Router stops when connected to Smart Switch

[phizzman]

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a Netgear Prosafe GS716t smart switch for my home network. My challenge is every time I connect my router (ASUS RT-n56u) to the switch, the router stops working (even all the lights go off) causing my pc's to be disconnected. I am new to smart switches but that seems like odd behavior. This happened with the all the default settings applied except for a static ip address being assigned to the switch (I have messed with a few settings since). I have tried different ports, cables, and I looked thru the manual and the web interface to see if I could determine the cause without luck. I'm guessing there is a port setting that I am missing somewhere. I will be contacting Netgear support tomorrow, but I thought I'd see if I was missing something obvious first.

Overall my network has 2 pcs, 2 laptops, a Synology NAS, a networked laser printer and a networked all-in-one inkjet. This also happens when nothing else is connected.

Thanks!

 

[stevech]

I'd try the switch stand-alone, connect one PC to the switch, and follow the instructions to reset the switch to factory defaults. then try it again in the LAN - to a LAN port on your router.
If that doesn't fix it, perhaps the Netgear switch is trying to do STP or some netgear proprietary management protocol that crashes the router - but I'd think these would be disable as factory defaults.

And the Netgear switch would not be doing PoE sourcing, right?

 

[thiggins]

I'm assuming you have the switch connected to a router LAN port with only one cable.

First confirm that the switch works by plugging a few computers into it and verify that they connect (you may have to configure the computers' IP addresses manually)

There is a remote possibility of some power line related issue. Try having both
the router and switch power warts plugged into the same wall outlet or power strip if they are not.

 

[phizzman]

Thank you both, I will give those a try. Yes I connected the router to the switch with one lan cable, checked the specs to ensure it does auto mdi-x and even tried a x-over cable just to be safe. I do not believe this switch supports POE. They are both plugged into the same surge protector. I'll check back later.

 

[phizzman]

I have tried both ideas. The workstations see each other when manually assigned ip addresses. I reset the switch back to factory defaults and rebooted it over the lan (thru netgears windows utility). When it boots back up, it does not see the dhcp server of the router because it sets itself to factory default. I fixed this previously by manually setting the configuration, but now I am thinking maybe this is indicating some other issue I can't find.

I can't directly access the switch unless I manually set my network config.

Maybe I'll try a different router.

Thoughts?

 

[phizzman]

Questions:

I have the default gateway for the network as the router's ip address, should it be changed to the switch's ip address?

Also I can only find 2 settings on the router that might affect its' communication with the switch, dhcp routing (i.e. to secondary routers behind it) and multi-cast routing. Both have been turned on/off without making a difference. ??

Could a faulty pc nic in any way be the culprit?

thanks again.

 

[thiggins]

In factory default mode, a "smart" switch should function just like a "dumb" switch. There is no setting in a properly functioning switch, smart or otherwise that would cause the problem you describe.

If the router goes dead when you connect it to the switch, then it looks like you have a bad switch.