Advice for Setting up Cisco Switch

Posted by: Gavin B on 02 December 2017

Further recent mentions of the fabled 2960 Cisco switch prompted me to acquire three with the intention of replacing my combination of three cheap Netgear switches. I naively assumed this would all just work, and so far it's not proving entirely straightforward. 

My setup is as follows: the first switch is connected to my Netgear router. The other two switches hang off this. I've simply plugged all my existing working cables into the switches. Some elements are working, others aren't. The third switch currently has no internet access; it did yesterday evening but in trying to get the second one working the access has stopped.

so, does anyone have any pointers or suggested approaches for me? I'm just using the eight numbered ports at present.

Posted on: 02 December 2017 by ChrisSU

I’m guessing that maybe at least one of your switches needs resetting to factory settings for starters. 

Posted on: 02 December 2017 by Gavin B

Thanks, Chris. I'm going to start from scratch and reset each one. Am I okay to assume that I can then just use each switch without any further set up?

Posted on: 02 December 2017 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Yes, unless you know how to configure the switches  please ensure the switches are in their factory default setup, that way they will work in a basic un managed switch type mode.

if you do know how to configure the switches then setting the ports to Portfast mode for the NAS, media server and streamer ports is advantageous... and if your router doesn’t operate IGMP, then I find setting one of your Catalyst  switches with an IGMP querier ensures UPnP discovery and status is always valid and up todate without relying on hosts to issue their own queries. this helps provide a  very responsive behaviour for the Naim app... and other apps using multicast SSDP.

Posted on: 02 December 2017 by ChrisSU
Gavin B posted:

Thanks, Chris. I'm going to start from scratch and reset each one. Am I okay to assume that I can then just use each switch without any further set up?

Gavin, you should listen to Simon, not me! As he says, reset to factory defaults, it will essentially behave like an unmanaged switch, but that us about the limit of my knowledge. I’m hoping to figure out the basics of switch management too, but I don’t think there’s a manual!

Posted on: 03 December 2017 by Gavin B

I'Ve now gone back to my original Netgear set up and things are back working.

i've been trying to follow the instructions here which suggest going into an Express Setup routine https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/...ol14970.html#wp34494

when I followed this the 10.0.0.1 address wanted a username and password. This suggests that I've not done things quite right. I can try again to set one of Ciscos as hanging off the existing network.

What LEDs to the left of the sockets should I expect to see lit up at various points?