February 3, 2003
MarkBernstein.org
 

Switch

At Eastgate, we've been having a terrible time lately with some aging equipment. Our database system has trouble talking with printers. Printers periodically vanish from the network. Printers suddenly get slow. Backups fail overnight, but run when we watch.

We're in the midst of ripping out lots of old networking equipment and replacing old computers. But it looks like most of the problems arose from a single, $50 ethernet switch. Replacing the switch fixed all sorts of woes. But what can go wrong with a switch?