LAN Issues, due to addition of a switch

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Hello all. To start out, I wired my home myself with both Coax and Cat5e due to issues with the existing wiring. There are 7 runs total, each consisting of 1 coax, and 3 Cat5e terminations. All of the runs terminate to a network rack I have in the crawlspace, where all of the hardware is centrally located.

I have AT&T U-Verse service, VOIP, internet, and TV, all of which are IP based, which is in part the reason for the number of cat5e runs to each room. The line comes into the house, and goes into the U-Verse Residential Gateway. VOIP splits here, and goes into one of the patch panels, which is cross-connected to the other 7 neighboring ports and short patches connect 2 ports to take the dial tone from the RG to each Red wall socket. IPTV and Data leave the RG on one of the LAN ports and plug into a D-Link DGS-1024D Gigabit switch. The switch then has patch cords that connect each port to a patch panel port to be taken out to each of the 21 wall jacks. I also have the DVR and a NAS in the rack.

That is how the network has been for about 2 years without any issues. Recently, I purchased a new Sony Bravia 46" TV that connects to the internet, and then there is a Wii, a PS3, and the U-Verse set top box connected to it. To remedy the problem, I found a REALLY cheap Linksys BEFSR41 wired router. The router has the most recent firmware version installed, and I logged in and set it up to disable DHCP, made sure the IP address is in the same subnet (I know, it's only for the management interface, not for the switch, since a switch doesn't care about layer 3).

The PS3 was connected to one of the wall jacks, as well as the Linksys router (switch). The TV, Wii, and STB all connect to the Linksys. All will remain fine and dandy for about 3-4 days, and then problems pop up. The trouble is noticed with the TV. There is hitching in the video and audio, artifacts on the screen, and other stuff. None of the other STB's are having issues at the same time. If I unplug the Linksys, and plug the STB directly into the wall, trouble is gone.

When the Linksys is plugged in, all of the activity lights are blinking non-stop. I am wondering if perhaps there is some kind of issue because the 2 switches are directly connected. Does anyone know what this could be? I am wondering if perhaps I move the jumpers at the network rack so that the port that the Linksys is attached to connects to the RG rather than the switch in the network rack.

Any ideas?

Thank you!!!


Here is the hardware involved:

D-Links DGS-1024D:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817111031

Linksys BEFSR41 ver 4.3:
http://www.linksysbycisco.com/AE/en/support/BEFSR41


My Network Rack:

 

[thiggins]

Connection diagram please.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Ok, I have made a rough network diagram with Paint (it's all I have access to at the moment). For ease of use, the diagram only shows the run that has the trouble, and the network rack. With the D-Link 24 port switch, there are currently 17 in use. 14 of the ports connect to wall plates throughout the house, not all of which have devices connected. The other 3 ports on the switch are for, NAS, DVR, and the uplink to the RG. For testing's sake, all devices were disconnected from the wall plates in other rooms, so that the living room (where the Linksys router is) is the only place the wall plates are in use.

Is it possible that the Wii with it's LAN adaptor and Wii Connect 24 (or whatever it is called), the STB, and the TV are overwhelming this 10/100 link from the Linksys to the D-Link switches? I was thinking that perhaps it could be a broadcast storm, but the only way to stop that is when it hits a router. In this case, any of the STB's connected to the D-Link switch would be effected by a broadcast storm, but they do NOT have issues.

Or perhaps this Linksys is just simply getting old, and something inside of it heats up, and starts having issues after being connected for a while.

I will have to perform a test, and disconnect the TV and the Wii from the Linksys, and see if the issue is still present.

 

[thiggins]

The uplink from the Linksys to your main switch should be via a Linksys LAN port. WAN port should not be connected.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Correct. Only the 4 LAN ports were used, not the WAN port.

 

[thiggins]

As long as you don't have duplicate connections between switches, you shouldn't have any network storms. I doubt that there is > 100 Mbps of traffic.
Could be that the Linksys is getting flaky. Try a different switch.

 

[JoeJoe]

That BEFSR41 has problems, when I had one (earlier version) it was not capable of 100 Mbps speeds on its back plane. Maybe there is a site out there that lists the LAN throughput.

 

[thiggins]

That BEFSR41 has problems, when I had one (earlier version) it was not capable of 100 Mbps speeds on its back plane. Maybe there is a site out there that lists the LAN throughput.

Consumer router switches don't have backplanes. The switch is a chip.

All today's switches support wire speed among all ports.