analysing packet loss problems

[Guest]

sHi,

I have a problem at my companies network. Most workstations and all servers
are connected to a 3com switch (S1). There are some other switches (S2)
connected to S1 which are serving the network for some other workstations.
Almost all workstations run Thin Station, a linux client which is distributed
by netwerkboot (tftp). The server hosting the Thin Station application is a
windows 2003 server.

Recently I noticed some people, who are directly connected to S1, get "UDP
errors" while downloading the Thin Station from the windows server. People
who are connected to S2 do not get those errors but they have strange lags.

I assume S1 is defective in some way, but I want to make shure. I need some
piece of windows software or something to analyse this. All tools I find just
analyse all networkpackets and show them on the screen (like MS network
monitor), or just do some tests equal to tracert. I need a tool which does
some sort of test with datastreams and checks for delays and packets that
need to be resend and so.

Anyone has a clue what to use / test / do?

Thanks
Nico

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

sHi,

I have a problem at my companies network. Most workstations and all
servers are connected to a 3com switch (S1). There are some other
switches (S2) connected to S1 which are serving the network for some
other workstations. Almost all workstations run Thin Station, a linux
client which is distributed by netwerkboot (tftp). The server hosting
the Thin Station application is a windows 2003 server.

Recently I noticed some people, who are directly connected to S1, get
"UDP errors" while downloading the Thin Station from the windows
server. People who are connected to S2 do not get those errors but
they have strange lags.

I assume S1 is defective in some way, but I want to make shure. I
need some piece of windows software or something to analyse this. All
tools I find just analyse all networkpackets and show them on the
screen (like MS network monitor), or just do some tests equal to
tracert. I need a tool which does some sort of test with datastreams
and checks for delays and packets that need to be resend and so.

Anyone has a clue what to use / test / do?

Thanks
Nico

First thing I'd do is re-patch one of the non-working computers so it's
using S2 instead, and see if you still have the problem. If not, well, seems
pretty clear to me that S1 is the core of the problem and I probably would
just replace it rather than wasting time on troubleshooting. Decent switches
are pretty affordable these days. Your mileage (and pain threshold) may
vary.

One question, tho...is S1 a managed switch?

I haven't used 3Com kit in a long time; grew dissatisfied with their stuff,
so I don't know much about it anymore.

 

[Guest]

In

First thing I'd do is re-patch one of the non-working computers so it's
using S2 instead, and see if you still have the problem. If not, well, seems
pretty clear to me that S1 is the core of the problem and I probably would
just replace it rather than wasting time on troubleshooting. Decent switches
are pretty affordable these days. Your mileage (and pain threshold) may
vary.

One question, tho...is S1 a managed switch?

I haven't used 3Com kit in a long time; grew dissatisfied with their stuff,
so I don't know much about it anymore.

Hi Lanwench,

My first plan was to replace the switch but if I had something to test the
whole thing I could discover problems easier in the furure. I guess it also
could help me to convince the financial department to buy new ones.

The 3com switch is managed but I never used that part much.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Hi Lanwench,

My first plan was to replace the switch but if I had something to
test the whole thing I could discover problems easier in the furure.
I guess it also could help me to convince the financial department to
buy new ones.

sure, but one of the first tests I'd do would be to plug one of your
currently *non working* computers into the *other* switch to see if it
magically works then.

The 3com switch is managed but I never used that part much.

If you can get in either with a management cable or via TCP/IP, you can
check it out.