Hilton,
Your research is pretty good :-) I think the mystery is (mostly)
solved with your help.
You have the model number exactly right. It is called "Etherfast
10/100 Dual Speed 5 port Workgroup Switch, Model EZXS55W"
There are 5 ports labelled 1 through 5, and another labelled
"uplink". But there's a line from "uplink" to 5, that makes it look like
5 is also an "uplink" port. It is port 5 that I called the "uplink" port in
my earlier message. In order to use it I did have to use a crossover
cable.
I just did an experiment. I unplugged the cable to my LRP box and
plugged in back in port 5. Didn't work. But I then plugged port 5 to
the LRP box with a regular cable, and it did work.
> Normally, the last normal port and the uplink port are shared - in
> other words these two connectors are *both* connected to the
> same "port" and one is wired "straight" and the other "crossover".
This part is exactly right.
> This precludes the
> use of 2 computers connected to both of these ports.
This, amazingly, appears not to be right!
By connecting port 5 (not crossed) to my Dell box using a
crossover cable, I was effectively connecting the Dell box directly
to the LRP box using a crossover. This means that the Dell box
was not really connected to the other boxes on the network, but
only to the LRP box. I just checked, and it's not just NETBUI that
doesn't work between the Dell and the rest of the local network. I
can't ping the other machines either. So the Dell box can
communicate to the LRP box but is not on the local network. It
sounds very weird. It does indeed sound like the Dell box is on a
"DMZ".
Your answer helped me understand what is happening. I'm still not
sure whether this is supposed to work!!
Thanks.
Tim Wegner
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Tim Wegner
> > Sent: Monday, 25 June 2001 8:33 AM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: [Leaf-user] What exactly is the uplink port?
> >
> >
> > I am a happy EigerStein user + Seawall user. I now have an
> > increasing "farm" of various boxes behind my firewall/router that
> > form my Leaf experimental testbed.
> >
> > Here's what I'm sure is a Newbie question. But alas, my linksys
> > switch came with zero documentation, and while I'm an
> > experienced software developer, my only network experience was
> > getting my LRP box up and running, though that's a darn good
> > education in itself.
> >
> > I have a Linksys 10/100 switch. It has 4 ports plus 2 uplink ports.
> > One of the uplink ports is connected to my LRP box via a
> > crossover cable, which is in turn connected to the DSL modem. My
> > other boxes are connected to the regular ports. All is well.
>
> I have not seen a hub or switch with multiple uplink ports. If you told
> us the model number of your Linksys switch, then maybe I could look at
> the product info on this device and give a better answer. The only
> Linksys switch of this size I can find is the EZXS55W, and this has only
> 1 uplink port.
>
> > Now I am running out of ports on the Linksys switch due to a spurt
> > of spending too many hours on Ebay (two Dell boxes and a really
> > interesting Crystal rack-mount box). Undoubtedly I will buy another
> > switch with more ports, but in the meantime, I thought, why not
> > use the other uplink port? So I connected my Dell 166 mhz boxes
> > (Ebay, $70 heh heh!) to the switch via the uplink port using a
> > crossover cable. I fired upWin98/IE explorer, and Voila! my box
> > was on the net.
>
> Normally, the last normal port and the uplink port are shared - in other
> words these two connectors are *both* connected to the same "port" and
> one is wired "straight" and the other "crossover". This precludes the
> use of 2 computers connected to both of these ports.
>
> > But even though the Dell box can access the internet through the
> > uplink port(internet browsing works), the Dell box seemed to be
> > insulated from the rest of the network for Windows networking - the
> > uplink port Dell box can't see the others on the network
> > neighborhood, nor can the other boxes see the uplink box. But
> > when I connect the "uplink" box to the network via the normal ports
> > (using a regular cable), everything works.
>
> Strange.
>
> > Questions:
> >
> > 1. What is different about an uplink port and the regular ports on
> > the switch, other than that the uplink port uses a crossover cable?
> > (Looks like TCP/IP packets go over the uplink port but not Netbui.)
>
> Usually, just the wiring. Nothing else. Looks like you have a weird
> switch there, considering every other switch I have seen has only one
> uplink port.
>
> > 2. Can I exploit this seeming isolation from Windows networking
> > caused by the uplink port to use the Dell box connected via the
> > uplink port as a Web server (e.g. is this a poor man's DMZ?) I'm
> > pretty sure this is a bad idea and I should get a second network
> > card for the LRP box and have a really isolated web server on a
> > DMZ, but I thought I'd ask.
>
> Without knowing which model number this switch is, and being able to
> find out more info on this switch, I dunno. As I said, this is a weird
> situation.
>
> Regards,
> Hilton
>
>
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