Question about a workgroup switch

Ceros

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Mar 25, 2008
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Alright, so there's a room with 4 ethernet ports and 5 are needed. I purchased a workgroup switch (Linksys EG005W ver. 3), thinking it would do what I wanted, but upon receiving it, I noticed that there's no "uplink" port. The problem here is if the switch assigns an IP to anything plugged into it, then it may assume such a role for devices on the other side of the switch. That was actually an issue here once, where someone incorrectly hooked up a VPN box that visitors used and it started handing out IP's to other devices on the network (they plugged the device into the internet port and the device port into the wall mount).

I'm not in a position to implement and "see what happens", so I'm thinking I might just RMA it for a router with an uplink port. Any input would be appreciated.
 
Most new switches for the past several years are auto direction sensing (auto MDI/MDIX). So "uplink" ports...as well as crossover cables...have pretty much become extinct...you don't need them anymore.

This particular model is housed in one of the older router series chassis..so even though you see 4x ports grouped together..and a 5th port over by itself sorta..it really doesn't matter.

The switch itself (this one, as well as unmanaged and most managed switches) does not hand out IPs..your router..or your server..does that. The switch simply repeats.
 
yeah, you should be fine with what you purchased. It doesn't have a DHCP server function, heck, you can't even put an IP address on it. Just plug it in and enjoy the love!
 
Thanks for the info.

I guess I'm a little confused as to how pure switches work, as it seems to be a generic term that gets thrown around. Do they just maintain a routing table? If so, why wouldn't it have an IP I could ping?
 
Thanks for the info.

I guess I'm a little confused as to how pure switches work, as it seems to be a generic term that gets thrown around. Do they just maintain a routing table? If so, why wouldn't it have an IP I could ping?

No, the router maintains the routing table... A switch just passes data through it....

What you bought will work fine, the devices you plug into it will go through the switch to the router/server to get an IP and function just like it was plugged into it's own jack....
 
why wouldn't it have an IP I could ping?

Unmanaged switches (which is what you, most small home networks, and most small to medium biz networks will have) won't have an IP address...higher end managed switches will..as they have a web interface to manage them through.
 
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