Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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Im just looking at an ethernet drawing which shows 5 ethernet swtiches in series and the last ethernet switch then joins back up with the first.
Is this even possible? I thought if you created a loop, this would normally break the network.
All switches are 'managed' type though, not sure if this made a difference.
The reason for the above setup is for redundancy, theres no large amounts of data moving moved around.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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That port on the switches will be configured specifically for redundancy, in a normal unmanaged switch that would cause problems.
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willay
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Registered: 10th Nov 02
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Most switches have a type of Spanning Tree enabled (please specify switch model) and this is used to detect loops. When a loop is detected it puts one of the ports in a blocking state and the other port into a forwarding state, to ensure there are no loops.
Always good to have two ports on each switch connecting to another so you have a form of redundancy.
Why are like linked in series and not in a more traditional 'star' configuration?
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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Have a look at STP (Spanning Tree Protocol). IIRC, essentially (one of) the switches will block a port preventing a loopback but will enable it if there is path failure on the primary connection.
Edit - FFS Willay 
[Edited on 11-06-2012 by Dom]
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willay
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zing motherfucker zing
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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Am i right in thinking a star config utilises two ports between each switch whereas a series setup requires only a single port?
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willay
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yeah defo, but you could have a series setup and waste 4 ports per switch connecting to each switch either side. But I don't know why you would do that and not just do a star configuration so you have a 'core' and access switches.
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Nismo
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Registered: 12th Sep 02
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Or just create a fully meshed network, configuration brain freeze.
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Chris
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Registered: 21st Sep 99
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It would work just make the sure the CAM table doesnt fill up.
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willay
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the good old CAM table Chris 
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