What is Auto Partitioning?

[BirkenVogt]

I have a switch in one building where I ran two cat5s to another building. Now those two cables are occupied with computers and I would like to add a WAP in addition to another computer and maybe expand some more.

Obviously it would be no problem to simply put a small switch on the ends of these cables and connect some devices to one and some devices to the other. But I am curious as to what "auto partitioning" is since I see it listed on some Linksys products. Is it there for network redundancy, sharing the load, redundancy, or some other reason? In other words can I connect both cables from the main switch to the sub switch and have it automatically (or manually for that matter) configure so as not to make an endless loop for data packets?

Thanks,
Birken

 

[jimbopalmer]

Auto partioning is the ability to realize that a signal has run amok and 'partition' it from the rest of the network. If the NIC goes bad, or in some cases, the computer gets infected, the switch may auto partion it away from all other traffic.

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