Netonix Forums

Hey guys,

Is there anyway to use ping watchdog to reboot the Netonix switch?

We have one location that seems to freeze up every month or so requiring us to visit the site and reboot it, it has happened twice in the last few months.

WS-250-8-DC, V1.3.9

Thanks

/d

No that is not possible to do with ping watch dog.

Please describe your issue in more details and what steps you do to resolve the issue.

I have 20+ switch in service and the only time I have had to reboot a switch is after a power flicker where we had a bad or no UPS.

I say flicker as I am not sure how to better describe it but it is when power flicked off and back on real fast which was not long enough for the switch to discharge all the way before it tries to boot back up.

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Well that is not true, about 18 months ago we found one other instance where we had a buried Ethernet cable from our tower to a building/business about 80 meters away from the tower (Bareville Water Tank) that we provided internet to. This cable was plugged into our switch and obviously into their router in their building. THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA ON OUR PART as their building was on a different Earth Ground / Electrical service panel when it rained or a small storm rolled through our switch needed rebooted. After 2 or 3 times this occurred we realized our mistake and changed that copper Ethernet cable with fiber and problem went away.

Not possible AFAIK. Rebooting treats the symptom rather than the cause. I understand that probably you just want to get the site back up but should try to find the root cause.

Have you tried to console in to look for clues? Might be prudent to swap hardware as a test. Check the quality of the power and ground connections including site grounds.

The site is a remote and we have tycon charge controller, charging 24v battery bank from AC. We run DC into the Netonix switch, when we lose AC power, we simply lose battery charging and so it *should not* affect the switch. When it happens, everything connected to the switch is powered off and the switch is unresponsive, we reboot the switch and everything goes back to normal. Because of the reboot, there is nothing in the log.

Power is notoriously dirty and unreliable but that is our environment.

Looking for an alternative than rolling a truck.

/d

If you have another switch, say a WS-12-250-DC to swap out I would try that as it is possible you have a bad unit and swapping out the switch to see if the problem remains is the easiest way to check.

canpandave wrote:When it happens, everything connected to the switch is powered off and the switch is unresponsive...

Is it unresponsive to the serial console or are you just trying over ethernet?

This sounds a lot like the issue I had with Bareville water tank and in that case I think the console was non functional.

However I would like to note that that switch at Bareville Water Tank is still in service today and all we did there was replace the UPS and replace the Ethernet cable run to the business with fiber and no more issues in 18 months.

Since this is a DC site and I assume you have to Ethernet cable running to another building I would suspect a grounding issue.

Is the tower grounded by several ground rods?

Is there 2 ground rods on the electrical service?

Is the tower ground system bonded to the electrical service ground system?

Do you have a dedicated ground wire run up to the radios and is the Ethernet cable a longer path than the intended ground wire path?

Read these 2 post very closely.
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=188
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1429

If this tower is up on a hill and is exposed to high winds you can be getting static charges going down your Ethernet cables.

So many people do not understand how important a good grounding system is which is why cellular companies spend so much money on their grounding systems and their towers do not take hits all the time. Think about it, a cellular company has tens of thousands of towers and if they took damage like most WISPs do from poor grounding your cell coverage would be dropping all over the place.

Good grounding is the key to a trouble free tower as you have surges, ESD, Static, and ground potential shift all of which can either damage your equipment or play havoc on their stability.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EARTH GROUND CONNECTED TO THE DC SWITCH CHASSIS AS THAT IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF GROUND FOR THE SWITCH OTHER WISE YOUR ESD ETHERNET CABLE IS USELESS. AND MAKE SURE ALL GROUNDING SYSTEMS ARE BONDED TOGETHER.