Network Upgrades: shock to the past!

Deathmage · May 2015

So today I found out a problem with a printer that was in a back room and I was told it didn't work....

So I did the normal stuff....

check the cable....
do a test page....
reboot printer...
...still nothing....
toned the wire.... it toned fine...
checked the wires, all 8 came back peachy....
...still nothing....

Looked at the printer closely, it had a box attached to it hidden behind some books with a parallel cable (they still make them!?! ... I muttered) ... I looked at the box...it's a Jetdirect 170x....

But wait look at the number next to the RJ-45!

This soon followed!

interface Gi1/0/47
spanning-tree portfast
exit
!
interface Gi1/0/48
speed 10
spanning-tree portfast
exit
!
interface Gi2/0/1
spanning-tree portfast
exit
!
--More-- or (q)uit

....problem resolved....

seriously 10baseT is still used I thought, /facepalm!

the_Grinch · May 2015

Got to love what you find once a problem is discovered! Shows how little we know our infrastructure as I've seen things like this in the past.

apr911 · May 2015

10BaseT is still surprisingly common. Granted, you are dealing with an old printserver (parallel are closer extinction/irrelevance than 10BaseT) but I still see 10BaseT for devices that dont require large amounts of bandwidth. Its also a common failsafe mode for devices to fail into 10/Half-duplex.

My home router with gigabit interfaces fails to 10/Half-duplex for management purposes during boot and I've seen countless cisco switches, firewalls and management devices fail to 10/Half. 10/Half is the most compatible ethernet standard available and for that reason I dont think we will ever truly be rid of it.

--chris-- · May 2015

JetDirect!!!! I just tossed the last one of those at our biggest client last week during a hardware clean out.

Good catch. It might be because I have worked with more "low budget" businesses but I have seen this more than a few times.

phoeneous · May 2015

apr911 wrote: »

10BaseT is still surprisingly common. Granted, you are dealing with an old printserver (parallel are closer extinction/irrelevance than 10BaseT) but I still see 10BaseT for devices that dont require large amounts of bandwidth.

^This.

Most ethernet printers use very little bandwidth. Users in my office print large docs over several thousand pages and even the initial spool is sometimes below 1Mb.

Network Upgrades: shock to the past!

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