Switched segment limitations?

We have a 100-BASE-T segment from a Cisco 2924XL switch that runs about 240 feet to a small D-Link 5-port 10/100 switch. From there, there's a line running between 50 and 75 feet. Until recently, that was connected to a PC, and everything worked fine. We now want to attach more than one PC at the end of the last line, so we thought we could just add another D-Link switch. Each line out of this new switch would only be about six (6) feet long. Are we violating a spec. with this configuration? I ask because with the new switch inline, we don't have any real connectivity. (The link seems OK, but we can't ping anything, for example.) Removing the new D-Link switch allows us to connect from either of the PCs we want to use (but we'd prefer not having to manually switch the cable ;-).

Thanks, Mike

-- | Systems Specialist: CBE,MSE Michael T. Davis (Mike) | Departmental Networking/Computing

formatting link
| The Ohio State University | 197 Watts, (614) 292-6928

Reply to
Michael T. Davis
Loading thread data ...

Michael T. Davis wrote in part:

Not really. Switches isolate collision domains.

Are you going into the right port (X-Over/Uplink) on the new switch?

-- Robert

Reply to
Robert Redelmeier

Try making the cable that runs between the two DLink's a Crossover cable. I.E. 568A to 568B. Reason is that you would have to have the two switches swap their tx and rx pairs to talk with each other. Take care,

Chris.

Reply to
Synth42

That's what I thought.

Both switches (other than the "leading" Cisco) are D-Link DSS-5+ switches. This model provides for auto-MDI/MDI-X on all ports. It's certainly possible we picked up a defective unit, though, so I'll try a cross-over cable, just in case.

Thanks, Mike

-- | Systems Specialist: CBE,MSE Michael T. Davis (Mike) | Departmental Networking/Computing

formatting link
| The Ohio State University | 197 Watts, (614) 292-6928

Reply to
Michael T. Davis

Try nailing the interface speed/duplex at one or both ends to 10MB/HD.

FWFW, the Cisco God I worked with until a couple years ago held that daisy chainging cheapo switches was unreliable. His definition of cheapo was "anything but Cisco".

Reply to
Al Dykes

It has been my experience that if one end can't be pinned down for speed and/or duplex, you need to let the other end "float" the same way. Since the D-Link switches are unmanaged units, there's no way to manually set speed or duplex, anyway.

From time to time, I've seen "dumb" switches get into a state whereby they seem to be working fine visually (link integrity lights on, data lights flashing away, etc.), but they're not passing any data. The usual fix for this state is to power-cycle the unit. I'm somewhat ashamed I didn't try this earlier, but it seems to have done the trick, and now the PCs attached to the new D-Link switch can comunicate just fine.

I appreciate the advice, regardless.

Regards, Mike

-- | Systems Specialist: CBE,MSE Michael T. Davis (Mike) | Departmental Networking/Computing

formatting link
| The Ohio State University | 197 Watts, (614) 292-6928

Reply to
Michael T. Davis

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.