No Data through Ethernet

[Brian Dietrich]

Hello folks, I need some help. 

Everything has been working great since Thanksgiving.  Tonight I accidently swapped my LOR Cat5 cable into my computer Ethernet port for E131.  I have 4.2.12 Advanced, Windows 8 laptop with Realtek ether port into a Netgear PROSafe 5 port Ethernet switch, and 4 HolidayCoro AlphaPix 4 controllers.  LOR side is working properly, but the E131 does not show any data coming out of the laptop.  I have tested the Realtek ether port through the "diagnosis this connect" with the results of "Network cable disconnected".  I also checked the updates on the Realtek drivers, all are updated.  I swapped cables (with a working cable), no change.  I have swapped connections at the Netgear switch and all 5 switch lights are working properly, all 4 controllers light up the switch.  No light coming from the laptop cable.  Any ideas where to go from here?  

Thanks in advance.

Down in Texas. 

[k6ccc]

Swapping the Ethernet and RS-485 connections CAN result in the magic smoke getting out.  From your description, it sounds like the you ended up with cable from your first controller plugged into the Ethernet connection on your computer.  It sounds like the Ethernet port on the computer is not operating.  Before assuming the worst, do as complete a power cycle as you can on the laptop.  Use the Windows shutdown command.  After it shuts down, pull the power cord, and if possible, remove the battery pack.  Wait a minute or so, then replace the battery and power cord.  Then power up as normal.  Test the Ethernet connection between the laptop and switch.  The full power cycle may get it back.  If it doesn't, since this is a laptop, your easiest option (at least to get you through the season) is to obtain a USB to Ethernet adapter and use that for you e1.31 LAN.  Your local computer or office supplies store likely will have such an adapter, and if not, Amazon has lots of them available.

To help prevent this in the future, one of my standard recommendations is to use different color cable for the different types of network.  For example, my "normal" home LAN uses Blue cable, my E1.31 LAN uses Green cable, and RS-485 uses Purple cable.

 

[Brian Dietrich]

k6ccc,

Thanks for your quick response last night.  I tried the power cycle and unfortunately it did not work.  Magic smoke must be in my Christmas stocking this year. 

As you mentioned, I went out and purchased the USB to Ethernet adapter this morning.  I had to disabled and removed the IP address and Subnet mask from the Realtek Ethernet settings, installed the adapter, updated the IP address and Subnet mask code for the adapter, and SUCCESS.  I have also added color identification for my LOR cable.

Thank you so much for your assistance and direction.  I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas. 

May the True Spirit of Christmas bless you. 

Brian