Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 00:56:19 -0500 From: "Louis A. Mamakos" <louie@TransSys.COM> To: Tim Tsai <tim@futuresouth.com> Cc: Sergey Babkin <babkin@bellatlantic.net>, Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com>, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Cool little 100BaseTX switch - they're coming down in price Message-ID: <199912190556.AAA08484@whizzo.transsys.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 18 Dec 1999 22:57:58 CST." <19991218225758.A23729@futuresouth.com> References: <199912190410.UAA01049@apollo.backplane.com> <385C60FC.7613CB55@bellatlantic.net> <19991218225758.A23729@futuresouth.com>
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> > hub. It works fine except that it hangs occasionally (can be > > reset by power-cycling). > > Most of these can be attributed to the crappy wall wart they call a > power supply. If it's plugged into an UPS or replace it with your own DC > power supply they generally hold up a lot better. > > I have a Netgear FS108 at home (8 port 10/100 switch) and I've found > Netgear stuff to be as cheap as I would go and still be reasonably > reliable. In the "don't do this at home" category, I have to relate a story regarding one of the Netgear FS108 switches. Recently, at my "day job" at UUNET, we moved into some new office space. I packed up all my stuff (including one of these FS108 switches) and put it all back together again in my new office space. I noticed a couple of things, first that my SGI LCD display panel wasn't working any more; I though the @$&*$ moves must have dropped it or something. The other thing was that when I powered up the FS108 ethernet swtich under my desk, that I immediately smelled that distinctive "hot electronic smell", followed by smoke (!) coming out of the FS108 box. Hmm.. So, I open up the case of the switch, and noticed that there's a *really* big chip with a *really* big heatsink attached -this is the "bridge on chip". And I noticed another, smaller IC which had a hole blown out of the epoxy case (which subsequently allowed the smoke to escape. It was than than I make the connection - Hmm.. SGI LCD monitor don't work. Ethernet switch makes smoke. Ethernet switch wants 5VDC power brick. SGI LCD monitor wants 12VDC power brick. Ooops! So, after switching power bricks, the SGI LCD monitor starts working again. It really wants 12V and not 5V. In a "what the hell" move, I powered up the ethernet Netgear Ethernet switch with it's preferred 5V power brick -- AND IT WORKS JUST FINE! Well mostly; I think the chip with the hole was involved in driving the Transmit/Collision LEDs which don't do anything anymore. But pushing packets through the box seems to work great; it's still doing the bridge thing of forwarding traffic to the right port, etc. So, please don't do this. I'm sure I'm just luckly. Hell, the thing might burst into flames one day. But I was sure impressed that I keept on working, even after the smoke got loose. Oh, and double check your power bricks before you plug them in. It would sure be nice if there were standard connections for each voltage, but that's certainly not the case.. louie To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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