Hi,
I've been wondering for awhile about a problem that I'm having with an Ethernet switch, so I hope that someone here can offer an explanation.
The switch is a Gigafast EE500-S. It's a 5-port 10/100 switch.
In my network, I have a Netgear router with a 4-port 10/100 switch, built-in to the router, that connects to my cablemodem provider. I have a cable going from one of the ports on the Netgear to the wall in one of the rooms in my house.
If I plug a cable directly from the wall to the uplink port of the Gigafast switch, I can ping my router and external destinations from any PC that's connected directly to the Gigafast, but I get about 50% timeouts.
If I ping any other computers directly connected to the Gigafast from another computer on the Gigafast, everything is ok.
This is regardless of how I configure the NICs on the PCs connected to the Gigafast (10 HDX or FDX, 100 HDX or FDX).
I kind of puzzled over this for awhile, but then, instead of connecting the Gigafast uplink directly to the wall, I tried connecting an old
10Base-T hub between the Gigafast and the wall (i.e., Gigafast uplink port to hub port via crossover cable, and then hub port to the wall), and lo and behold, when I ping from any PCs connected to the Gigafast to either my router or external destinations, no more timeouts.I would love to eliminate the need for this "in-between" hub, but I can't figure out why it's needed to get from the Gigafast to the router.
Can anyone here explain this?? Also, is there any way to allow me to connect directly from the Gigafast to the wall, to the router?
Thanks, Jim