2960X PoE Switches and off-brand switches

brucesackett · ‎02-03-2016

I have a customer that wants to add a couple of small 4 port switches into their existing network to expand a couple of offices temporarily. In their case, they have a pair of linked 2960X PoE switches that they would like to attach to.

A test by one of their people appears to show that this will not work - either the switch or something else is preventing the cheap switch from connecting to the network. Is this the case? If so, is there a Cisco alternative to work with to make this happen? They will be doing a lot of remodeling, and the ability to add and remove small switch blocks would be a big help while desks are being moved.

Giuseppe Larosa · ‎02-03-2016

Hello Bruce,

adding unmanaged small cheap switches to a network is always a bad idea. I have seen customers desperate because after one year one of this small boxes created a bridging loop that blocked the whole campus network.

I don't know why it is not possible to connect the small switches to the 2960-X switches but I recommend to do not do it.

This is my opinion based on my work experience.

Hope to help

Giuseppe

AllertGen · ‎02-03-2016

Hello, brucesackett.

Can you show configuration of the 2960-X ports where they trying to connect this small switches?

And I will agree with Giuseppe Larosa. It really is a bad idea to connect not manageble switches to the network. If you configure 2960-X right the loop will not breake all your network but it will turn off one or 2 ports of the 2960-X switch.

Best Regards.