I do not know about detecting any cabling errors to specific computers. However, I do know about detecting network problems it key points in the infrastructure.
I wrote a script that communicates through critical nodes of my network and reports the results back to me on a periodic basis. I do it daily, you could do it as often as you like.
First, you need to map out your network and identify the critical paths through your network to the backbone/ISP. for me, I have 3 buildings locally and then another building at the end of a T1 link each building has a switch and a server for authentication. file services are housed in three of the buildings. this is simplistic, but will serve as a good example. you also have to think about where you are monitoring from. the script has to be customized to monitor the network from a specific location.
I use perl
use Net::Ping;
use LWP::Simple;
use Tk;
use Tk::DialogBox;
# initialize all the switch status' to "down"
$annex = "down";
$nfsprc = "down";
$home = "down";
$smfr = "down";
$isp = "down";
$goog = "down";
$hips = "down";
$helpd = "down";
# ping each of the nodes to see which paths work
$host = "192.168.1.1";
if (pingecho($host))
{
$annex = "up"; #annex switch works
}
I have figured out that by pinging to each of those eight end points gives me about 95% coverage on my network, the border router, and the individual switches.
Actual cable sniffers are a manual process. you could, if you knew when a particular node was going to be operational, use ping to test a given segment of wire but it would not tell you if it was a cabling problem
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