Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler This Linksys switch has outsmarted me….

I have a wired Lan throughout the house. I’ve been using a Linksys four port router for the past few years, but needed to heat up more jacks, so I bought this eight port switch the other day and can’t figure out how to configure it. The instructions it came with are pathetic and I don’t know where I put my router instructions. I’m sure some of you know just exactly what I need to do….I hope.

I have a makeshift hub for all my communication wiring in my office (cable, phone and Lan). For the Lan, I have 12 port patch panel that I use short patch cables to connect the jacks to the router. I am limited to space, so I was figuring that I could get away with the four port router and eight port switch and activate eleven of the house jacks. I thought I could use the four router ports and seven of the switch ports. I’m not so sure I can do this now…. Dangit.

I have my DSL router connected to the Linksys router and the Linksys router patched to the 12 port patch panel. That works fine. When I add the switch to the chain, I loose internet connection. I’ve tried numerous different port to port configurations and couldn’t get the switch to work. I even tried making a crossed-over patch cable and tried the connections again...still no luck.

Can one of you IT network guys just tell me how I’m supposed to rout my cables and if what I thought would work, will actually work?

Your configuration should work fine. The problem might be the "device" that serves up IP addresses, the DHCP server. I'm assuming your router already does this since it's been working already. Now when you add a switch, it may have that set up as default when you use an uplink port to the router. Then both the router and switch are trying to control IP addresses and then you have problems.

Check to make sure that DHCP is not enabled on your switch. It may be called bridge mode as well (as it is in the Apple Airport Extreme). You want the switch to be set up as "dumb" as possible to start with.

Where do I find the router and switch control panel to check these settings??

I think I got it working. Well, it is working, but I don’t know if I did it right or not because it worked for years in a different configuration.

I did have the DSL modem connected to the router via the uplink port. Out of curiosity, I connected the modem to the router via the WAN port. I then connected the switch to the route by plugging a straight cable into the router’s uplink port and port # 1 on the switch. I then plugged the switch into the LAN patch panel with the next available port on the switch. So far it appears to be working.

Are you sure Randy is not up in Alaska in vacation for some reason?

Your description now sounds right. Sounds like it's working, no need to change anything.

Generally switches don't have DHCP servers. You did set it up correctly this time. Last time was incorrect.

Thanks guys....

No, I haven't seen Randy. He isn't allowed anywhere near my electronics as long as he has that dam gremlin following him around....

I really have to see this northern abode of yours!

I stand corrected. You said you connected a switch, not another router.

I was wondering if we read the same thing.

making patch cables? You are brave. I bought a crimper and tried to crimp one end of CAT5. It's still sittin in the box.

I just got to Fry's and buy 1' cables.

Aww, patch cables aren't that hard! orangewhite orange, bluewhite green, greenwhite blue, brownwhite brown...

Ah, but you underestimate my laziness...

Well you know mdrew, my airmiles are starting to climb w/o any foreseeable use.
I wonder if they can get me to Alaska...

Ken, while the topology of your cable pinouts is correct, it does no fit either of the two standards (T568A and B). I learned the B variation -- OW-O-GW-Bl-BlW-G-BrW-Br -- but in both variations, the blues and the browns go unused.

Geekboy smackdown time!

You sure about that standard B? I could have sworn I was right. Been awhile since I've done it, though. Heck, as I think about it, you're probably right, and that's the way I've done it.

I used the order that Peter listed. Not because I knew to do this, but that's what was on the little color chart in the box of conectors..... Hardest part about making these bastards was straightening, and then getting the wires to lay straight.

A box of fifty connectors, a crimping tool and a 100' spool of Cat5e was about a third the cost of 10 pre made patch cables. ...and now I have one more tool for the tool box, and I like tools. I did all the interior telephone terminations and routing on a 110 block too. Another excuse for another tool. Come to think about it, that's why I built my house; a good excuse to buy a bunch of tools.

