tracking down ports for VLans

[dimmthewitted]

Hello,

first time to the forum.

I've got 3 Adtran Netvana 1534 switches.  We've been told I have to put some people on a separate VLAN. 

I'm trying to track down which machine goes to which port so that I can put them on the correct VLAN. 

My first thought was just to print the mac address table, but because there are 3 switches in series the port number displayed for the matching MAC isn't actually the port connected to.

It's strange, if I plug in direct it might say I am on port 23 and correctly so.

But if I plug in back at my workstation where I don't know the port number and it says port 14 and I use the cable tester on ever switch port 14, none come back positive and there is nothing else between my station and the switch.  It's not displaying the right port.

Is there a way to track who is on what port without using a cable tester and physically unplugging ALL the cables until I find which 1 repeated for every end point?

any help would be greatly appreciated, small company and this is not my strong area of expertise.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hello dimmthewitted,

Something does not sound right there.

If you have two people a simple way is to disable the network adapter on the computer and see which light goes out on the switch.

I highly recommend that you label all the ports on the patch panel.

It's a lot of work but makes everything easier in the future especially when there is a network emergency.

A toner and probe will cut down the time it takes to find the wires. (Take a look at Fluke Networks)

Thank you,

[dimmthewitted]

Thanks,

I mapped and labeled all the lines.  All 3 routers are in series.  When I log into the correct router it displays the correct port information.

It was worth taking the time to do this and to make the correct documentation.