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Fiber Link Error Rate

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by phingers 1 view

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I have a fiber link which has an Etherlink error rate over 10% at least 30 times a day.

Should this be lower? It is a problem for the W98 clients to log in at the moment - they can usually do it on the second or third attempt. I can't see any other network problems through our 3COM Superstack II 3300 switches.

Could the fiber problem cause this behaviour iun the W98 clients?

3 replies

by mshavrov

Make sure you don't have problem with fiber itself. If possible, rent fiber tester (we use Microtest LAN Tester with Multimode Fiber Adapter), to get readings on your link. What these testers do - they check your fiber according to production specifications. Do same readings several times a day, because we had bad fiber which gives us bad reading at certain time. Later we discovered that we had some "open" fiber exposed on sun. If you can't find where to rent this tool, may be hire someone to make these testings.

Another thing to consider - if you have more than one link between locations. In this case errors on interface may cause Spanning Tree or routing recalculations, which may cause delay in traffic.

Not sure about 3Com switches(I have Cisco), but try to turn on all logging, probably debugging, may be forward it somewhere with Syslog, and watch, what's happening during this "blackout" moments.

Good luck.

by phingers

Thanks for the answer - some more info - There is only 1 fiber link. Would I need to disconnect the fiber from the network to perform the tests? Spanning tree is not enabled in the switches - should it be?
There are no problems with the W2000 or XP clients and the W98 clients do log on eventually, so the network is running of sorts and there are no problems after a successful logon.
Could the problem be in the switches and not the fiber?

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