Linksys EZXS16W Switch + BEFSR11 Cable/DSL Router Problems

Linksys EZXS16W Switch + BEFSR11 Cable/DSL Router Problems
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Subject Author Date
Linksys EZXS16W Switch + BEFSR11 Cable/DSL Router Problems josemonkey 11-21-2006
Posted by on November 21, 2006, 8:53 am
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If I am posting in the wrong group, please let me know.

I have a Linksys BEFSR11 Cable/DSL Router. Up until yesterday, I was
using a Linksys EFAH08W 8-port hub to share this connection to several
computers. That worked fine.

I am planning to add more PCs to my network, so I needed something
bigger than the 8-port hub. I decided to go with the Linksys EZXS16W
16-port switch. That gave me plenty of ports and the added benefits of
a switch (instead of a hub).

Unfortunately, now I am having problems.

With the switch, I lose the connection to the router (and thus the WAN)
frequently -- say every 20-30 min. When this happens, I can't even
bring up the web admin interface for the router from inside the LAN.
Restarting the switch does not seem to help. Oddly enough, restarting
the router is all that seems to fix it.

After stuggling with this issue all morning, I took out the switch and
put my hub back in. Now it seems fine again.

Some other details that might help:

On the router, I was a little confused about whether to use the "X" or
"||" (crossover or straight-thru) setting for the uplink port. The
manual seems to indicate the straight-thru setting for a switch with a
cross-over uplink port (which the switch has, I think). But it seemed
to behave exactly the same no matter how I set this on the router. I
am using a straight-thru cable.

Also, I have the MDI/MDIX setting on the switch depressed, which should
be the correct setting. According to the docs, "To utilize the port's
uplink capability, the MDI/MDIX button must be depressed. If the
button is not depressed, port 16 will function as a normal 10/100 port."


Posted by Jbob on November 21, 2006, 4:41 pm
> If I am posting in the wrong group, please let me know.
>
> I have a Linksys BEFSR11 Cable/DSL Router. Up until yesterday, I was
> using a Linksys EFAH08W 8-port hub to share this connection to several
> computers. That worked fine.
>
> I am planning to add more PCs to my network, so I needed something
> bigger than the 8-port hub. I decided to go with the Linksys EZXS16W
> 16-port switch. That gave me plenty of ports and the added benefits of
> a switch (instead of a hub).
>
> Unfortunately, now I am having problems.
>
> With the switch, I lose the connection to the router (and thus the WAN)
> frequently -- say every 20-30 min. When this happens, I can't even
> bring up the web admin interface for the router from inside the LAN.
> Restarting the switch does not seem to help. Oddly enough, restarting
> the router is all that seems to fix it.
>
> After stuggling with this issue all morning, I took out the switch and
> put my hub back in. Now it seems fine again.
>
> Some other details that might help:
>
> On the router, I was a little confused about whether to use the "X" or
> "||" (crossover or straight-thru) setting for the uplink port. The
> manual seems to indicate the straight-thru setting for a switch with a
> cross-over uplink port (which the switch has, I think). But it seemed
> to behave exactly the same no matter how I set this on the router. I
> am using a straight-thru cable.
>
> Also, I have the MDI/MDIX setting on the switch depressed, which should
> be the correct setting. According to the docs, "To utilize the port's
> uplink capability, the MDI/MDIX button must be depressed. If the
> button is not depressed, port 16 will function as a normal 10/100 port."
>

For starters the MDI/MDIX setting on the switch is only if uplinking to
another device from the switch. That shouldn't be an issue in this
situation. In this case you are uplinking from the routers LAN port. In
your case either setting on the router should work since the EZ16 has auto
detecting ports which might be why you don't see any difference.

Just for a hip shot here I'm gonna say your connections seem ok but it
sounds more like something running on your LAN is causing your router to be
swamped thus causing the issue. Are you running any P2P apps from any
computers behind the router? That is what this situation sounds like is
happening. Perhaps you didn't see this before because a Hub does not use
the same bandwidth as a Switch. A Hub splits the bandwidth while a Switch
allows your network to use it all. If that is what is happening many P2P
apps flood cheapo SOHO routers with too many simultaneous connections and
can create router lockups causing what you are seeing.




Posted by on November 21, 2006, 5:11 pm
Jbob wrote:
> For starters the MDI/MDIX setting on the switch is only if uplinking to
> another device from the switch. That shouldn't be an issue in this
> situation. In this case you are uplinking from the routers LAN port.

