How many switch can be connected

[fidleid]

I have a network wire as follows. The server goes to a hub and that hub goes to another hub to which 6 workstations are connected. I tried to replace the hubs with switches and the network died. I found that if I leave the first hub in (the one connected directly to the server) I can change the second hub to a switch.


Thanks in advance.

 

[ReddLefty]

This may depend on how your Hubs are relayed together. If you are using a cross-over cable, then the same rules apply to a the switches. You must make sure one end is in the uplink and the other is in a regular slot. More and more switches now come with auto-sensing and can work from any port, but you will need to make sure if it applies to yours.

Another thing I've seen is that certain hubs/switches don't play well together and the auto-negotiation does not work. If your using the same make and model of switches, then I doubt that they don't work together, but I've seen instances where the NIC card (from server) cannot negotiate with the switch and falls in an auto-detect limbo. If this is the case, then the NIC needs to be forced into the highest supporting mode (100Mbs Full Duplex) in order for it to work.



"In space, nobody can hear you click..."

 

[haviv512]

I would elaborate more on the problem:

1- What exactly is connected to the first HUB in addition to the server?

2- What exactly do you mean the network died when you used two switches? It can mean a lot of things. Assume you connected the server to Switch#1 and this switch is connectd to another called Switch#2 which has all the other PCs.
- In Switch #1 do you see that the server NIC has it
link up?
Connect another PC to Switch 1 and see if you can ping
to each other.

- Try different ports in Switch#1 and also try using
fixed port configuration on the switch and the NIC.

- If you connect the two switches by cross cable do you
see the link status OK in the respective ports of the
switches?

- Try pinging each other from the two switches by using
- different ports
- different port configurations
- different PCs.

All the tests above are meant to find out the exact definition of the problem and pinpoint the problem(s)
- Autoneg problem
- Cabling
- Configuration
etc.