Cisco switch

Bunny Colvin posted:

Just dropped the two 2960s in place of TP-Links. Factory reset worked without issue and they both jumped into life in the network no problem. Re sound quality, I do think I can hear a difference. Actually I think the difference is quite obvious, but it's not necessarily the change I was expecting. In short I'm hearing a more Naim-like sound, that is, tighter and more accurate... PRAT I guess. It definitely has that infectious sense of life that makes Naim so fun but I think it is also brighter and this I'm not so sure I'm keen on. Perhaps simply a case of the NDX now revealing more of it's true character, I'm not sure. Reminds me a bit of the CDX... what was it? The "glasscutter"? A friend had one I listened to a lot... certainly kept you on the edge of your seat, but could be magic at times.

better prat , more body and bass, but a bit bright. I found also that, as some. But with a good quality lan, you can have a softer sound. Or a network bridge/ lan isolation after the cisco.

Hi all,

I have "dipped" my toe in the world of a CISCO WS-C2960-8TC-L as mentioned above. I confess that I know nothing about these and how to use/configure etc. Can anyone point me in the right direction of how to wire one up? I will be coming from a BT router. At the moment all I want to do is connect my NDS to it. I don't know how to connect in and out etc, and do I need to connect to the Cisco t configure it? Pictures would be wonderful and I would be eternally grateful.

An idiots guide if you can gents!!!!!

French Rooster posted:

Bryce Curdy posted:

French Rooster posted:

it is curious that a member invests so much energy to defend a product, the cisco 2960...and is posting comments only on this component.....perhaps some personal financial interests are concerned ?

It is strange but I don't see how financial interests can be the factor when they're being bought second hand.  I can't imagine a few dozen Naim enthusiasts spending £50 on an auction site would drive the share price up.

you can buy hundreds second hand and sell them with a bigger price....

Tin foil hat?

Dustysox posted:

Hi all,

I have "dipped" my toe in the world of a CISCO WS-C2960-8TC-L as mentioned above. I confess that I know nothing about these and how to use/configure etc. Can anyone point me in the right direction of how to wire one up? I will be coming from a BT router. At the moment all I want to do is connect my NDS to it. I don't know how to connect in and out etc, and do I need to connect to the Cisco t configure it? Pictures would be wonderful and I would be eternally grateful.

An idiots guide if you can gents!!!!!

Get another ethernet cable (a £1000 preferably)

Purchase the obsolete switch

Plug the switch into power and plug it via your current ethernet cable to the bt home hub

Plug the new £1000 ethernet cable into the 50 quid obsolete switch, plug the other end into your NDS

Strain your ear to detect a deference, convince yourself you heard one.

on the money

Dunno man. I've got a mainstream Cisco branded switch. I like that better than the Netgear one. The Cisco 2960 is in another class. That's what I'm using too. 

Ethernet cables - all seem to make a difference. I had the chord indigo for a couple of weeks. Made the system a little too smooth. The vodka makes the sound bigger but it loses some coherency. I've gone back to cheaper C-stream and plan on staying with it.

I use the 2960 between the NDS and uniticore. And one more Ethernet cable from it  plugged into the wall.

I found that a 5m StarTech Cat6 UTP (type N6PATC5MWH, a generic UTP patch cable from CPC Farnell, £6) slightly outperformed a Chord C-Stream after I changed from a Netgear GS105 to a (obsolete) Cisco WS-C2960G 8TC-L.

Dustysox posted:

Hi all,

I have "dipped" my toe in the world of a CISCO WS-C2960-8TC-L as mentioned above. I confess that I know nothing about these and how to use/configure etc. Can anyone point me in the right direction of how to wire one up? I will be coming from a BT router. At the moment all I want to do is connect my NDS to it. I don't know how to connect in and out etc, and do I need to connect to the Cisco t configure it? Pictures would be wonderful and I would be eternally grateful.

An idiots guide if you can gents!!!!!

Just connect it to the mains, and connect your router, NAS and streamer to any of the 8 regular RJ45 ports. It takes a little longer to start up, compared to a consumer grade unmanaged switch, so give it 5 minutes to settle. Then it should just work. 

If the previous owner has configured the switch, you may find that it doesn’t work for you, and may need a factory reset, but try it without first, as there is probably no need. 

Anyone tried the Cisco Meraki 220-8 switch?

