Friday I was called out to job to help troubleshoot a network issue in which 3 areas with Cisco 7962 IP Phones where showing no ethernet connection. The Phones are a connected to a wall jack the is terminated to a 24 Port keystone Patch Panel and then are connected to the switch with a short patch cable. Previously all was working perfectly and then all the phones flashed and quit working.
We have switched the the patch cables to known working switch ports and used a known working patch cable. NO luck.
We also have replaced the keystone jack on at least 2 of the patch panel ports. No Luck
We then carried the phone to the wiring room and connected it directly to the switch port (the same port that it was originally linked to) and the phone worked fine.
The administration feels that this is an issue with the patch panel and wants to have it replaced. I disagree. I have been reading some forums that show certain issues with the "ethernet disconnected" message and how it may be something that can be reset or have to do with a configuration on the switch, but still do not have a firm understanding on how to best resolve the matter. I would like to save them the headache of replacing the entire patch panel if it is not going to resolve the issue and have until Monday to offer an alternate solution. Meanwhile the sites phone systems are down.
Ready to listen to any advice on the subject.
Thanks, Ellen
