Problem: linking switches together does/doesn't work?

E

Elledan

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - April 2010
Joined
Oct 18, 2001
Messages
15,913
I got two 10/100 Mbps switches, a 5-port Unex and an uber-cheap 8-port Sweex one.

The Unex switch is part of the original network. It has worked flawlessly so far. The 8-port switch is the new one. It appears to work fine when just connecting random systems to it (w/ static IPs). However, when I use one port on the Unex switch as an uplink port and connect it to the first port on the 8-port switch (which is possible, according to the manual), systems connected to the 8-port switch sometimes can and sometimes can not get an IP from the DHCP-server (connected to the Unex switch.

For example, one system runs Win98 (w/ RTL8139 NIC). It couldn't obtain an IP-address when connected to the 8-port switch, but could if connected directly to the Unex switch. After reinstalling Win98 on this system, it suddenly could obtain an IP-address when connected to either switch. Right now I'm installing SuSE on this system, but it couldn't obtain an IP-address while connected to the 8-port switch.

Other systems connected to the 8-port switch (an HP, P166, RTL8139 and an IBM, PII 300, onboard Intel NIC, both SuSE 9.0) do not appear to have this problem.

Is this just due to a faulty/failing NIC in the Duron system? But then why would it only refuse to work sometimes?
 
try another NIC.
make sure you have the correct uplink port on the cheaper witch. some cheap switches have a specific UPlink port, to connect to other equipment.

lastly, try all the ports. if its a true Switch, it should accept uplink from any 1 of the other switches.
 
Well, if not all ports on the cheap switch are meant to be used as uplink ports, then it should either work or not work, right? Perhaps I'm just expecting too much from such cheap equipment =/

Anyway, I'll try your suggestions :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top