I have a home network, and have some computers upstairs and some downstairs in the basement. I am upgrading from hubs to switches, one up and one down, connected through the uplink port on the upstairs hub. I recently found some nice 10/100 switches for about $40 a piece. My problem is that I can't get the switches to talk to each other. I replaced my upstairs hub with a switch, and the computers upstairs could ping each other and they could ping computers connected to the 10M hub in the basement. They are connected from the uplink port of the upstairs switch into a normal port on the downstairs hub. Everything works great. If I replace the downstairs hub with the other new switch, I can no longer ping from a downstairs computer to an upstairs one. Upstairs computers can ping each other, and downstairs computers can ping each other, but nothing will ping from upstairs to downstairs, or the other way. If I put the hub pack everything works.

My question is: Can you cascade switches? If so, is the upstairs switch or the downstairs switch broken?

Thanks in Advance
]Monty[

[This message has been edited by montyshaw (edited 05-29-2001).]

Yes, you can cascade switches (but normally you don't use the uplink port to do so. The uplink port would become a bottleneck for communications between devices on either switch. But in your case you proably won't notice it)Anyway,if you can ping devices then the switch is working. So you'll first want to check what type of ports are being used to connect the switches. Are they MDI or MDI-X? If they are the same type you'll need to use a crossover cable.


Good Luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

------------------
Comment heard from a Klingon programmer.

"Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!"

[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 05-30-2001).]

As far as pinging from one switch to the other, no I can't ping from one to the other. If I replace the downstairs one with a hub, I can ping from a computer on the upstairs switch to a computer on the downstairs hub. If I put the switch in downstairs, I can no longer ping from the upstairs computers to the downstairs computers.

I connect the switches by going out of a normal port on the downstairs switch into the upstairs uplink port. If there is another way to do this, I would love to try it. From what I understand on this switch, the uplink port just has the tran and recv pairs switches, so it in effect acts as the crossover. So based on that I would say that all the normal ports are MDI and the uplink is MDI-X.

Here is what I have tried:
Downstairs normal port connected to Upstairs uplink port - can't ping
Downstairs uplink port connected to Upstairs normal port - can't ping
Downstairs normal port connected to Upstairs normal port - can't ping
Downstairs uplink port connected to Upstairs uplink port - can't ping

That's all the combinations. I'm left to conclude that if it is possible to connect 2 switches, then it is either the cat5 wire from downstairs to upstairs won't do 100Mb, but will do 10Mb (since the hub works and is 10Mb). Or the downstairs switch is defective. Hopefully, it is the latter.

I am upgrading all the computers to 100Mb, so I think I will return the downstairs switch and get a small 100Mb hub to use.

Thanks
]Monty[

Monty,

If you use the uplink port to connect the 2 switches, on some switches this disables 1 of the standard ports, Usually port 1.....so you cant use that port.....

Hopefully this will help.........

If you have a managed switch then you can ping one switch's IP address from the other. If your switch is unmanaged then this test won't be possible. What I was refering to is can all computers ping each other as long as their on the same segment? (IE: connected to the same switch) If they can then the switch works. After testing that the ports are not the same. I would also check that the ports are setup the same on either end. (IE: half duplex/full duplex and either 10Mb or 100Mb. If the switch is unmanaged then the ports are proably "autosensing" and need no configuring). Checking the cable by replacing it with another is also a good idea. Aware's idea of the uplink port disabling one of the other ports does happen on low end hubs and switches so I would check that as well. Last but not least I would also check that your switch supports connecting to another switch.( most switches do) Your setup guild should explain all the configurations the switch can be setup in.

Good Luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

------------------
Comment heard from a Klingon programmer.

"Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!"




[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 05-31-2001).]

Well, I figured out what my problem was. The cat5 cable going from the upstairs switch to the downstairs switch would support 10Mb (I used my old hub in the middle to limit the speed to 10Mb). SO I checked out the sockets and they had been wired incorrectly. After fixing that, the switches now show a 100Mb connections and it works. I can ping from computers connected to the upstairs switch to computers cionnected to the the downstairs switch.

Thanks
]Monty[