1. Home
  2. Ethernet LAN
  3. D-Link ethernet Switch ignores 2 PC on network

D-Link ethernet Switch ignores 2 PC on network

I am currently expanding an office network. It was running fine with an EZ 8 Port Ethernet Switch, 2 windows 2000 machines, 2 win98SE machines, 1 Windows ME machine and a roaming laptop running windows

2000. All machines have been patched to the latest available updates from microsoft. One of the windows 2000 machines is running ICS and acting as a DHCP server. My problem came about when I replaced the EZ switch with a DLink 1016, 16 port switch. When I connected the machines all except the windows 2000 running ICS connected fine and networked with no problem. The other machine refuses to accept that a network cable is even connected. The NIC on the problem machine si the same as the other windows 2000 machine and all the cabling has been checked. I reinstalled the EZ switch and the problem goes away. I also now have another machine running XP which also will not recognise the DLink network, but when placed on the EZ switch is fine. Just to add some more difficulty to this mix, I have used the EZ switch to expand the network further in another location in the office. It has 3 more machines attached. As long as the problem machines are connected to the EZ switch all machines are on the network and sharing files, printers and internet access no problem, ie. the problem machines can see through the DLink switch as long as they are not directly connected to it.

Any ideas? Suggestions? Questions?

Reply to
manfromoz
Loading thread data ...

Have you confirmed that the problem occurs on every port on the D-Link? And that it occurs if you shut everything down, connect only the two problem machines to the D-Link, and then power everything back up, switch first? And have you tried replacing the patch cables going to from the switch to the patch panel for those two machines with the cables from a couple of the machines for which the connection is working?

If so, I'd suspect that you have a defective switch. Part of me wants to just say "it's a D-Link, whaddaya expect" but that's not really fair--their stuff isn't _that_ bad.

Reply to
J. Clarke

Yes I have tried every port on the switch and changed the patch cables with known good ones. I don't believe the problem is the switch, I am inclined to think it may be a windows settings somewhere or a conflict with a driver. But as I have tried changing nic's and running the same version of nic software on the problem machines, I am not sure how that could be the case either.

Any more ideas?

Reply to
manfromoz

Not really. To the computer a switch port should be a switch port--if it works with one switch it should work with another. That's one of the troubles with unmanaged hardware--there's no way to tell what it's seeing. Have you tried forcing speed and duplex to all possible settings at the computer end?

Reply to
J. Clarke

I agree that to a computer a switch is a switch, but some how I need to convey to my PC's that they are still attached to a switch. Yes Ihave tried all setting within the boundaries of the nic. No change. I read somewhere in an obscure forum that D-Links sometimes have problems with poor signal and autonegiation, so I have tried many things. Anymore ideas?

Reply to
manfromoz

How long is the cable between each machine and the switch?

There's no way to force the machine to pretend that negotiation between it and the switch has succeeded when it hasn't.

Reply to
J. Clarke

Didn't some early residential routers have trouble working with their own brand of network card? My brain wants to say it was Linksys, but I know there was at least one brand of switch chip that didn't work with that same manufacturer's ethernet card(!). Try a different NIC...

Reply to
William P.N. Smith

Try setting the servers to the proper speeds 100mb/Full duplex on the NIC cards so it matches the highest speeds of the DLink switch. I'm assuming the DLink is able to do 100mb/full duplex. The problem may be due to autonegotiation between the server NIC's and the DLINK switch. There might be updated NIC drivers for your servers. You may want to make sure you have the latest installed. They have been known to fix issues or bugs in older drivers working with newer networking hardware or standards.

Reply to
Joe Rodriguez

I have already tried setting the problem PC nic's to a preset value (both 10mps and 100mps) and it didn't make any difference. Also tried upgrading the nic drivers to the latest and still no change.

As for changing the nic's, all the PC's on the network are running the same nic's so the brand/switch co-operation is already tested. Although I have moved a working nic into the non-working PC and installed the same driver from the working PC and it still made no difference.

next???

Reply to
manfromoz

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.