MangoMonkey posted:

French Rooster posted:

Bryce Curdy posted:

French Rooster posted:

it is curious that a member invests so much energy to defend a product, the cisco 2960...and is posting comments only on this component.....perhaps some personal financial interests are concerned ?

It is strange but I don't see how financial interests can be the factor when they're being bought second hand.  I can't imagine a few dozen Naim enthusiasts spending £50 on an auction site would drive the share price up.

you can buy hundreds second hand and sell them with a bigger price....

Tin foil hat?

???? Mr French Rooster...❗❗❗ 

Is it me you thinking about when you post this input..❓❓ 

/Peder ❓ 

Chrissw19 posted:

Anyone tried the Cisco Meraki 220-8 switch?

I seem to recall that Jon Honeyball is a big fan of Meraki switches, but I don't think he posts here any more, so you would have to contact him elsewhere.

ChrisSU posted:

Dustysox posted:

Hi all,

I have "dipped" my toe in the world of a CISCO WS-C2960-8TC-L as mentioned above. I confess that I know nothing about these and how to use/configure etc. Can anyone point me in the right direction of how to wire one up? I will be coming from a BT router. At the moment all I want to do is connect my NDS to it. I don't know how to connect in and out etc, and do I need to connect to the Cisco t configure it? Pictures would be wonderful and I would be eternally grateful.

An idiots guide if you can gents!!!!!

Just connect it to the mains, and connect your router, NAS and streamer to any of the 8 regular RJ45 ports. It takes a little longer to start up, compared to a consumer grade unmanaged switch, so give it 5 minutes to settle. Then it should just work. 

If the previous owner has configured the switch, you may find that it doesn’t work for you, and may need a factory reset, but try it without first, as there is probably no need. 

Hi all,

Thank you for all your input. I did plug router into it and NDS the other day. The NDS didn't find the UPnP and I thought there was either a fault or I had additional "stuff" to do. Maybe I didn't leave it long enough. I will try again this evening and report back.

The ports should flash amber for a while then green and then no led.....then you plug in and they should illuminate green and should work.

Dustysox posted:

ChrisSU posted:

Dustysox posted:

Hi all,

I have "dipped" my toe in the world of a CISCO WS-C2960-8TC-L as mentioned above. I confess that I know nothing about these and how to use/configure etc. Can anyone point me in the right direction of how to wire one up? I will be coming from a BT router. At the moment all I want to do is connect my NDS to it. I don't know how to connect in and out etc, and do I need to connect to the Cisco t configure it? Pictures would be wonderful and I would be eternally grateful.

An idiots guide if you can gents!!!!!

Just connect it to the mains, and connect your router, NAS and streamer to any of the 8 regular RJ45 ports. It takes a little longer to start up, compared to a consumer grade unmanaged switch, so give it 5 minutes to settle. Then it should just work. 

If the previous owner has configured the switch, you may find that it doesn’t work for you, and may need a factory reset, but try it without first, as there is probably no need. 

Hi all,

Thank you for all your input. I did plug router into it and NDS the other day. The NDS didn't find the UPnP and I thought there was either a fault or I had additional "stuff" to do. Maybe I didn't leave it long enough. I will try again this evening and report back.

 

Dusty, I presume you have a NAS? Is it connected to the new switch, or to your router? Either way should work, but try connecting it to the Cisco if you haven't already.

Then, for your router, NDS and NAS, try the old' turn it off, have a cup of tea, then turn it on again' routine (Sorry, but you did ask for an idiots guide!)

If it still doesn't work, you may need to do a factory reset of the Cisco, but I would only do that as a last resort. Good luck!

Reading about what John Swenson of Uptone audio is researching and working on, if one is serious about switches and what they can do for sq, I would hold off a new switch until Uptone release their product later this year. Yes, it will probably be 6-10x as much as a used Cisco, but from the sounds of it, it may be revolutionary in streaming audio as it will be purpose built from the ground up instead of just recapping, re-clocking, an off the shelf unit. According to Swenson, no special power supply needed either. At the moment I’m perfectly happy with my Trendnet 24 port fanless, though not having heard a Cisco 2960 I believe it gave me a similar bump in sq coming from a Netgear. But I will be trying the Uptone switch after reports come in. Might be next year’s hifi purchase (living large! )

Wow so this guy is taking on Cisco/Intel/Broadcom in this market by building a ground up switch. Good on him!

