Forum Discussion

Aspirant

Oct 29, 2018

Solved

network slow: 3 switches between router and pc

Hi,

i have a network that distributes an internet connection (1gbit) to 17 house staircases over copper with 6 endpoints each, so that at each endpoint a maximum of 32MBit up/down can be used and all subnodes are protected via VLANs, so that endpoints cannot see, disturb or connect each other.

Since a few weeks more endpoints were connected and speed problems started.
speed drops under 1MBit or fully stops, while the internet connection is most unused.

Since the endpoints are spread over almost 250m, a GS110tp switch was connected every 80m to get over the 100m limit.

All computers connected to GS108E switches behind these two GS110tp switches often have problems.

All switches have VLANs configured - configuration shown in the picture.
All stairway switches have 32MBit up/down limits configured, except at the uplink port.

I hope the structure is visible in the picture. Computers at the switches in the red rectangle have problems.

Where and how could I look for the problem? What could go wrong here?

i updated all firmwares yesterday, however no improvement.

the 90 days warranty is over, so I don't have free support from Netgear anymore. :(

Best regards,
Daniel

the network with some descriptions

Troubleshooting

daniel-germany
Dec 05, 2018
The length of the cables and amount of switches caused packet collisions.

The problem was solved by inserting routers.

Now everything is running fine.

The problem was found that way:

https://blog.mameso.com/2018/11/analyze-packet-loss-with-wireshark/

best regards,

daniel

4 Replies

daniel-germany
Aspirant
Nov 04, 2018
Copy Link
Report
looks like i can not extend the 100m limit with switches.

so i need to use fibre for the 2 long distances (90m and 170m) or replace this two GS110tp Switches with routers.
- schumaku
  Guru - Experienced User
  Nov 04, 2018
  Copy Link
  Report
  Well, a router might help to drive another media type - but probably not in this case, unless you are going to use some other technology for the longer distance.
  
  Better approach would be to migrate the longer distance links to some inexpensive fiber some Multi Mode Fiber does drive GbE over up to 1000 meters or 10GbE on up to 550 meters.
  - daniel-germany
    Aspirant
    Dec 05, 2018
    Copy Link
    Report
    The length of the cables and amount of switches caused packet collisions.
    
    The problem was solved by inserting routers.
    
    Now everything is running fine.
    
    The problem was found that way:
    
    https://blog.mameso.com/2018/11/analyze-packet-loss-with-wireshark/
    
    best regards,
    
    daniel
- schumaku
  Guru - Experienced User
  Dec 05, 2018
  Copy Link
  Report
  daniel-germany wrote:
  
  looks like i can not extend the 100m limit with switches.
  
  Of course you can. However, for Ethernet the max reach is always 100 meters for 10/100/1000/1GBASE-T. Using fiber much more. Your schema does not show an length exceeding 90 meters resp. 80 meters per hop, what would be fine. If there are 170 meters, the cabling and patching is not as per the drawing..
  
  daniel-germany wrote:
  
  The length of the cables and amount of switches caused packet collisions.
  
  Of course, if the Ethernet links exceed 100 meters, troubles start on the link. For this you don't need Wireshark or any other rocket science.
  
  daniel-germany wrote:
  
  The problem was solved by inserting routers.
  
  Still don't see why a router. You want to build some continous L2 network, so why add routing along the ines is beyond me. Correct way to mitigate copper cable lengs > 100 meters would be the installtion of fiber. Alternate, you can add a L2 switch along the line..
  
  On top of all that, it's a good rule when it comes to STP you should not exceed 7 hops for any connection, so the spanning-tree algorithm has enough time to converge.