ifconfig eth0 down theory

[Okoun]

Hi all,
there is a special device connected to the switch of ASUS, however it recently started to act weird. It is a 100mbps full duplex device.

Sometimes it just dies. Asus works fine, other devices aswell, but the LED on switch turns off and the device does't respond. There is another way how to get to the device and it is still alive.... only the one port on switch stops working.

Solution to this problem is to unplug the device and plug it back.

Unfortunately this solution is not always possible, because it is in a badly accessible place.

I think that putting this into the WAN port could give the user some ability to remotely power the port down and up, or changing the negotiation mode and hopefully the device will work again.

However, have you ever wondered how does the switch work? Is it possible to "cycle power" to it via a shell command?

ifconfig eth0 down only stops asus from listening to the data coming on the switch. I believe the switch lives on its own then. Trying reboot didn't help aswell.

So, what do you think? Is it possible to cycle power to switch (or forcing speed negotiation on all ports) by shell command? Or is the switch permanently connected to power so any software attempts are useless?

Thanks for any opinions. This is a rather philosophical question :-)

[WlanMan]

Hi

The Linksys Devices have a Vlan Switch inside which has some configuration options. The Chip in the Asus is a normal switch and i havent seen any notes about remote configuration in the pdf. The manufakturer sees it as a lowcost solution for 5-port soho switches.

Greets