Yep, and if it's anything like their power supplies then it will be a winner. And like I said he's doing the research and testing of whats actually going on vs just soldering some bits onto a consumer switch. You can read about it over on the Uptone forum at CA. 

The key thing is the PHY clock stability... however he should know that if he is serious, it’s hardly magic or mysterious... bolting ‘bits’ into a consumer switch is unlikely to yield satisfactory results.

Gazza posted:

The ports should flash amber for a while then green and then no led.....then you plug in and they should illuminate green and should work.

Yes because it’s a commercial grade switch by default the ports are configured with loop detection, which of course can bring a network seriously to a grinding holt with serious consequences if a loop is accidentally created. It is this safety feature protection that takes the time before the link comes up. Such things don’t really exist on small consumer switches.

However if you configure the switch via its management IOS interface you can turn this off by setting the appropriate port, such as the streamer port to ‘Port Fast’ mode, and this means the link will come up almost immediately on that port but you will get no loop protection.

ChrisSU posted:

Dustysox posted:

ChrisSU posted:

Dustysox posted:

Hi all,

I have "dipped" my toe in the world of a CISCO WS-C2960-8TC-L as mentioned above. I confess that I know nothing about these and how to use/configure etc. Can anyone point me in the right direction of how to wire one up? I will be coming from a BT router. At the moment all I want to do is connect my NDS to it. I don't know how to connect in and out etc, and do I need to connect to the Cisco t configure it? Pictures would be wonderful and I would be eternally grateful.

An idiots guide if you can gents!!!!!

Just connect it to the mains, and connect your router, NAS and streamer to any of the 8 regular RJ45 ports. It takes a little longer to start up, compared to a consumer grade unmanaged switch, so give it 5 minutes to settle. Then it should just work. 

If the previous owner has configured the switch, you may find that it doesn’t work for you, and may need a factory reset, but try it without first, as there is probably no need. 

Hi all,

Thank you for all your input. I did plug router into it and NDS the other day. The NDS didn't find the UPnP and I thought there was either a fault or I had additional "stuff" to do. Maybe I didn't leave it long enough. I will try again this evening and report back.

 

Dusty, I presume you have a NAS? Is it connected to the new switch, or to your router? Either way should work, but try connecting it to the Cisco if you haven't already.

Then, for your router, NDS and NAS, try the old' turn it off, have a cup of tea, then turn it on again' routine (Sorry, but you did ask for an idiots guide!)

If it still doesn't work, you may need to do a factory reset of the Cisco, but I would only do that as a last resort. Good luck!

Hi all,

Well it only blooming works!!!

I moved my NAS back into the lounge and connected it to the switch with everything powered down. Connected router and NDS to the switch. Left it to do it’s thing and on my return it all seems to load fairly quickly. Not sure if it’s me, the Naim app seems quicker loading albums, and the music sounds different. I use the term different  as I’m knackered this evening after long challenging days at work. I will get an early night in readiness of the weekend and enjoy a nice glass of red and wondering if I’m going mad or is there a science to all this.

Thank you all, the community spirit of this forum never seems to amaze me. Kind people helping each other, I wish the world would take a leaf.....well....that’s another story!!

This idiot needs an early night for which I need no guide!!!!!

Peder posted:

I have talked to the company in Holland today. The company that we buy our Cisco's from.

Hi Peder; how can we contact your supplier? Can you help without breaking Forum rules? Where would they be located in The Netherlands? Much appreciated. ????

Chag -

Hi Chag, I'm surpriced....can't you send Private Message on this forum❓ ..... and if so,....WHY❓ 

I have look around, but can't find any "private message"-function.

/Peder ????❓ 

PMs - No.

Probably because it's a public and fully moderated forum.

Peder posted:

Hi Chag, I'm surpriced....can't you send Private Message on this forum❓ ..... and if so,....WHY❓ 

I have look around, but can't find any "private message"-function.

/Peder ????❓ 

There's a wall. You can write on it.

Gianluigi Mazzorana posted:

Peder posted:

Hi Chag, I'm surpriced....can't you send Private Message on this forum❓ ..... and if so,....WHY❓ 

I have look around, but can't find any "private message"-function.

/Peder ????❓ 

 

There's a wall. You can write on it.

Hi Gianluigi Mazzorana ????, I must be stupid.I go to "Chag's" Profil Information,...clic on the word ◾Wall. But I can't write anything there,can you please help me...so I can send a message to Chag.

Regards Peder ????