VOIP Phones Unable to Obtain IP Address

Xaerie

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Jan 9, 2012
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Please help clarify. Was trying to ask here in addition to my own research and findings. Some things aren't entirely clear to me.

I've taken the ethernet lights forgranted on my switches/routers. If they aren't blinking or solid and a workstation isn't getting network signal I just switch the ethernet to a different port without doing any real diagnostics. My first question is, on a switch there are two lights beneath where an ethernet is plugged in, usually the one on the left blinks and the one on the right is solid. Is this correct? What does each light represent? What if the blinking light is orange and the solid is green? What is the one blinking is green and the one where there's supposed to be a solid light is no light at all?


Can someone please help me narrow this down too? A buddy of mine has setup a number of computer/voip phones and they were working on the network fine for a few hours then all the sudden went down (don't know if they lost power or just network connection) and they won't obtain any IP addresses. It's hard to troubleshoot without actually being there, I know, which is why it's difficult for me to decipher what other advice to give. Please help.
 

BuddhaSkoota

Admirable
The LEDs vary among manufacturers on specific indications, but in general one LED should be a steady color to indicate the speed of the connection (or could be OFF to indicate a low speed connection), and the other blinks when data is being passed through that port (activity indicator).

Without knowing the specific network configuration, it would be difficult to recommend a course of action. Normally I would try disconnecting suspect devices and then resetting the networking devices (router and/or switches). Ensure everything is operating normally before reconnecting any items you suspect may have caused the outage. Try to determine if there have been any IP address conflicts or similar issues.
 

Xaerie

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Jan 9, 2012
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It seems that someone didn't have tree spanning enabled or so. "If the network goes down, my patch cable is good." :p So someone had the Ethernet looped/ plugged into the same panel.