Bizarre networking issue with PS3

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conscript

2[H]4U
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So I just had some Cat6 cable run from my home office upstairs down to my living room on the other side of the house. The goal was for me to get a wired connection to my NAS server so I could watch movies off of it through my PS3, which I had attempted wirelessly but the buffering was just too much...



Anyway, had someone come over and installed the cable with jacks at both ends. Problem is, when I plug the PS3 in, it's not detecting any Ethernet connection. However, if I plug my laptop in via the connection, I have no issue.

My first instinct was to make sure my PS3 network jack was functioning, as I've only ever used it wirelessly. Sure enough, I brought it upstairs, connected it wired and everything worked fine.

I'm at a loss as to what my issue was be if it works fine directly to my router (I have Fios if its relevant, though I don't think so), but doesn't register a connection when plugged into new outlet downstairs (and for that matter, my router doesn't recognize it either when it's down there), yet my laptop works fine across the same line.

I'm really stumped and would appreciate any thoughts before I go completely gray (I'm almost there...).

p.s. I've tried multiple external cables as well which all had the same result.
 
Maybe the cable guy reversed the wire arrangement and your outlets have been wired in a crossover cable configuration. most modern desktop and laptops will autodetect this maybe the ps3 does not. If you have some spare crossover cable try using that where you hooked your ps3 to before hand and try and rule this out as a problem.
 
yea that's gotta be it, though I don't have a crossover cable handy to test. The guy is coming back tomorrow and I'll suggest that possibility to him. Thanks for the reply.
 
AFAIK the PS3 supports gigabit ethernet. The GigE standard includes mandatory Auto-MDIX support, so I would assume the PS3 would be capable of it.
 
Electrofreak said:
AFAIK the PS3 supports gigabit ethernet. The GigE standard includes mandatory Auto-MDIX support, so I would assume the PS3 would be capable of it.
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That's actually a really good point. But with that said, what else could it be? FYI, neither my PS3 nor my old G4 Powerbook detect any connection, but my Latitude E6400 does (after a few seconds of a "limited" connection)
 
Having trouble envisioning this properly, but I'm really tired (about to crash for the night) so bear with me.

You're trying to connect the PS3 to the NAS via a long Cat6 cable this guy ran for you. It doesn't detect any ethernet. (No link LEDs or whatever, I don't have a PS3 so I'm just guessing)

A newer laptop connected to the NAS via this long cable does work. So it's not likely a bad cable.

The PS3 can be connected to other networking equipment via cable without any trouble. So the PS3 adapter likely doesn't have any physical problems.

An old laptop connected to this cable does not work however. This indicates some sort of speed, duplex mismatch, auto-negotiation, or possibly an adapter configuration error, I'm guessing.

That's about as far as I can go really without knowing more about how the PS3 works. I've heard it's ethernet port shares the same MAC as it's wireless adapter, which is kind of odd.

Maybe one of the network heavyweights can chip in here and carry this a bit further. If you can, describe to us some more details such as the length of the cable between the NAS and the PS3, any ip / subnet / gateway / DNS, speed and duplex settings you have set up on the adapters in question while they are connected in various configurations, (NAS connected to old laptop, new laptop, and PS3).

I'm going to put my money on a link mismatch. xphil3 taught me about them, now where is he when we need him? :p

Edit- now I'm suddenly not so sure. Auto-negotiation is also mandatory in the GigE standard, and I would expect that if the NAS is GigE and the PS3 is too, they shouldn't be having any troubles. Unless the NAS is in a forced Gigabit mode, and for some reason isn't playing nice with the PS3. :: Shines the Bat Light ::
 
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well everything works now, the guys boss came and redid the entire thing. The punches were awful, the cable was spliced for some unknown reason in the crawlspace, and the guy made some rough bends along the way like he was laying cat5. I do not, however, understand how my latitiude still could get a connection while my PS3 and Powerbook could not, but it's all water under the bridge now, everything is working great :) Thanks for the assistance, i really appreciate it.
 
conscript said:
well everything works now, the guys boss came and redid the entire thing. The punches were awful, the cable was spliced for some unknown reason in the crawlspace, and the guy made some rough bends along the way like he was laying cat5. I do not, however, understand how my latitiude still could get a connection while my PS3 and Powerbook could not, but it's all water under the bridge now, everything is working great :) Thanks for the assistance, i really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Huh. And I'd discounted bad cable because the Latitude could connect. Maybe its adapter managed to negotiate a half-duplex connection or something that allowed it to work.
 
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