Alright, I picked up a network switch for a friend. I’ve never messed with a switch before, but what I’ve seen around the web led me to believe that all I had to do was plug a lan port on the router to a port on the switch and then all the lan ports on the switch were connected to the network, effectively increasing the number of ports on the router. I wanted to make sure that it worked before sending it to the friend, so I tried that, and it didn’t work. I would like for someone to help me out, maybe point out something that I am doing wrong.
I tried hooking connecting a lan port on the router to the uplink port on the switch. Then a computer to the switch via a random port (not port 5 as that one is disabled when using the uplink port). The computer didn’t see the internet. Then I tried hooking it up by lan port on the router to a random port on the switch, and still nothing. I tried resetting the router with all connections in place, and nothing. The only thing that I can think of is that I should look for an uplink port on the router and try using that, or that I should turn off the router, then connect the switch, then turn them both on. Unfortunately, I am currently away and won’t be able to try anything else until a little later.
I am really hoping that I am doing something wrong because I want this switch to work for my friend (it was only a few dollars used but they are excited about it).
EDIT: P.s. All of hte lights came on like it was working just fine.
What kind of switch is it? Is it gigabit? I've never seen a switch with an uplink port but what I understand of it is that the uplink port is crossed over so you can use a regular cable to connect it to another switch or router. So in that case if your switch isn't gigabit then it might not do automatic cross over (I can't remember what that's actually called) so you may need a crossover cable to connect it to the router or to the other devices. I'm not 100% on how that works as it's been a long time since I've had to use a corssover cable for anything so it would be a little surprising if that were the problem.
A switch should just work, you plug everything in to it and it allows traffic to pass between each connected device, it doesn't require any configuration or anything like that. You don't happen to have any loops or two cables going to the same place or anything like that do you? Networks really don't like that.
This is the switch (old, I know, but it was cheap and used and I figured that switches were plug and play and that it would work just fine).
I was actually using a crossover cable. I happened to have one and have been using it to connect my main pc to my router for a while now (I got it in case I needed it for whatever reason and it happened to be the only one that was the right length, so whatever). Supposedly, the uplink port is the one that you should use to expand the switch's network. The manual isn't terribly clear about it which is why I tried both the uplink port and the regular ones. I am kind of at a loss now.
Like I said I'm not 100% sure how it works with old switches but I know that you need cross over cables for some things (pretty sure things like switches and routers) and regular cables for everything else. The uplink port does exactly the same thing as the other ports except it is wired in the crossover configuration so that you can use a patch cable instead of a cross over cable to connect to another switch or router. You should try using all regular cables and no corssover. But like I said I'm not really sure how older switches work.
Maybe @DeusQain will be willing to lend some help.
- plug into port with pc/laptop
- go to 192.168.1.1 - you should see a web gui, otherwise ssh or telnet into the device via putty (windows) or terminal (linux)
- clear config & reconfigure - turn on the ports, so forth
If the config is cleared (reset) then when (1 pc) ----> switch <------ (1 pc) scenario you should have connectivity between those two hosts provided you have no IP address conflicts.
Best bet is to find the manual for that particular device. Sorry I cant be of more help but im only really familiar with cisco and juniper.
It seems to have worked once I restarted the router. Simple enough fix, I guess.