Help! Added a switch to my router and now all traffic is being sent to the switch.

C

cHr0nIc

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Jul 22, 2004
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I'm at my wits end... About two weeks ago I bought an Xbox 360 and wanted to set it up on the network here at home. I'm using a Linksys WRT54G router and all the LAN ports were occupied. So I decided to add a D-Link DGS-2205 switch to the network to give me a few more LAN ports. At first I had it connected to the router via a straight-through cable. But then my room-mates started to complain that they were getting slow/spotty access to the Internet. I then came to find out that, because the switch I bought does not have an uplink port, I was suppose to use a cross-over cable. So went up to Fry's and picked up the cable I needed and put it in between the router and the switch. Unfortunately this has not fixed the problem. My room-mates are still complaining about slow/spotty internet access, while everything works fine for me.

Oh and I should mention, too, that if/when they unplug me from the router then their service goes back to normal.....

I'm new to this and have done everything I can think of... I really need help with this, please.
 
Charlie Hustle said:
did you assign ip addresses to your pcs/hosts behind the switch? You might want to make them static.

read this
Click to expand...

That guys answer makes complete lack of sense to me...I wonder if he knows the slightest bit about network.

He says..need to assign IP addresses to the machines that you plug into the switch. :eek:

Uhm....hello Mr whoever wrote that article...DHCP will flow from the router into the switch and take care of whatever is connected to the switch. :rolleyes:

The DLink switch model the OP posted..is gigabit. Meaning..auto direction sensing....the need for crossover cables and/or dedicated uplink ports is extinct! Straight cables are fine..and since it's auto MDI-X....even if you put a crossover cable in there....it doesn't care..it will fix it.
 
What is it that they are unplugging that makes everything go back to normal?

Whatever this device is, it sounds like it is bogging down the router, hogging all of the bandwidth and TCP connections.

And the previous poster is right. Modern consumer class switches do not have/need an uplink port. The type of cable is also irrelevant because the switch automatically corrects for this.
 
They were unplugging the switch which is being used by my computer and Xbox 360.

I'm sorry, I just re-read my original post... I didn't make things clear enough.... The switch that I added only had 1 computer and an Xbox 360 hooked up to it.
It looks like this:

- Router (Currently using LAN Port #4) ---> Switch (Via cross-over cable)
- Switch ---> Computer 1 (my system)
- Switch ---> Xbox 360

And yes, that is exactly what it was doing.

Here is a list of thing that have just been tried:
- Assigned static IP addresses to both my computer and my Xbox 360 (the only two devices plugged into the switch)
- Moving the switch from LAN port 2 on the router to LAN port 4.
- A good old fashioned Power Cycling., This, BTW, seems to have solved the problem.... we hope.

It's looking good so far. I just attempted to download a 140MB Quicktime Trailer on my system while my room-mate just tried to check his IRA fund on his system. In the last few weeks this simple activity wasn't possible. His connection would time-out, until he unplugged my switch from the router, then his connection would go though without a hitch.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
That guys answer makes complete lack of sense to me...I wonder if he knows the slightest bit about network.

He says..need to assign IP addresses to the machines that you plug into the switch. :eek:

Uhm....hello Mr whoever wrote that article...DHCP will flow from the router into the switch and take care of whatever is connected to the switch. :rolleyes:

The DLink switch model the OP posted..is gigabit. Meaning..auto direction sensing....the need for crossover cables and/or dedicated uplink ports is extinct! Straight cables are fine..and since it's auto MDI-X....even if you put a crossover cable in there....it doesn't care..it will fix it.
Click to expand...


I dont know whether you are talking to me or the link i supplied, but im going to assume it the link and the author. Im just trying to help. I dont have his hardware in front of me so i quickly googled a link to help him out.
 
This probably doesn't help, but I have the same router, WRT54g and I bought that same switch for the exact same reason. :) I have my computer and my xbox hooked up to it. Both of them are static ips for various reasons but they work with dhcp. I'm not sure why your having this problem but mine worked out of the box. And I'm using a regular patch cable. I just plugged it into the last port, as is customary for me. The switch automatically does the stuff (forgot what it's called) so a crossover cable is not required.
 
I'd say return the switch or update the firmware. It's certainly possible that you received a defective one.
 
Charlie Hustle said:
I dont know whether you are talking to me or the link i supplied, but im going to assume it the link and the author. Im just trying to help. I dont have his hardware in front of me so i quickly googled a link to help him out.
Click to expand...

The author of the article you linked...he implies that if you uplink a switch to a router..that anything you plug into the switch needs a static IP address....he appears to think that the routers DHCP would not flow down through the switch.

I agree with it's probably a faulty switch....or faulty patch cables being used (less likely since the OP tried at least 2 patch cables...a straight, and a X-over. Or...a faulty port on the router that he's using to uplink the switch to.
 
It could also be a faulty nic in the xbox. Was the xbox ever connected directly to the switch in the router? If so, was anybody else seeing this kind of behavior?

I'd start there; remove the dlink from the equation and see what happens. Then, on your roommate's computers, I'd install wireshark and take a listen, see what's going on on the wire.
 
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