joshdavis

Netgear ProSafe switches in the metal case were very reliable in the 100mbit world.

Their gigabit switches seem to fail more often.

Looking through the vents, there's no heat sink, no thermal conduction to the case, no fan.

Anyway, I've had a few switches fail and I'm unhappy with the support rep.

Case # XXXXX941
Problem Reliability
Cause Intermittent Freezes/Lock-ups
Status Open
Notes

1/5/2010 7:00:00 PM
Switch will hang after being on for about 20 minutes. Once it hangs, power cycles don''t help until it''s been off for a while. Hang is: All active lights blink together. Unplugged ports are dark. Newly attached ports stay dark. High packet loss, dropped connections, and session lag. Tried new power supply and no change. Tried new network cabling and no change. Verified plenty of ventilation around switch -- it''s wall mounted, side vents up, with no obstructions. Tried a spare 100mbit switch with no problems on existing cabling.

Would like to have this GS116 switch replaced as faulty.

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1/5/2010 10:07:00 PM
Device: GS116

Hello Josh-Daniel

- Can you test two computers set with static IPs pinging through the switch with no other connections to make sure that it is not something else on the network?

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1/5/2010 11:40:00 PM
Alex,
I neglected to state that in previous testing, we disconnected all other devices and still had the same problems.

Also, we swapped the faulty switch for a different Netgear switch and the temporary switch works without problems.

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1/6/2010 2:14:00 AM
- Ok, So you did do a test with just 2 pcs with static IPs and ran a ping test through the unit?

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1/6/2010 5:24:00 PM
I have tested this in 2 different cities. Different computers used at each site. No connection between the networks of the 2 sites.

At both sites, I have "attached only 2 systems and performed a ping test."

If this is done immediately after power on, while the unit is still cold to the touch, then the ping works.

Once it warms up, the pings will intermittently fail (several packets fail, several work, several fail, etc).
if the switch is still cold to the touch, then a ping will work.

It isn't simply dropped packets either. It's interface resets. TCP connections are dropped.

Sometimes, the systems will show layer 2 has reset. When Windows systems are used, this shows up as either "limited connectivity" or "network cable disconnected", but then tries to reconnect.

When MacIntosh systems are used, the network connection goes down and stays down.

Once the unit is warm, I can unplug it, plug it back in, and the failures resume within a few seconds.

The unit does not seem abnormally warm, and is not near a heater, is not near an air vent, and is in a climate controlled building.

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I really need to be more patient.