flashing in sync. Not at all like the usual activity sporadic flashes. The flashes are about every 0.5 seconds.

 

What is the meaning of this pulsing? This would help me someway in troubleshooting this problem. I suspect that the router is getting overwhelmed by some misbehaving device. 

 

The SONOS devices do not work well with this switch in its default setting. They get confused by the Spanning Tree support, that is by default disabled and quickly flood the network. However, this was configured correctly a few years ago and little has changed with the topology of the network since then (see following post for more on this).

 

https://en.community.sonos.com/setting-up-sonos-228990/using-netgear-gs724t-switch-for-hardwire-1818...

 

Thanks!

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ferg1
Guide

Re: GS724T: Network is stalled and all connected ports have synchronised pulsing activity lights

Dear DaneA,

 

That's helpful about the possible loop.

 

Spanning Tree (Classic STP) was already configured fine on the router. It's been working fine for a few years now.

 

I methodically investigated any possible loop and found the culprit!

 

A patch cable had been removed (my bad!) from the GS724T. As luck would have it this was connected to a access point. As even worse luck would have it this had two Sonos Connect Amps plugged into it! So all traffic over this access point was instead routed to the Sonos devices and I guess was then sent over their SonosNet wireless network until it reached a wired connection back to the GS724T switch. Eeek. No wonder it was all stalling.

 

Thanks!

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DaneA
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: GS724T: Network is stalled and all connected ports have synchronised pulsing activity lights

Hi @ferg1,

 

It’s a home LAN but there’s multiple buildings connected to it. With multiple Draytek AP-800 and AP-900 access points and 2 other switches (GS116) connected directly to this switch. Plus there’s many devices (multiple Macs, one PC, many Sonos devices and IP cameras).

 

When this happens i see that the activity light of all connected pots is flashing in sync. Not at all like the usual activity sporadic flashes. The flashes are about every 0.5 seconds.

 

What is the meaning of this pulsing? This would help me someway in troubleshooting this problem. I suspect that the router is getting overwhelmed by some misbehaving device. 

The pulsing of lights means that there is a possible loop within the network.  STP needs to be configured on the GS724Tv3 switch as well as with other devices that supports STP (which includes Sonos).  Let me share this link here about STP and Sonos.

 

Sharing also the forum link below seems to be similar with your concern:

 

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Smart-Plus-Click-Switches/GS108T-and-Sonos-freezes-network/m-p/1496...

 

 

Regards,

 

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

Message 2 of 3
ferg1
Guide

Re: GS724T: Network is stalled and all connected ports have synchronised pulsing activity lights

Dear DaneA,

 

That's helpful about the possible loop.

 

Spanning Tree (Classic STP) was already configured fine on the router. It's been working fine for a few years now.

 

I methodically investigated any possible loop and found the culprit!

 

A patch cable had been removed (my bad!) from the GS724T. As luck would have it this was connected to a access point. As even worse luck would have it this had two Sonos Connect Amps plugged into it! So all traffic over this access point was instead routed to the Sonos devices and I guess was then sent over their SonosNet wireless network until it reached a wired connection back to the GS724T switch. Eeek. No wonder it was all stalling.

 

Thanks!

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