I've enjoyed doing the Cat6 runs throughout the house, but I only do the ones from the switch to the wall jacks. I still bought pre-made patch cables to go from the wall jacks to the devices. Different websites had me concerned about field-terminated Cat6 cables back when I was buying the stuff. But yeah, this thread just reminds me that I have to buy a new switch still. The one I have has annoyingly loud fan noise, and I don't think I'm adventurous enough to try to open it up and clean and grease the fan.

Round three….or four or whatever it is now….I'm getting the crap beat out of me too.

Now that the boy has been home screwing around on the internet in his room, and I have the laptop in the HT room, I’m having issues with this thing.

I can not seam to have more than one PC on-line at once. If one is on-line and I go to open a browser on a different machine, I get a “no connect” windows error page. When I kick the other computer off the LAN, I can then get on with the other computer, but more than once, I’ve had to unplug the router to get the PC to link up.

I thought a switch / router was supposed to network numerous PC’s on a LAN. Are there some settings that I’m supposed to do??

So all of your machines are set for DHCP, and the router is handing out DHCP addresses? (this is default on the router). The switch shouldn't matter in the slightest; for this intent and purpose it's just a connection multiplier--a dumb device. The router is where the settings to split the connection would be.

Does your DSL connection use PPPoE? If so, these settings should be set on the router, and the router should be handing out private IP addresses via DHCP to your computers.

Hmm, yes, you should be able to share the internet connection amongst multiple computers in your house. We usually have three going at once here at home since none of us are willing to share.

When you say you have to kick the other computer off, do you mean that you're shutting the other one down/turning it off? If that's what you mean, perhaps all of your PC's are sharing the same IP address.

UH...... I don't know Ken. Where do I go to check that stuff out? I think everything is set to auto.

I don't know if they all share the same IP address or not.

Did I mention that I'm an idiot when it comes to computors before??

Okie dokie... first thing to do on all of the computers is check how their networking is set up. I assume you're on XP. Go to the Start menu, choose Network Connections. Then double click on Local Area Connection, then click the Support tab. You should see

Address Type: Assigned by DHCP.

If not, there's the start of an issue. I imagine that the router (it's a Linksys, right?) is handing out addresses in the 192.168.1.x address space, so the IP address should be close to that.

One thing to remember is that all of the computers MUST have a different IP address.

or you could log onto your router...for linksys type the following into your browser..

http://192.168.1.1

user and pass should be admin

you can look around on your router and see if it is assigning DHCP to all users. It will actually be ont he first page when you log onto your router...

look for "Local DHCP Server: Enable/Disable" on the first page you log onto.

The all have DHCP selected and all three have different IP addresses.

I should have also mentioned that this doesn't happen EVERY time, but often enough to be iritating.

Hmm. Intermittent problems are always a pain. Lemme think.

I don't suppose the router is set to allow only one connection at a time? I use this setting to add a little extra security as I leave my systems running all the time, no one else can access the router as I use all the ports available.

How do I check that?

Its right on the basic setup screen when you first log onto the routers setup screen, or at least it is on mine.

It could also be just one too many stray signals near the same frequency and the router nor your PC's can see each other. I had to upgrade my router to one with a MIMO system to get it to work right. I have no less than 6 other wireless networks available around my house.

When the problem exists, I would check the settings on the PC at the time of the problem, specifically the IP address.

Assuming you are running XP, and you have enough user rights, click Start, Run, and type in cmd, then hit OK.
In the Dos like window, type IPCONFIG /ALL and hit enter.

If you do this for all PC's that are running at the time, you should get enough information to find the issue - IF - it is address related. Check the detail about IP ADDRESS - if any are duplicates, or none assigned.

Troubleshooting out towards the router can them incorporate the above thread suggestions.

I suspect you are getting improper addressing, based on what you have described. If your son assigned an address (hard coded), or the pc's are holding the address longer than the router knows, it could be assigning the same address to another pc, and this will cause conflicts. Typically these are reported by Windows, but it might not be displaying them to you.