Physical Connection Failures

Doctrine has it that more than 50% of the world's network problems have nothing whatsoever to do with software configuration. I personally would be inclined to say that's a little high, but 25% would probably be fair. Here are some of the things you may encounter.

Common Problems

  1. Loose connection. You don't see it so much with UTP, but some of those old coaxial cable connections were pretty shaky. The first and easiest thing to check when you have a network problem is that all of your connections are tight.

  2. Bad cable. Cables are the most exposed portion of your network. They get kicked, stepped on, tripped over, and even chewed.

  3. Bad port. Once you're sure of your connection and your cable, try plugging into a different port.

  4. Bad network card. If all else fails, swap out the network card. The downside of this technique is that unless the model of the new card is identical to the old, you may introduce new problems. But then life is often hard.

Tip:

In the absence of a cable tester, it's not a bad idea to keep one "known good" cable around for diagnostic purposes.


Tip:

It is dramatically cheaper to manufacture your own cables than to buy them pre-prepared. Good cable crimpers are commercially available for about $40 at most computer and electronic stores. For another $50 you can get 200 meters of Cat-5 UTP and a box full of jacks . Compare this to a 30-meter length of pre-prepared cable for $79.99.


Diagnostics of Physical Connection Problems

  1. Everything was fine 20 minutes ago AND you haven't changed the software setup AT ALL.



BEA WebLogic Server Administration Kit
BEA WebLogic Server Administration Kit (Prentice Hall PTR Advanced Web Development)
ISBN: 0130463868
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 134
Authors: Scott Hawkins

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