Ableset network configuration

Tech Talk
1

Hello everyone. So yesterday we had a gig at the arena and I was running playbacks with ableset (2 hosts), 1 remote computer and 3 other computers for other departments to see LTC and setlist. Everything was okay all day and OFCOURSE 15 mins before the show start, all computers started showing network errors. After all troubleshooting, it seems that the problem cause was the CAT cable running from one switch to another. I am not 100% sure if it was because of it, but as some stage techs said, the switch (netgear GS108) was only showing 1 LED instead of 2, so it means that the connection was ~100mbps? That’s why everything started working when they changed the cable. I don’t have a specific question, but probably there are some people that could give me some tips and things to check so it won’t happen again? What category CAT cable should I be using for ableset network? What’s the longest distance for this to be working fine? Would some ethernet cable testers solve problems like this? Does it matter if some of remote computers are windows or mac OS?

I’ll be waiting for your thoughts here, thank you.

2

@leolabs would really appreciate your thoughts on this one

3

Hey @raktelis,

That sounds super stressful, I’m glad you found the culprit for this issue!

Generally, I’d recommend using CAT-5e or CAT-6 cables which can in theory be up to 100 meters long. This should be more than enough for AbleSet’s requirements.

The OS of your computers shouldn’t matter, but as a primarily Mac user, I’m a bit biased towards using Macs for their stability.

Let me know if this helps! :slight_smile:

4

Does it matter if the network switch has EEE protocol? It’s a simple non-managable switch, netgear GS108, but it’s being used widely in for example waves soundgrid situations.
And also, what ethernet speed requirements are for using ableset? 1GBit? Does it matter if the adapter from macbook is thunderbolt ethernet or just simple USB C?

5

Hey @raktelis,

It shouldn’t make a difference whether the network switch supports the EEE protocol. AbleSet itself doesn’t use a lot of bandwidth, so a 100 Mbit/s connection should suffice. I usually use a cheap USB-C to Ethernet adapter that supports up to 1 Gbit/s speeds which works great.

Hope this helps :slight_smile: