Network Dropped Sessions

We have 8 PC's and a server hooked together as a wired network.

We have a Linksys 4-line Cable Router, a couple of small Linksys 5-line powered hubs, a cable modem and lots of Cat-5 wiring.

Periodically we seem to lose connectively for 10-20 seconds and then everything is fine.

Using tools like Windows Messenger, we would occasionally get disconnected from Messenger - we thought this was a problem on our ISP side. However, recently we installed an internal (within the LAN) messaging software product (LanTalk), and it is suffering the same issue. We stay connected for 6-8 hours, then a machine disappears off the list of users. This always coincides with losing the Windows Messenger connection too.

Most of the PC's are connected to 5-line hubs, and then to the Linksys Router. A couple of the PC's plug directly into the Router.

The settings on the hubs and router are basically 'out of the box' settings.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this, or what is causing this?

 

Does your Linksys router have the latest firmware?

 

We have not touched this for a while. I'm loath to download any firmware updates until I have an idea if it will solve the problem. We did download a firmware upgrade for the Router soon after it was installed resolve a firewall issue. But in the last 30 months, we've not touched any of the firmware.

 

We did update the firmware on the router. It has helped somewhat - reducing them probably better than 50% - but we still get these occasional drops.

Any suggestions for troubleshooting this further?

 

Any chance you can get a router with more ports and dump the Hubs? Sometimes you use what you have, but in my experience, hub's are the devil's tools for a network. Possibly get a switch to replace the hubs, if money is really tight. :cool

 

Our building complex sprawls so it wouldn't be easy to run individual cat 5 cables from a router to all the PC's. The shipping area/warehouse is at least 100ft away from the current router - with the router to hub cat 5 connection going through 3 adjoining old buildings.

I did wonder if the hubs represented some of the issue or not. I know there's different brands and capabilities. Ours are small powered 5 port Linksys boxes.

 

Well, hubs are not a good choice on a network, as they broadcast every transmission they receive to everything hooked up to them. This can cause collisions on a local network. Think of your office phone being like a party line, you get a call, and you can hear the person who called you, plus everyone else at your office who is on the phone. A network on a router is more like your actual phone system, you only hear the person you are addressing.

A router only transmits packets to the computer it is addressed to, or it will pass in on the the default gateway, or perhaps the next router, I am sure someone with better network skills than I have will correct me.

You would be somewhat better off with a switch than a hub, as a switch "In the context of a standard 10/100 Ethernet switch, a switch operates at the data-link layer of the OSI model to create a different collision domain per switch port. If you have 4 computers A/B/C/D on 4 switch ports, then A and B can transfer data between them as well as C and D at the same time, and they will never interfere with each others' conversations. In the case of a "hub" then they would all have to share the bandwidth, run in Half duplex and there would be collisions and retransmissions. Using a switch is called micro-segmentation. It allows you to have dedicated bandwidth on point to point connections with every computer and to therefore run in Full duplex with no collisions."

Ok, I cheated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_switch :-D

 

I didn't know LinkSys made a 5 port hub. Are you sure its not a 5 port switch? What is the model?

 

I think they do make a 5 port Hub, but it would help to know if Jeff is dealing with hubs or switches.