[BC] LAN weirdness

[Steve Lewis]

No eye of newt?  That changes everything...

Seriously, replace the Cisco (I'm assuming you mean Linksys) consumer trash
with something else.  See what you can find in Netgear or Belkin.  Or take
the hit in the wallet and go pro.

If you only have two PC's requiring communication to keep them on the air,
add a second NIC card to both machines and connect with a crossover cable
and assign each end a static IP with a slightly different subnet than the
usual network uses.  Have the automation bark at each other through this new
link and leave the old link intact for other non-critical uses.

-----Original Message-----

 From: Tom Taggart

Very simple network--
16 port low-end Cisco switch--six computers connected to it, as well  
as small router & cable modem for internet.

The switch "locked up"--no activity indicated on the LED's on the  
front panel, network down.  Unfortunately, the way the automation is  
set-up, the on-air and voice-track machine need to talk to each other  
or the whole system freezes up.

Unplugging the switch brought it back to life, but the strange thing  
is this is not the first time this happened--but with an entirely  
different switch!

The first switch we had in this network was a "no-name" 24 port unit.   
Literally no-name--there is no logo or other id on the box--the PD got  
it from an advertiser as a great deal.  When it started doing this  
"freeze" number I bought the low-end Cisco switch.

Switch, router, and cable modem all on UPS.

Looking for solutions that don't require eye of newt, and toe of frog.  
Howlet's wings are available locally, though...