[KLUG Members] MAC/IP conflict

[Bruce Smith]

> > > Okay, I thought I was a bright boy, but obviously not. <rueful grin> What
> > > is a good tool for network monitoring with:
> > 
> > I don't get it.  Why are you still having this problem?
> > Can't you just fix the conflict and be done with it?
> 
> Because the source of the conflict is far from clear.

Are you sure it's a IP conflict?  I thought you confirmed that, and I
was going on that assumption.

I've seen other problems that are similar to what you described, where
some device on the net starts spewing out garbage for no good reason,
and causes a lot of problems.  It's not a IP conflict, but a NIC that
goes nuts.  It also could be caused by a bad port on the hub or switch.

> NOTHING in the
> logs is indicating what is resetting my connections. All I know is that
> the box refuses all contact after dumping me off for a minute or two and
> then it lets me back on until it dumps me again with *no* evidence of
> problems whatsoever.

Do you have hubs or switches there?  Are they intelligent?

I usually locate the problem I mentioned above with the help our our
switches.  I can telnet into our switches and get it's information about
what errors it sees, and which ports are causing them.  Sometimes I can
even see the source of the error by watching the lights on the switch. 
Some trial & error problem solving is also needed sometimes.   :-)

> This started Monday. That's my total clue. It probably started over the
> weekend but no one was there to complain, so therefore, according to
> logic, it didn't exist. ;-)

What changed Monday, (or Friday, or the weekend, ....) ???
May be "nothing" if it's a port gone nuts, as I described above.

> > > 2. unless I get an X server running on this box soon, preferably a tty app.
> > 
> > Huh?
> 
> Unless I get an X server on the cares machine, the cares machine will
> only run console apps because otherwise I'll be watching ethereal, say,
> bored out of my skull, on my home machine monitoring the CARES network
> until all the tcp connections dump at which point, of course, ethereal
> will be totally useless because its data about the crash will never be
> transmitted because the TCP connections died.... get it?

Okay.  Thanks for spelling it out for me.  I need that sometimes!  :-)

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
--------------------------------------------