I just had to deal with a strange network issue. I had one of my users no longer able to get on the network. I did extensive testing, and found a mouse chewed the cat5 cable in the wall. I ran a new cable, and was still not able to get online. I took the computer to my office and verified the computer did not work. I ran a live CD to make sure it was not windows, and that would not get online. The network card was bad (built into the motherboard). I bring a new computer that was working in my office, and that could not get on. I tested down to the switch and certain ports were now bad. After 4.5 hours working on this problem, I finally came to the conclusion a mouse chewed the cable and shorted it. The short took out the electronics connected to both ends of it. This included a Dell computer and a Amer.com 24 Port 10/100 switch. All is well after components have been replaced. I hate those rodents…

Tags: network, mouse cable, cat5, cat 5, switch, hp, cisco, dell, nic