Fluke Networks: Nic Problems

We all know that any site on the network, including routers, switches, servers, and general sites, must communicate with the network through the NIC. As the number of sites on the network increases, the use of network cards naturally increases. Nic faults also increase significantly. Many users do not pay enough attention to the network card. For example, the cheapest network card is tens of RMB, while the quality is hundreds of RMB. Some users choose the cheapest network card to save costs without considering the problems they may bring. One thing to note is that for Ethernet, many faults are not a problem of simple access and failure. It is a soft fault or intermittent fault. These faults make it difficult to find the real cause of slow network operation. Unfortunately, many network administrators do not know that there will be so many faults in the network card, and they have spent a lot of energy and time in fault diagnosis to find faults in the wrong direction. Here is only one example: Low NIC level. If the NIC is low so that the network site cannot connect to the network, this fault can be easily detected. Of course, the results obtained without a tester may not be so specific, but they only know that the NIC is faulty and cannot be connected to the Internet. The real low NIC level may be that the NIC level is in a critical state. That is, the NIC level is at the normal and abnormal critical edge. The low level of the NIC is related to the distance between the network cable. When the site is close to the vswitch or hub, there may be no problem, and the distance may be a problem. The problem exposed is that the network speed is slow. Note that when the network adapter fails to access the Internet, the network adapter does not immediately report an error but tries to access the Internet again. As long as the network card can be connected to the network within the specified number of times, the problem will not be reported to the network's senior management, so that the user does not know that there is a problem with the network card. Therefore, it is important to test the network card when looking for network faults.
1. Main Nic test content
Nic tests mainly include: whether the connection pulse of the NIC is available and normal (power level and polarity), and whether the NIC level is normal, whether the speed of the network adapter matches the speed of the hub or switch (10 M or 100 M), and whether the network adapter works in a way that matches the network device (full or half duplex ), whether the network card is very wrong frame (long horizontal frame and short frame) And what protocols are bound to the network card.

It is the result of the network multimeter test by fluke Corporation. From the test results, we can see whether the NIC level is normal, how fast it is, and how it works. In this way, you can determine whether the network matches the network connection device.

If you perform further tests, you can also test the NIC health status, that is, whether the NIC issues various errors. If the NIC is incorrect, you need to change it.

2. Preventive Nic Testing
When establishing a network, you must consider not only the price of the network card, but also the performance of the network card. Therefore, it is best to compare and test different NICs. The test should include several items.
1) first, you should test the hardware of the NIC, such as the NIC level, pulse polarity, speed, and working mode. Long-distance cables should be used for testing and repeated tests should be performed several times.
2) Second, to test whether the network card sends an incorrect frame, you need to connect the network card to the network.
3) do not load unused protocols when binding the site protocol. These unused protocols will cause a waste of network bandwidth.
4) for NICs used in the network, the network management department should use all the driver software for these NICs. These drivers should also be updated regularly. That is to say, the network management department should have the latest driver software for these NICs. Because the driver of the NIC may have some problems during production, the manufacturer will solve them in the subsequent software upgrade. This is the network card filing.
In short, with the increase in the number of network sites, Nic problems are becoming increasingly prominent. Network administrators usually do not pay enough attention to this, and the NIC problem is ignored because there is no simple tester to test the NIC and the interfaces of the hub and switch. Currently, Fluke's network multimeter is the best tool to solve this problem. Since the launch of the instrument, a considerable number of users have used it to solve the problems that long plagued them with network interfaces and network connection devices.