Netgear FS752TP Can't Access Web GUI or Ping

[MartinLove]

Hi All,

I am not a network engineer and have very limited networking knowledge.

In our office we have :-

2 x FS752TP
5 x GS110TP

We have just expanded our office and in doing so bought all new Smart Switched. These are basically just out the box and plugged in with very little config.. Standard time date etc..

No VLAN's have been configured, so all ports on the switched are using the default VLAN.

The 2 x FS752TP are connected via fibre and these are used to connect the 2 parts of the office together.


When I boot both the FS752TP switched these work fine for about a week. After this I can no longer connect to the management interface of one of them. I reboot the switched and then again everything is fine for about a week and then I can no longer get connected to one of the switches.

It seems to be that whatever switch is powered on first is the switch I can connect to after a week.

For example.

I power on Switch A first and then Switch B. After about a week I can no longer connect to the management console of Switch B.

I power on Switch B first and then Switch A. After about a week I can no longer connect to the management port of Switch A.

When I can't connect to the management port the switch also doesn't respond to ping.

The devices connected to the switch that is no longer accessible via the management console still work and can access other computer, network resources and the internet etc.

The network does seem a little slower when the switch is not accessible.

Do I need to do any additional configuration of the Switches, so that the two parts of the office can communicate properly.

Any help in this would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Martin

 

[jimbopalmer]

http://support.netgear.com/product/FS752TP

has new firmware

You are not using both sides of the combo ports are you? Copper OR Fibre, but not both.

I tried to remain child-like, all I achieved was childish.

Tsar of all the Rushers

 

[MartinLove]

Hi Jimbopalmer.

Thanks for the prompt response.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but here is the information I think you are looking for.

Port 49 on both the FS752TP have a SFF module and are connected with fibre. There is no Copper connecting both of these switched together.

I have downloaded the latest version of the firmware, but will have to wait till tonight to do a reboot.
Currently on 5.0.2.15, so not to far behind.

Thanks again for all your help.

Martin

 

[port27374]

Hi Martin,

just wanted to reiterate something i thought of as i was reading, firstly hangs and lockouts can occur with buggy older FW, so you were right to think about upgrading this to the latest version... besides that i guess i would probably also try the following,( remember to do the obvious, backup old configs and upgrade all switches in the network, not just the one which is causing issues)

1) keep an eye on the logs and see if you can spot anything in particular on either switch which might cause any potential issues...
2) if you have any experience with wireshark or other network analyzer it might be worth keeping an eye out for what happens on the network
3) do you know if the lockout will occur if you only have the two switches connected via the combo ports? or does it only happen when you start connect end devices?
4) I've just had a quick look over the spec's for this switch and it looks like they support RSTP, I know from experience that incorrect or unconfigured STP can cause lockouts on switches, so just run over that again... it might be worth disabling it completely if you are confident about the wiring situation and are sure no one will be working on patching/switching on premises.

all the best!

Adam

 

[MartinLove]

Hi Port27374,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Was out of the office for a few days.

I tried upgrading both the FS752TP to the latest version of Firmware (5.0.2.33). I also upgraded all the other switches to the latest version of Firmware for their particular model.

After upgrading the Firmware of the FS752TP I started to see a different issue in that the switches would now reboot themselves. It could be once a day or three times a day. Both switches would reboot, not at the same time, but they would reboot all the same. After a few days of this I had to load the old Firmware (5.0.2.15) back onto them. Since then both switches have been up for almost 4 days without issue. (Fingers crossed)

In answer to your above questions :-

1.) When the switch reboots, the logs get cleared out, but couldn't say I've noticed anything that jumps out.
2.) I have a little experience with wireshark, but the problem I have is that the issues only happen every now and again. Maybe once a fortnight and then it could be six weeks before the next issue or atleast till I notice there is an issue.
3.) These switches are in production, so it's not easy to test as our office also includes a call centre which is 24/7 and most of the ports are in use.
4.) I'm not a network expert at all and know very little about RSTP and STP.

Thanks very much for your help Adam.

Kind Regards,


Martin