Building Complex LAN

[pattom12]

I am a novice at building Lans but have a lot of computer experience. I have a 4 port gigabit Lan using a router ( with DHCP enabled) and want to expand its capability so I can connect all of my gear to the internet. I have purchased switches and routers (with DHCP disabled) to set up the Lan but I am having difficulty getting it to work reliably. Following is what I want to do:

My device for internet connection is a cable modem.

I have an extensive hard wired house but need more connections in some locations thus switches are needed.

I have hooked up my 4 port Lan router and it works great as long as I only use the 4 ports to connect to other devices directly. If I hook up a swtich to the router to expand the number of ports beyond 4, I have great difficulty getting eveything to work. I can get pieces of it to work but not the whole thing. I tried the router with automatic IP addressing and also with fixed IP addressing using MACs to assign the various devices. Neither works very well.

Is there something I can read that will help me get this Lan setup and running properly? Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks

Patrick Thomas

 

[thiggins]

Don't use the other routers for now. Just uplinking the switches to the router should work fine unless you have a bad switch.

For more detailed analysis, you need to provide details and preferably a diagram of how you have things connected.

 

[pattom12]

I think I have found the problem-I need crossover cables between the switches and the router because the switches do not have uplink ports. I have one crossover cable installed and the devices hooked to that switch are working fine. I will hook the rest up using crossover cables and will report back then.

 

[thiggins]

I think I have found the problem-I need crossover cables between the switches and the router because the switches do not have uplink ports. I have one crossover cable installed and the devices hooked to that switch are working fine. I will hook the rest up using crossover cables and will report back then.

That's odd. Any routers or switches that I have seen for the past few years have auto MDI/X ports, which will adjust to whatever kind of connector or cable you use. In other words, unless your gear is very old, you shouldn't need crossover cables, and certainly not for Gigabit Ethernet gear.

 

[pattom12]

What I have is all gigabit configured as follows:
1.cable modem
2. Linksys 4 point wirelss router
3. Connected to Linksys is a Netgear 8 port switch, GS608 with cross over cable
4. Connected to 3 is another Netgear 8 port switch, GS608 with normal cable
5. Connected to 4 is a Dlink DGS-2205 4 port switch with normal cable

I have connected to 2, two computers that work fine,a Linksys wireless router configured with DHCP disabled that I am using as a wireless access point but I also have 3 pieces of home theater gear hard wired to it-all seem to work fine , and Netgear 8 port switch using a crossover cable.

Connected to 3 is a Linksys wireless router that is configured with DHCP disabled that I am using as an access point-works fine

Connected to 4 is a Directv receiver

Connected to 5 is a Directv receiver with crossover cable-works fine, and a BluRay player that when hooked up with either type of cable causes all the other devices in the chain to not connect.

So with this setup, I have everything working as long as I do not hook up the BluRay player.

What am I doing wrong? I have all devices setup with fixed IP addresses.

Thanks

Pat Thomas

 

[Brandon]

a BluRay player that when hooked up with either type of cable causes all the other devices in the chain to not connect.

So with this setup, I have everything working as long as I do not hook up the BluRay player.

What am I doing wrong? I have all devices setup with fixed IP addresses.

Thanks

Pat Thomas

That almost sounds like a network (or broadcast) storm. Is it a player that can also send video to other devices? It's also possible that it's trying to call home to look for an upgrade and not making it, which then leaves it crying for help (The storm portion..).

If you know how to use wireshark, I would take a look for what you see when you plug the device in. If you see a wall of text coming from the player, that's your issue.

If you're not sure about wireshark, I would just call the company that made the device, explaining that when it's plugged in, it causes your whole network to drop (Don't say that you have quite so many devices hanging off of it, however. They will more than likely have you try connecting it with only it connected.

On a last note, make sure you're not plugging a network cable into the same switch twice, or connecting a switch to the network more than once (Like connecting switch 1 to 3, 3 to 2, then 2 to 1, this would cause major issues on "Dumb" switches.

 

[pattom12]

Thanks Brandon for the help. Do I need the crossover cables? Attached is a data sheet on my Netgear GS608 switches-I do not see anything about auto MDI/X ports. I will setup wireshark to troubleshoot my problems. I know very little about networking so I am sorry I am asking such basic questions but I can learn. Thanks again.

 

[Brandon]

Every port of the GS605 or GS608 automatically senses the right speed and full/half duplex mode, and Auto Uplink technology automatically adjusts for straight-through or crossover Ethernet cables.

I found this here on Netgear's product site. It sounds like it should be able to use normal cables. It should also be able to use standard cables from device to switch connections (You said you used a crossover for your BluRay).

 

[pattom12]

My problem could be the single Samsung BluRay player which I did not recognize earlier. I need to go back and start over with normal cables adding one device at a time until I find my problem(s). Once I have this all understood, I will post where I am at. Should I set up the IP's so they are consecutive within each switch or can I just assign them anyway I want? Any other things I should do differently? Thanks Brandon.

Pat

 

[Brandon]

My problem could be the single Samsung BluRay player which I did not recognize earlier. I need to go back and start over with normal cables adding one device at a time until I find my problem(s). Once I have this all understood, I will post where I am at. Should I set up the IP's so they are consecutive within each switch or can I just assign them anyway I want? Any other things I should do differently? Thanks Brandon.

Pat

As you're not double natting (Using the WAN port) then you would need your IP scheme to match your main router (The one connected to the modem). If that device is set to 192.168.1.1, then your devices will need to be 192.168.1.X(2-254). If they're set as something else, they won't be able to get out to the web.

Your switches can have differnt IP's, as the IP address is really only a management address. For ease of use, I would however put them on the same range of IP's as everything else, however. I tend to give the first 10-20 addresses to network equpment just to make it easy to find.

You also shouldn't have any issues running DHCP on the main router, so long as you have it set up properly. Just be sure your IP range starts at 192.168.1.100 or so, so it doesn't pick the address of something with a static IP (Like a switch).