Switch Question

[Dianne C. Tillman]

I have a very old 3com switch and the port lights are flashing in unison and the computers running through this switch cannot access the network.  Any ideas as to what the problem might be?  Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[Dianne C. Tillman]

We are now going to replace our four switches. Do you have any recommendations? We do not want to buy cheap switches, we want ones that will take us into wireless, etc. in the future.

Brian Norman said:

Dianne C. Tillman said:

It is a switch, not a hub. It isn't as old as I thought. We have static IP addresses. How do I identify a loop? Is it a cable that goes from one port in the switch to another port in the switch?

Randy Dahl said:

I know all about some one pluging in a loop into your switch not good, it can bring you're network to halt. Is it a switch if it's that old? I bet it's a hub, not a switch. Can the computers that are plugged into it see each other? if you have DHCP running you would have to give each one a IP address and then see if they can talk to each other.

Possibly, or more likely a patch cable in a classroom that has been plugged into both jacks, creating a loop.

[Brian Norman]

HP and Cisco are on the tops of my list.

[Dianne C. Tillman]

Do you use managed or unmanaged (dumb) switches?

Brian Norman said:

HP and Cisco are on the tops of my list.

[Brian Norman]

Managed.

[Dianne C. Tillman]

I have picked a out a Cisco switch. I have never installed a switch before (can you tell?!). I assume that I would be dreaming to think that I can simply unplug all the cables from the old switch and plug them into the new switch? It can't possibly be that easy, right?

Brian Norman said:

Managed.

[Brian Norman]

Depends on what you are doing with it. If all you are doing is hooking up some computers and have no VoIP phones or VLAN's to configure, just plug it in. If you are purchasing managed switches you should spend some time do the initial configuration so you can see how much traffic you have and such.

[Dianne C. Tillman]

I will just be replacing the "old" switches with the new ones, no VoIP or VLANs. I do want to do the initial configuration so I can make use of the management capabilities, they are managed switches: Cisco SGE2010 48-port Gigabit.
Thank you so much for all your help! I really appreciate it.

Brian Norman said:

Depends on what you are doing with it. If all you are doing is hooking up some computers and have no VoIP phones or VLAN's to configure, just plug it in. If you are purchasing managed switches you should spend some time do the initial configuration so you can see how much traffic you have and such.