Need this answered asap

[Stewie]

Hi guys,
having a serious problem where i work (power plant). Ok, we have a 10/100 10 port hub. We just got this internet camera that can pan/tilt/zoom. Its shared on the network so everyone can see the image by typing in an ip address, and people can take control of it. Anyhow, its a heavy duty camera. It was like $1,800.00. but, its hooked up to port 7 on the hub. The hub is constantly having a collision. Also, there are other comptuers hooked up to this hub. THey are constantly getting data from various things. There is also a network Hp printer. This hub runs to another hub, which connects to the server. the network cable the camera is run on is about 300 feet or so. This problem keeps occuring: Something (assuming the camera) keeps locking the computers around the hub up. They all lock up or slow down alot at the same time. If shutting down the camera, then the computers are back up and fine again. What could the problem be and how could I address this issue? Also, there are other users in the plant who can type in the ip address and pull the picture (live view) off the camera. They are connected to a different hub, but all the traffic for the camera has to go through this one hub, which very important monitoring computers are hooked to, and i'm assuming its using too much bandwidth for the hub? i dunno, i'm lost on this one, and i need help lol.
thanks in andvance for any suggestions.

 

[Santa]

Without getting down and dirty with a Sniffer try replacing the hub with a switch. Replace with a comparable Switch in terms of cost level.

In other words if you paid 1800 for a camera hopfully you can drop 500-1000 on a good switch that will do the job for you.

If not a good test could be a simple 4 or 8 port SOHO switch from the local electronics store and see if the collisions stop.

If so, for some reason the camera is causing too much broadcast traffic to overwhelm the hub. Poor programming most likley.

 

[Stewie]

Santa,
Thank you very much for the info. Trying to stay under the 500.00 range. They spent the 1,800.00 on the camera becase "they just had to have it." without seeing what the troubles of it would be. Anyhow, any reccomendations on a switch?
thanks
-Josh

 

[Audiofight]

3Com switches are great to use. Hell, any 10/100 16-port switch can be gotten for $125 shipped or less. Linksys makes some decent ones.

Like was previously suggested, I think the camera plus all the computers and the printer are causing too much bandwidth for the hub to handle. Also, is it a 10-Base hub or a 10/100 Hub? If it is only 10MB, then that too is not helping your cause any.

If your company doesn't care where you buy from, hit Ebay and just type in "16-port switch" or "24-port switch" and look at all the options.

 

[amdskip]

Yeah, switch is the definate way to go. Run to Best Buy and pick one up and try it if you are in a hurry.

 

[Garion]

It is possible that you're seeing errors related to cabling and/or interference, as well. 300' is close to the max length of Cat5 (which is ~330'). When you get that long, you need to be very sure that it's done right. Not to mention the fact that you're in a power plant. I'm guessing there could be BIT of electrical interference there! Did a professional installer install this cable for you? Is 300' the "straight" shot, or does that include the extra distance that the cable has to take to go up, down, and get routed around various obstacles?

If this is the case, a switch will help somewhat - It will, at least minimze the amount of impact the issue has on other users' computers, but probably won't fix your camera.

To find out if it's your cable, take a PC and plug it into the far end. If it behaves as normal and can transfer files at the same rate it can in it's normal state, your cable is likely OK. If it acts odd, you've likely got a cabling issue. With a hub, a cabling issue can do bad things, since all packets are sent to all ports, including the corrupt ones, the errors, etc. If I had to guess, you're probably seeing a bunch of CRC errors and late collisions which are expected with cable problems. You probably won't actually be able to tell this, however, as your hub won't give you stats and most PC NIC cards nowadays hide those errors from the OS or any sniffer app, anyhow.

It's possible (but very unlikely) that your issue is related to traffic since other people can access the camera successfully.

Remember, when troubleshooting ALWAYS start with the physical layer!

- G

 

[Stewie]

thanks for the help guys. i installed a netgear 10/100 switch today (16 port) and its still doing the same thing. the cable is pretty much a straight shot. It's unlikely thats its interfernce, but i will look into that also. Thanks again, and i'll keep you guys updated.
-Josh

 

[Garion]

You might run into a problem with a low-end switch that does "cut through", where frames are automatically forwarded when they arrive. This includes corrupted frames. Most higher-end switches support "store and forward" mode, where they receive a full frame, make sure it's not corrupted, THEN forward it.

I did notice that Netgear claims some kind of automated system where they start at cut through and move to store-and-forward based on congestion, which might or might kick in in this scenario.

- G