Having Issues with Managed Gigabit switches over fiber link

[leftee]

i just recently purchased 3 new Dell Powerconnect 5424 managed gigabit switches . We are currently running Dell 2324 Powerconnect 100mb unmanaged switches. Everything is working fine but we are running out of ports and it would not hurt to go ahead and enter the 21st century and upgrade to some faster gigabit switches. all our cabling has been tested and certified to support gigabit speeds. We wanted to keep our existing 100mb switches in place to service devices that are not speed critical, try to get all the life out of them as i can. We have 2 closets and a server room all located in one building. Closet 1 and Closet 2 both have 24 port 100mb switches that have fiber links back to the server room. the fiber links are connected to 100mb media converters. These 2 closet switches both just plug into the 100mb switch in the server room. closet 1 and closet 2 switches are not connected in anyway for redundancy. everything is just running back to the server room and into a 100mb switch. I decided to take it a step at a time so as to be able to more easily troubleshoot problems as they arise.

1. I decided to just install one new gigabit switch in the server room plug my server and 1 workstation into it. closet 1 nor closet 2 100mb switches were plugged in . That worked fine. I was able to login and and run all my apps.

2. I left closet 1 and closet 2 just as they have always been hooked up. i un-connect closet 1 fiberlink from old 100mb switch in the server rack and plug it into the new managed gigabit switch.

3. as it now would be ... i have my originall 100mb switch in closet 1 linked back to the server room and is plugged into the new managed gigabit switch. I go up to a workstation in the building that connects into closet 1 100mb switch. i can connect and login into the network. i can browse my server folders. i can connect with outlook and pull down mail. BUUUUT .... I have an application that runs off the server over the network. It is a pervasive databse driven app. When i go to run this app it will never open . If it does eventually try to open i just get errors.

5. to see if it was the manged switch it doesn't like , i connected a netgear 5 port unamanged gigabit switch up in place of the new managed gigabit switch.With the unmanaged netgear switch everything runs fine. So there is some setting in the new managed switch it does not like.

I have tried every setting on the new mangaged gig switch i can think of.. enabled and disabled Spanning tree. Set fast port links on and off , but can't get it to work.

Can anybody offer any ideas or suggestions ?

Side Note: I also tried hooking up one of the new gig switches in closet 1 in place of the older 100mb switch. basically would have 2 managed switches connected. my databse app still won't run.

all NICs on server and workstations are 1gig and set to auto negotiate

Thanks,

 

[jimbopalmer]

There is no auto negotiate for fiber, either of duplex or speed.

I am assuming the gig switch and a fiber converter are in the server room and a 100 meg fiber capable switch is at the other, but I could be wrong.

If the server room switch HAS fiber, it is gig only, you will need gig fiber converters in the closets.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[SYQUEST]

Or, if the new GIG switch supports GBIC or SFP modules, you can get those for your new switches, and for get the fiber converters.

....JIM....