I see. I guess I misunderstood that. I was thinking that because I
was "uplinking" to my router from the switch that I needed to have the
MDI/MDIX depressed. You're saying that this is only if I was using it
to uplink another device to the switch.

That means the button should *not* be depressed so it functions like a
regular port, right?

> In
> your case either setting on the router should work since the EZ16 has auto
> detecting ports which might be why you don't see any difference.

That would make sense, based on what I'm observing.

> Just for a hip shot here I'm gonna say your connections seem ok but it
> sounds more like something running on your LAN is causing your router to be
> swamped thus causing the issue. Are you running any P2P apps from any
> computers behind the router? That is what this situation sounds like is
> happening. Perhaps you didn't see this before because a Hub does not use
> the same bandwidth as a Switch. A Hub splits the bandwidth while a Switch
> allows your network to use it all. If that is what is happening many P2P
> apps flood cheapo SOHO routers with too many simultaneous connections and
> can create router lockups causing what you are seeing.

No, I'm not doing anything like this. The connection problems occurred
when I wasn't even doing anything network intensive -- e.g., some email
and browsing.

I'm wondeirng if my only issue was the incorrect setting on the
MDI/MDIX? Or does that simply make port 16 crossover vs. straight thru?


Posted by Jbob on November 21, 2006, 7:19 pm
> Jbob wrote:
>> For starters the MDI/MDIX setting on the switch is only if uplinking to
>> another device from the switch. That shouldn't be an issue in this
>> situation. In this case you are uplinking from the routers LAN port.
>
> I see. I guess I misunderstood that. I was thinking that because I
> was "uplinking" to my router from the switch that I needed to have the
> MDI/MDIX depressed. You're saying that this is only if I was using it
> to uplink another device to the switch.
>
> That means the button should *not* be depressed so it functions like a
> regular port, right?
>

Basically it's this way, you are Uplinking to the Switch From the Router not
the other way around. The MDI/MDIX(the X is for Crossover) switch on the
EZ16 is only for Port 16 if you are running a cable from the EZ16 port 16 to
another device like another Switch.


>> In
>> your case either setting on the router should work since the EZ16 has
>> auto
>> detecting ports which might be why you don't see any difference.
>
> That would make sense, based on what I'm observing.
>
>> Just for a hip shot here I'm gonna say your connections seem ok but it
>> sounds more like something running on your LAN is causing your router to
>> be
>> swamped thus causing the issue. Are you running any P2P apps from any
>> computers behind the router? That is what this situation sounds like is
>> happening. Perhaps you didn't see this before because a Hub does not use
>> the same bandwidth as a Switch. A Hub splits the bandwidth while a
>> Switch
>> allows your network to use it all. If that is what is happening many
>> P2P
>> apps flood cheapo SOHO routers with too many simultaneous connections and
>> can create router lockups causing what you are seeing.
>
> No, I'm not doing anything like this. The connection problems occurred
> when I wasn't even doing anything network intensive -- e.g., some email
> and browsing.
>
> I'm wondeirng if my only issue was the incorrect setting on the
> MDI/MDIX? Or does that simply make port 16 crossover vs. straight thru?
>

That confuses me as well. I think the Crossover vs Straight-Through
selector on the Router is dependent on cabling and device connecting too.
That Router is a bit older now and most devices now have Auto detecting
switch ports and can "electronically" work with either straight-through or
crossover cables. The EX16 Lan ports can determine whether they are being
used as an Uplink or standard switch port. I think they are designed to be
used with either cables but again the switch selection on the Router throws
me for a loop. It might not matter either.

As far as your Router problem that has me stumped. Not sure what it could
be. Can you try hooking one computer to the Router Lan port and see if you
see the same thing happening?



Posted by on November 21, 2006, 7:33 pm
The problem only exists with the switch in the picture. I can connect
directly to the router and everything's fine. I used my old hub
instead of the switch for about 10 hours today without a single
incident.

About 90 minutes ago, I tried putting the switch back in (removing the
hub). I toggled the MDI/MDIX setting on the switch to make port 16
work as a normal port. Everything seemed to work fine for almost an
hour. Then I had a problem again. This time, it was a little
different. Previously, I've completely lost connectivity to the router
from anywhere on the LAN. This time, the router was alive and
responding, but had lost its WAN IP address.

I suppose it's possible that this last problem is unrelated. It seems
suspicious that it happened less than an hour after I put the switch
back in the mix, though.

I restarted the router and it managed to get a new IP address and now
everything has been okay for the last 30 minutes or so. I'm not
convinced that it won't happen again, though.


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