Suspect faulty hardware, Looking for method to test

Networking
1

So I was out of the country for 2 weeks ending last week and only just recently noticed there was a serious issue the other day after playing a little GTA Online with my roommate.

While riding in the car during missions, There was a few random disconnect where the driver (My roommate on the same network) would just drive into something and stay there, then after roughly 10 seconds I would be back where he is. I’m not sure if he had the same issue when I was driving however and don’t know if he was the host or I (I suspect I was the host). Either way I suspected it was a short term issue with connectivity and ignored it. Coming from my experience with programming networked software, I would suspect that the p2p nature of GTA Online would have given us a direct connecting through the router thanks to a public IP (Static)

The next time I noticed an issue was with when I plugged my Xbox 360 in for the first time in 4 years. Setting it up as a media hub for Plex and Netflix. I connected it to the network and though I might as well have it ready to play some games in bed as well so off I went logging into Xbox live. But every roughly 5 minutes it would disconnect from Xbox Live. Not ideal. 9 times out of 10, a reconnect would work and where it didn’t, it resolved itself before I could perform a local network test.

So the obvious thought would be, Call up the ISP (Who don’t have the greatest network anyway) and ask them to help troubleshoot. However thanks to GTA, I suspect something on my network failing. Of everything, a switch that I have used for 8+ years. Reason being, My systems (Two desktops, a TV and the 360) are all connected through this switch while my roommates new system (Built only a month ago by myself) has a direct connection to the router along with laptops/phones and a PS4 that are connected over wifi that don’t appear to have the same issues along with a Raspberry Pi that I use for embedded software testing.

Now I know the simple answer is just go out and buy a new switch but the thing is it’s not a cheap switch that I would have to replace but also I’m looking at upgrading to a 10 gigabit network (Wholesale ISP is trialing 10gigabit internet currently) down the road anyway so I don’t want to spend a few hundred buying a switch to have to replace it again. I do a lot of hosting through my network so reliability but also reducing cost is key.

So basically what I’m looking for is is there software out there than I can use to test my networked devices for potential faults before replacing potentially perfectly fine hardware and still end up with the same issue.

For reference my internet connection is 1gb/500mb (Yes that’s correct)
Latency to local servers are sub 1ms, to America ranges from 110 to 160ms.
I could write my own script to ping google a few thousand times a second to pick up drops but I would rather not have officers knocking at my door lol.

And for the record, I’m not looking at changing my network, installing a pfsence system or anything like that, this is purely maintaining the current network for the time being.

2

I dont think you really need any piece of software to test this, as it seems like you have it narrowed down to the switch somewhat already.

Is it possible for you to plug your XBox or another piece of suspected hardware directly into the router via Ethernet? If so, this may be all that is required to rule out, or pinpoint, the switch as the culprit.

If the issue disappears once the device is plugged into the router, it means that the problem must be with the switch, or cabling to or from the switch.

I apologize if this solution is not what you are looking for, but I am thinking about simplicity.

3

I understand and that would at least get rid of the switch as suspect if it doesn’t fix the issue. Will have to find a new cable however as length is an issue. I’m a software developer so I instinctively went to software for diagnostics. The idea being I can at least test between the switch and the router without having to upset all my cabling.

4

It also doesn’t tell me if the issue is actually two different issues specific to the applications.

One last thing I have noticed is that some network connections seem to be routed to America, not Australia or asia where I would receive a lower latency even where I know there are closer servers (Facebook, Google) Xbox live seems to be effected by this with a latency of over 150ms

5

Your ISP will quite rightly tell you to start trying to replace hardware. Their job isn’t really to troubleshoot your home network.

Start with a process of elimination. For each network device, attempt to prove whether or not it is the issue, by observing whether the issue is contained to devices on/behind that device or not.

As above, it sounds like the issue may be your switch. You already observed that devices plugged into the router and not the switch are not impacted.

I’d confirm by plugging your device(s) into the switch or using wifi off the router, or an AP plugged into the router instead.

If that works, look at the cabling (i.e., patch cables) first (replacing cables is easier/cheaper than replacing switches). Don’t forget the cable feeding the switch from the router.

I’d also maybe try a different port on the router/switch for that link between them. Ports do die occasionally, without the entire device dying.

1 Like