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  4. VE Pro Warning: Avoid "Green" Gigabit Switches

  • VE Pro Warning: Avoid "Green" Gigabit Switches

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    I have been doing battle with phantom problems in my studio for a while, and I finally carved out the time to do some troubleshooting.

    With VE Pro over LAN, there's three main things I discovered recently:

    #1) Jumbo Packets definitely make a difference in increasing performance and stability of audio over LAN.

    #2) Having a dedicated gigabit network for VE Pro can definitely help but may not be necessary depending on your situation.

    #3) Do NOT use "green" gigabit switches!

    This took me quite a while to suss out, but I'm sharing this with you having now solid evidence to the claim.

    I did a direct comparison between the old grey D-Link switch and the new white one which is "green" (environmentally friendly, energy efficient, etc.). It turns out I was having SIGNIFICANT issues with VE Pro on the "green" switch. I swapped it out for the old grey model and all the problems cleared up.

    The confusing part is that both new and old models have the SAME model number! They've silently "updated" the device and made the energy-saving a new "feature" which cannot be disabled, and it appears that store shelves are now only stocking the "green" model and no longer carrying the old heavyweight energy-sucker model.

    Just thought I'd share this experience in the hopes of saving someone the aggravation I went through ;)
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    [quote=Steffan Andrews]

    Yikes. I stumbled into this a few days ago while researching a new switch, and thought to myself, "this is potentially bad for VE pro". 

    While on the "green" theme -- WD caviar Green is to be avoided as well.

    Yes, we're environmentally aware as citizens of the earth, but we have music to make. A hard drive or network device slowing down after a few minutes of inactivity is NOT going to help us make music efficiently. We are better off turning the entire studio off when not in use -- we do not need devices that think they are helping us. Too bad. The D-Link switch (I have one of the older ones) is/was very highly rated and performs well.

    Thanks for bringing this to the discussion.
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    Incidentally I first thought my troublers were arising from two RAID striped WD Green hard disks in one of my sample machines. They weren't put there on purpose originally because I know from research how bad they perform, they were the only things on hand at the time. But it turns out sample streaming is working just fine with those, it was the green gigabit switch that was the troublemaker.
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    Hi Steffan,

    what exactly are the problems with the D-Link Green Switches? It would be interesting to know because I used a D-Link DGS-1008D "Green" with VE Pro for more than a year connecting 2 Macs and a PC and had no significant problems with it. 

    best

    Florian 
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    Incidentally, the model I had trouble with was the D-Link DGS-1008D "green" version.

    What I am finding is that not all green switches are bad choices. Just today I went out and bought D-Link's newest offering: The DGS-1008G. It's still marketed as a "green" switch but I am happy to report that I am having great success with it! Not a problem. Edit: it appears to still be problematic.
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    HI Steffan

    I have the D-Link DGS-1008D "green" 

    I don't think I have problems but could you please tell me what problems

    you were having????

    thanks

    David
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    Upon further experience, the new 1008D and the 1008G seem to both be problematic. I was experiencing intermittent audio glitches with VE Pro audio over LAN with them. I swapped it out directly for the old grey unit and the performance issues seemed to evaporate.
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    Anybody else out there with a problems with Green Giga switches I own it and I am just setting up my template so I have not done any jobs yet with the Giga switch so I don't know if I will hit problems but I would love to avoid if I can.
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    anyone out there have any problems with their Green Giga switch??
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    Yes. I have (had) 2 Asus GX D1081. I just installed VE Pro and was testing with small instances. I immediately noticed the pops and clicks. Tried changing buffer settings in my sequencer, tried a non firewire card (THAT did work alot better (PCI slot digi 9652)) . While things improved I would still get occasional pops and glups etc. I set my network cards to enable Jumbo frames (I forgot how large). I think these things did improve performance but didn't solve the issue. I bypassed both switches and ran a long (pretty old by the way so I don't know what "cat" number it is)network cable between both PC's and all problems ceased. I stumbled on this message searching for a tried and true switch that works for others. In the $30 range if possible Thanks.
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    For me, the most stable so far is the old grey-colored D-Link DGS-1005D / DGS-1008D. I have not done much testing with other brands though.
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    Can the Vienna tech guys tell me what gig  switch to buy.

    I can't bring back my green switch now but don't want

    to wast more money on another bad switch.

    what is enable Jumbo frames (is this a pc thing? I am on a Mac)

    Is there one switch that will give me the best performance???

    thanks for the help
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    I have been told by tech support to buy a Cisco below is what I am buying anyone have any problems with this switch??? CISCO/LINKSYS 5PT 10/100/1000 DT SWCH SD2005 thanks Dave
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    Update to my post re: Asus GX D1081: I may have been too quick to justify the above switch as the cause. What I didn't mention was that the switch was also connected to a 100Mb Router which was connected to an internet modem. Since this was at the end of the chain I didn't feel it relavent.(sp) After the success with the one cable between 2 pc's I put an Asus switch between the 2 PCs. I detected no problem although I only tested for about an hour. I started adding back all of my PCs and my other switch and still I was click free. When I hooked of the 100mb router to the switch the clicks and pops started to occur. Not sure what this means at this point as there are still variables I've yet to think of. Jumbo Frames are set in the Network Card. I'm no expert but it is usually disabled at default. Once enabled, I believe both cards must have the same size of frame to work. (Which is selectable in Properties (Win). DS
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    I've had my VE machines on their own private physical network with just a switch and static IPs amongst them. That seems to make a difference in increasing stability for me. Not just the fact that they're on their own network with no other traffic, but it's seeming like removing a router entirely and using only a switch makes a difference.
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    so maybe that is my problem I do have a router connected. How do you get internet to the swithch without a router connnected?
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    last edited
    last edited

    @Steffan Andrews said:

    For me, the most stable so far is the old grey-colored D-Link DGS-1005D / DGS-1008D. I have not done much testing with other brands though.
    This is the one I have and it's worked perfectly, especially with VEP, since the day we bought it..