Need help regarding the lights on my network card (NIC)?

Question

In my company we have well over 50 computers and more often than not the LED lights on the network adapter will be Solid Green/Flashing Amber but every once in a while we'll get a computer with a Solid Red (Dark Orange)/Flashing Amber. I've heard rumours that the Green indicates 100Mbps and Red indicates 10Mbps. But then again I've heard people say the exact opposite!

My question is; What determines the colour of the LED lights and how can I make all the computers on my network either Green or Red (whichever is better)?

Answer 1

What determines the colour of the LED is the manufacturer. Most of the cards I've seen use green for high speed and amber for low speed (whatever the speed may be... 1Gb cards count 100Mb or 10Mb as low, 100Mb cards count 10Mb as low). Some use amber for high speed and green for low. I've rarely seen any using red... and they were mostly old cards before green LEDs were cheap.



So you need to identify the NIC and find out from the documents what each colour means on each NIC.



And don't worry about making them all the same colour. It's not a uniform colour exercise, it's a getting the network to work its best exercise. If your network is 100Mb and you have any Gb cards then they will NEVER run at top speed... the network is not up to running them flat out.



Now if some of them are running at lower than expected speed... or lower than they should... check the wiring, it's the most likely candidate for causing problems.

Answer 2

Network Card Lights

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

Need help regarding the lights on my network card (NIC)?

In my company we have well over 50 computers and more often than not the LED lights on the network adapter will be Solid Green/Flashing Amber but every once in a while we'll get a computer with a Solid Red (Dark Orange)/Flashing Amber. I've heard rumours that the Green indicates 100Mbps and...

Answer 4

A network card, network adapter, network interface controller (NIC), network interface card, or LAN adapter is a computer hardware component designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network. It is both an OSI layer 1 (physical layer) and layer 2 (data link layer) device, as it provides physical access to a networking medium and provides a low-level addressing system through the use of MAC addresses. It allows users to connect to each other either by using cables or wirelessly. Although other network technologies exist, Ethernet has achieved near-ubiquity since the mid-1990s. Every Ethernet network card has a unique 48-bit serial number called a MAC address, which is stored in ROM carried on the card. Every computer on an Ethernet network must have a card with a unique MAC address. Normally it is safe to assume that no two network cards will share the same address, because card vendors purchase blocks of addresses from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and assign a unique address to each card at the time of manufacture. Whereas network cards used to be expansion cards that plug into a computer bus, the low cost and ubiquity of the Ethernet standard means that most newer computers have a network interface built into the motherboard. These either have Ethernet capabilities integrated into the motherboard chipset or implemented via a low cost dedicated Ethernet chip, connected through the PCI (or the newer PCI express) bus. A separate network card is not required unless multiple interfaces are needed or some other type of network is used. Newer motherboards may even have dual network (Ethernet) interfaces built-in. The card implements the electronic circuitry required to communicate using a specific physical layer and data link layer standard such as Ethernet or token ring. This provides a base for a full network protocol stack, allowing communication among small groups of computers on the same LAN and large-scale network communications through routable protocols, such as IP. There are four techniques used to transfer data, the NIC may use one or more of these techniques. * Polling is where the microprocessor examines the status of the peripheral under program control. * Programmed I/O is where the microprocessor alerts the designated peripheral by applying its address to the system's address bus. * Interrupt-driven I/O is where the peripheral alerts the microprocessor that it's ready to transfer data. * DMA is where the intelligent peripheral assumes control of the system bus to access memory directly. This removes load from the CPU but requires a separate processor on the card. A network card typically has a twisted pair, BNC, or AUI socket where the network cable is connected, and a few LEDs to inform the user of whether the network is active, and whether or not there is data being transmitted on it. Network Cards are typically available in 10/100/1000 Mbit/s varieties. This means they can support a transfer rate of 10, 100 or 1000 Megabits per second. A Network Interface Controller (NIC) is a hardware interface that handles and allows a network capable device access to a computer network such as the internet. The NIC has a ROM chip that has a unique Multiple Access Control (MAC) Address burned into it. The MAC address identifies the vendor MAC address which identifies it on the LAN. The NIC exists on both the ' Physical Layer' (Layer 1) and the 'Data Link Layer' (Layer 2) of the OSI model. Sometimes the words 'controller' and 'card' are used interchangeably when talking about networking because the most common NIC is the Network Interface Card. Although 'card' is more commonly used, it is less encompassing. The 'controller' may take the form of a network card that is installed inside a computer, or it may refer to an embedded component as part of a computer motherboard, a router, expansion card, printer interface, or a USB device. A MAC Address is a 48 bit network hardware identifier that is burned into a ROM chip on the NIC to identify that device on the network. The first 24 bits is called the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) and is largely manufacturer dependent. Each OUI allows for 16,777,216 Unique NIC Addresses. Smaller manufacturers that do not have a need for over 4096 unique NIC addresses may opt to purchase an Individual Address Block (IAB) instead. An IAB consists of the 24 bit OUI, plus a 12 bit extension (taken from the 'potential' NIC portion of the MAC address)

Answer 5

Green light is better than Red light because it is true that green light means that 100mbps and red light means 10 mbps so if there is red light in your computer NIC it means there is some problem with your computer networking.

Answer 6

I am not sure about this