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A few years ago someone, who happened to be my boss at the time, installed a wireless print server -- maybe in fact a Netgear one -- and it bridged in a way that brought down MSUnet Wireless in the entire Computer Center. As I recall the vendor refused to even admit the flaw. A $40 device that could bring down a building network. My guess is there are many such consumer-grade devices connected to the campus network, and we will never be immune from this kind of failure. /rich On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 5:49 PM, Carl Raymond <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I just read the detailed explanation from ATS about today's network outage > that was posted to the IT Exchange list, and how the triggering event was a > loop somewhere. Last week here in the Kellogg Center, we had the same > thing > happen in miniature -- somebody (who was not me, by the way) innocently > created a loop in an office, and brought down the whole building for a > while. ATS had to send somebody out to diagnose it and yank the offending > cable (which they did quickly). > Now I thought we had Spanning Tree Protocol for this kind of thing. My > understanding is that any modern network switch (maybe not the low-end > models from Netgear, but anything that a large university is going to have > in the network closet) is going to implement spanning tree, and will detect > a loop. Instead of bringing down the network, the offending port is > disabled, and maybe a light blinks somewhere. > So am I completely backward here? Admittedly, I haven't set up anything > bigger than a home network in a few years, but I thought this was a solved > problem. How, in 2010, are we still susceptible to such a common mistake? > As a colleague said to me today, I guess I know what to do when I feel like > going home early. > > Thanks, > > -- > Carl Raymond > Software Developer > University Outreach & Engagement > Michigan State University > Kellogg Center, Garden Level > East Lansing, MI 48824-1022 > > [log in to unmask] > (517) 353-8977 > http://outreach.msu.edu/ >