network issue

[dosborne]

Even a dirty port or poorly installed jack, or a million other things, can cause problems. Interference on the line (run next to a fluorescent light for example, a nick in the cable,...) or anything that causes retries can eventually overload the network, and therefore overload a port and potentially cause a switch to reset.
It will likely come down to the process of elimination. If possible start with as simple a test scenario as possible (direct wire the 2 PCs together for example) and then add devices/cables/switches 1 by 1 and keep retrying.

 

[Patrick9876]

I just saw this thread. This suggestion is probably way off base, but if one of the PC's is a Dell you may have some 3rd party bloatware getting in the way. If you have SmartByte installed on some Dell computers and are sending (or receiving?) a large stream of large packets Smartbyte may briefly disable the network interface. I know this happens with WiFi; I'm not sure about Ethernet.

 

[fred9999]

depends on what is shorting / breaking in the connection.
The key is to see what change the issue follows.
If it follows a cable, then change it. If it follows a specific PC, add a new NIC and test.
If a new switch powers off or reboots, could be cable or power or switch. You can also get a "storm" of packets from failing hardware as retransmits overwhelm the LAN.

When you said the lights went off on the switch, was that the activity/sync led or the power led or both ?

I saw the activity lights go off on the old switch at every failure. Haven't observed that happening on the new switch, I wasn't watching the one time that a copy failed (so far) on the new switch.

I can't see the problem being other devices on the network - just a couple laptops using wifi, ipads and iphones using wifi, a couple wired media streamers, a couple wired network drives, some cams using wifi - all small consumer products.

So I guess it's pointing to either a failing NIC or bad drivers. I don't know enough to replace either, so I'll have to take it in to a shop and have them do it.

I suspect PC2 because I also saw failure once in a while when I copied files from a network drive to PC2. I'll have to start there.

Thanks guys.

 

[fred9999]

I just saw this thread. This suggestion is probably way off base, but if one of the PC's is a Dell you may have some 3rd party bloatware getting in the way. If you have SmartByte installed on some Dell computers and are sending (or receiving?) a large stream of large packets Smartbyte may briefly disable the network interface. I know this happens with WiFi; I'm not sure about Ethernet.

Both are asus, and no bloatware - I removed everything when I got them.
Thanks.

 

[degrub]

I saw the activity lights go off on the old switch at every failure. Haven't observed that happening on the new switch, I wasn't watching the one time that a copy failed (so far) on the new switch.

I can't see the problem being other devices on the network - just a couple laptops using wifi, ipads and iphones using wifi, a couple wired media streamers, a couple wired network drives, some cams using wifi - all small consumer products.

So I guess it's pointing to either a failing NIC or bad drivers. I don't know enough to replace either, so I'll have to take it in to a shop and have them do it.

I suspect PC2 because I also saw failure once in a while when I copied files from a network drive to PC2. I'll have to start there.

Thanks guys.

In the OP, you said
"
Another quirk is, when this error happens, it will also abort any download I happen to be doing at the time, so somehow the error is affecting some other network communication.
"

Is this on any machine or just the one you were copying from or copying to ?
Is this repeatable on the same machine only ?

 

[degrub]

I saw the activity lights go off on the old switch at every failure. Haven't observed that happening on the new switch, I wasn't watching the one time that a copy failed (so far) on the new switch.

I can't see the problem being other devices on the network - just a couple laptops using wifi, ipads and iphones using wifi, a couple wired media streamers, a couple wired network drives, some cams using wifi - all small consumer products.

So I guess it's pointing to either a failing NIC or bad drivers. I don't know enough to replace either, so I'll have to take it in to a shop and have them do it.

I suspect PC2 because I also saw failure once in a while when I copied files from a network drive to PC2. I'll have to start there.

Thanks guys.

If you do take it into a shop, have them clean the connection points on any card plugged in and also on all the memory sticks installed. Reseating cables too.

You might try using a USB ethernet network adapter and see if you get the same result or not for each PC.

 

[fred9999]

In the OP, you said
"
Another quirk is, when this error happens, it will also abort any download I happen to be doing at the time, so somehow the error is affecting some other network communication.
"

Is this on any machine or just the one you were copying from or copying to ?
Is this repeatable on the same machine only ?

Yes, repeated a few times before I got wise. It happens on the from-machine. I only download on the from-machine and then copy files to the to-machine. So it seems when the old switch reset, it also affected the download.

I'm going to get a new NIC on PC2 (the to-machine) in January, and ask them to update whatever driver it needs. I have a hunch that's probably the culprit, because several times in the past, the failure occasionally happened when I copied a file, using PC2, from a network drive directly to PC2, so PC1 was not involved.

Thanks again.

 

[degrub]

Ask them to also disable the other NIC in settings.