Which Hub???

[dnwurtz]

OK, I have read almost all threads on this board, and was just wondering what vendor and model number hubs are people using that work. I currently have a Linksys EFAH05W 10/100 5-Port Workgroup Hub (auto-sensing) and it does not work, or aleast I can't get it to sniff, and yes I do have a complete 100mb network. So, I need to go out and get a new hub. Thanks for all your inputs.

[fryfrog]

if you can find yourself some 10mbit device (like a 10mbit network card) hook it up to your 10/100 hub. this should make the 100mbit portion of it a hub (like you need). works that way for me on a 5port and 8port linksys hub.

[high_jeeves]

I have had success with both a Netgear DS104 and Netgear EN106TP. I had problems with 2 different Linksys hubs, but they are at the office now, so I dont have model numbers...

[dnwurtz]

OK, I went out and got a 10mb Hub Netgear EN104. It works great off of my Linksys BEFSR41 Cable/DSL Router. So, good luck and happy EQing.

[StarZman]

Well after returning 2 Linksys hubs due to not being able to get them working I took some advice from high_jeeves and bought a DS104 and it works GREAT.. Thanks high_jeeves.

[Trash80]

Interesting… I was away from EQ for around 6 months. I just upgraded showeq via the outstanding guide by Monkey679. Not a single problem with the upgrade -- except no sniffing! I have used numerous low end hubs in the past, but upgraded to a wireless network hub a few months ago. This must be the problem. Is there anyway to easily diagnose sniffing problems? I can ping all pc’s on the network. Or is everyone who is having a hub problem just linking in another dumb hub to their “smart” hub? I’ll try it tonight and post results.

[Gullork]

Well I can't say for certain since I don't know your wireless brand and config, but I use a Linksys router with wireless nic and they of course did not work.

Mine of course is a router, but it might be that most wireless access points have switching already built in them, to keep from trying to send busy 100mb network traffic over a 11mb wireless connection. That would seem to make quite a lot of sense to me.

So, when using seq, I cannot use the wireless nic. I string a cable and hook up a regular nic to a hub instead, and it works terrific. I would think it a 90% chance or higher that this is what is holding you up. You probably need a non-switching hub with regular 'wired' connections.

I'll throw this part in just in case... :)
If you are using a laptop and RH7.2 like I am, I suggest the netgear pcmcia nic. I went down to compusa and got the cheapest pcmcia nic that actually said linux compatible and that turned out to be the netgear. I forget the model, sorry. When I was originally troubleshooting between the wireless vs. wired, it turned out my 'wired' pcmcia card just wasn't completely accepted by RH7.2, much to my troubleshooting headache. Anyways, I just thought I'd throw it in.

[fryfrog]

i'm pretty certain that all wireless networks are "switched" although i don't really know how that works since in theory the packets are everywhere :)

[high_jeeves]

Well, just think about it.. the wireless header on the packet identifies exactly where it is going (which card it is destined to). These cards dont support (and realistically, cant) support promiscuous mode, because potentially, there are TONS of wireless networks running through the air at one time. This would lead to a major lag time, if the card was trying to pick up every packet.

A few examples:

1) Self loop problem: When I send out a packet, if I am listening to all packets, I see the packet I just sent out (because of the nature of the medium, which is very different from a wire).

2) Self loop problem 2: When I send out a packet to a WAP, and it relays it to another machine connected to the same WAP, I would get that packet back. This means in communication over the same WAP, you would have to process 2x the number of packets that were actually sent.

3) Multi-network packet: Lets say in 5 years everyone is using wireless network. In an office building for smaller companies there could be 100's of wireless networks "in the air" at any given point. Imagine if your card tried to pick up ALL of this traffic at once instead of just what is intended for it... would be network lag hell.

While all of these issues could be independantly solved by network card manufacturers who were dead-set to get a promiscuous mode working, it is easier to just not bother, and only process packets intended for the listening card.

Note: I am a programmer, but I play a network engineer on TV.

--Jeeves

[Trash80]

I took the easy way out -- Plugged an old netgear hub into my wireless router in uplink mode. (hehee this hub is old, I think I only paid 40.00 for it 3+ years ago)

BTW - My Netgear wireless router has 4 wired ports. With the Eq pc and the Unix box hanging off the old 10mb hub -- things purr right along:) thanks guys! I would have never guessed the router/hub. I have never bothered to install the software that came with the hub (I have enough firewalls) but that was the first place I would have started wasting my time. I figured there was some wild default setting in the router that kept ShowEQ from sniffing.

Trash 80 ;)

[ballz]

Just went out and bought a 4port 10meg Netgear (Model # EN104tp) slaped it in one of the ports on my Linksys router/switch (Model # BEFSR41) Have the cable modem pluged into the uplink port on the router. Both of my boxes are on the hub at the moment. Tried pluging the hub into the switch to see if just adding a 10meg device would fix it but it didn't. So both boxes are on the 10meg connection if i need to transfer some huge files it's easy just to swap them back on the 10/100 switch.

Nice work by all didn't have many problems that i couldn't figure out and those answers were found here..

Linux N00B


--ballz