Anyone know of a way to check link speed/duplex settings on a remote machine?

[wheresmybacon]

Anyone? I don't care if it's command line or GUI, I was just wondering if there was a way to check what the NIC link speed and duplex settings are on a remote workstation.

 

[Tarrant64]

If you're able to remote into the switch (is it layer 3 switch that does this?) it's connected to you can possible see the link speed and whether or not duplex settings on are. I think normally by default duplex is though.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Well that's the kicker. Our network hardware is supported by another group so I can't get in to the switch.

I'm Domain Admin but my rights stop at the switch.

 

[Tarrant64]

For good reason I'm sure. Other than that I'm not really sure. Call the user and walk them through it? Shouldn't be hard if they can follow "click here then here" instructions. Just out of curiosity, as a Domain Admin why do you need the info? Wouldn't someone from the other group that has access to the switch be able to get you that information?

 

[spidey07]

There are two parts - the switch port and the computer NIC. You can use remote desktop to see what the NIC is set at. Best practice is to leave auto negotiate. Forcing speed and duplex can cause very poor performance if you don't know what you are doing (BOTH sides MUST be forced).

What normally happens is an admin or tech will set the speed and duplex on the NIC to 100/full thinking they'll get good performance. This actually gives extremely bad performance because the switch port will actually be running in 100/half because it was still left to auto-negotiate.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Originally posted by: Tarrant64
For good reason I'm sure. Other than that I'm not really sure. Call the user and walk them through it? Shouldn't be hard if they can follow "click here then here" instructions. Just out of curiosity, as a Domain Admin why do you need the info? Wouldn't someone from the other group that has access to the switch be able to get you that information?

I need that info because recently I've had a handful of people across the state suddenly develop intermittent connectivity problems and I want to rule out the client end. We've had speed/duplex mismatches before that have caused considerable pain and woe amongst my customers. We force 100/full on all our NICs and switches, but since this other group has taken over control of our network hardware, somehow we've seen ports on the switch mysteriously get set to auto or even 10/half on occassion. "Oh wow I don't know how that happened..." Meanwhile I've been swapping in new NICs, changing drivers, patch cables, everything wasting my time. I've literally wasted hours of work because their tech told me the switch port in question was 100/full when it was actually 10/half. :disgust:

I can of course RDC/SMS/VNC to their machines, but since they don't have local admin, I need to log them off before I can bring up the properties of the NIC in question.

And yes the data center group that owns the switches could eventually tell me what I want to know, but the problem is they own literally thousands of switches, and considering the NIC speed/duplex is my responsibilty, it'd be best if I'm the one doing this work.

Ultimately it's a convenience thing.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Originally posted by: spidey07
There are two parts - the switch port and the computer NIC. You can use remote desktop to see what the NIC is set at. Best practice is to leave auto negotiate. Forcing speed and duplex can cause very poor performance if you don't know what you are doing (BOTH sides MUST be forced).

What normally happens is an admin or tech will set the speed and duplex on the NIC to 100/full thinking they'll get good performance. This actually gives extremely bad performance because the switch port will actually be running in 100/half because it was still left to auto-negotiate.

Oh I know, don't even get me started. The only reason we force 100/full on both ends is because "we've always done it that way". We're going to eventually do an organization wide change to auto, but we have over 10,000 nodes so it's no small task.

 

[Tarrant64]

Hmm..Maybe due to what it is you have to do exactly you should start requesting a little more access or direct line to someone who can get this info to you without having to go through all this trouble.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: hungfarover
And yes the data center group that owns the switches could eventually tell me what I want to know, but the problem is they own literally thousands of switches, and considering the NIC speed/duplex is my responsibilty, it'd be best if I'm the one doing this work.

I don't get why they have responsibility over the hardware, but yet, it's your problem when a duplex mis-match occurs?

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: hungfarover
And yes the data center group that owns the switches could eventually tell me what I want to know, but the problem is they own literally thousands of switches, and considering the NIC speed/duplex is my responsibilty, it'd be best if I'm the one doing this work.

I don't get why they have responsibility over the hardware, but yet, it's your problem when a duplex mis-match occurs?

 

[bobdole369]

No easy way to do this. WMI scripting comes to mind - basically the problem is that every card is different - and the card vendor (i.e. driver author) determines where in the registry this data is located. They may not even use the registry.

If all your nics are the same - much better shot at it.

Essentially - HKLM/system/currentcontrolset/control/class/{nicdeviceclassguid}/... ... ...

Then you can find your NIC's device class GUID from device manager, but after that - its a crap shoot. It could literally be anywhere. The driver maker determines this as they read that data (the driver).

 

[drebo]

This might help to some extent: http://www.experts-exchange.co...apters/Q_23278918.html .

That'll tell you if it's operating at 10 or 100. Other than that, though, you're up a creek. Checking the switch is really the only way to get the correct answer, and they cannot expect you to maintain duplex/speed if you only have access to half the equation.

Here's an idea: set all your servers to auto negotiate and let them freak out when the performance of their network starts to suck. That'll get their attention.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: hungfarover
And yes the data center group that owns the switches could eventually tell me what I want to know, but the problem is they own literally thousands of switches, and considering the NIC speed/duplex is my responsibilty, it'd be best if I'm the one doing this work.

I don't get why they have responsibility over the hardware, but yet, it's your problem when a duplex mis-match occurs?

I don't either. I actually just got off the phone with one of their techs who informed me the port I questioned - that drove me to post this - was indeed set to auto instead of force 100-full.

We have a meeting of all our field service techs next week. I'm going to see what I can do about convincing our higher ups we need to make the project for going auto-auto a priority.

I just don't understand how that port was set to auto. Nothing in the building uses auto, or ever has, at least since that switch was installed. Unbelievable.

Thanks for the replies.