Wireshark-users: [Wireshark-users] Will EMF interference show up in Wireshark?

From: Larry Dieterich <macworks@xxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:10:26 -0800
I'm troubleshooting a crashing Helix database server hosting 20-25 clients on a switched network.

The network is a combination of Wired and Wireless clients.

This an industrial setting with numerous motors and electric ovens and other potential source of EMF.

I am sniffing the wire connection to the server, looking for network-related causes of the crashes.

Note that only the Helix server software crashes, not the OS on the host hardware. All other functions provided by the server host machine seem normal at all times.

Currently, the Helix server crashes show on the wire as a pause of normal Helix I/O traffic, followed by FIN ACK packets sent from the server to the clients, this is followed by ACK packets from the clients to the server. 

I'm trying to rule out EMF factors in the problem and I'm hoping that someone on this list has experience with computer or network problems caused my EMF.

My questions-

Would EMF interference manifest on the wire? If so, what sorts of packets or patterns should I be looking for in Wireshark? 

Does it seem unlikely that a problem related to EMF would only affect one software process on one computer?


thanks in advance,
Larry