I think my HUB just broke...Do you?

Factual Questions
1

I was at the office working, when BEEP! A whole slew of “Cannot connect to the server” windows appeared (Win2000). I looked at our servers and noticed that the HUB was blinking- all of the upper row of LED’s and a few on the left- It’s an 8-port HUB, and all of the amber lights were blinking quickly.

All computers were disconnected from the server, and all of the LAN cards on the computers were dead (no lights). I un-plugged the HUB and re-plugged it, and immediately, all lights started blinking. I did an Internet test on the firewall, and it works fine. The LAN card from it to the router is working (has lights). The main server is humming along nicely. Just no computers are able to talk to one another.

I’m pretty sure my process of elimination is telling me that the HUB broke, but I have never even heard of that happening. We upgraded to 8-ports about 2 years ago, and it has been on ever since.

So, well, now that I have actually spelled it out, I don’t think there is any question, eh? Oh well, off to the store in the morning…Unless anyone else has a great idea on how to test it.

Thanks-
-Thomas

2

It certainly sounds like that; I’m assuming that it’s an 8-port connected to a larger network?

Have you tried disconnecting it from the rest of the network then connecting just two machines through it to see if they can ping each other?

3

Lots of blinking lights means that your hub’s dead. I’ve seen dozens of them. Mangetout has a good point though. Try it with a couple of different machines. This can be caused by a NIC going bad, but the effect is much more rare than the HUB dying.

4

The good news is that you can get an 8-port 10/100 switch for about 30 bucks. Prices have come way down on them. Look at this as a prime opportunity to upgrade.

5

You can test the hub very simply by using a crossover cable to connect 2 PCs together. If they work it’s the hub or cable.