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Scott Shepherd
05-01-2011, 8:37 AM
Greetings all, I'm in need of some knowledge!

I'm trying to hook up a network switch. Previously, I had everything hooked up to a router. I ran out of ports so I bought an 8 port switch. When I hook things to the switch, the lights all light up, but when I try to install a printer, which is on that switch, I can't see it anywhere.

Also, with the router, I used network sharing of a drive (shared folders) and when I look at the setup now, I honestly have no idea how I figured that all out. I'm back to square one, trying to find addresses for things on the switch and I'm not sure how to find the address for something.

I must have been in the zone when I set it all up because I look at it now and can't figure out how the heck I figured it all out.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Mike Hollingsworth
05-01-2011, 9:41 AM
Try unplugging switch and router and then resetting to factory settings.

Greg Peterson
05-01-2011, 9:50 AM
Is the switched an unmanaged switch? How is the printer physically connected to the switch? What are the IP's of the devices (clients and gateway)? Can you ping the printers IP?

Scott Shepherd
05-01-2011, 10:22 AM
Is the switched an unmanaged switch? How is the printer physically connected to the switch? What are the IP's of the devices (clients and gateway)? Can you ping the printers IP?

1) I have no idea. The instructions were 2 pages, with no login info, so I'm guessing it's a unmanaged switch.

2) Connected directly to the printer with cat 5 cables. Both printers are "network friendly" and one was used that way before, one I'm trying to go from a USB on one computer to out on the network for others to use (or me to use at other computers around the shop).

3) I have no idea of any of the IP addresses. I guess if I had that, I could easily get it going. Not sure how to determine the IP of something plugged into a switch that nothing can see.

4) I don't know what to ping, since I don't know any of the tech info the addresses to ping.

It's a Linksys 8 port workgroup switch.

Right now it's not plugged into the router at all. We are moving our office and I'm trying to get the entire thing setup before the internet is hooked up (not by choice, but because they didn't show up for their appointment to hook it up). My thoughts, right or wrong, since all the computers and printers have been moved and are running is to hook it all into the switch, which should, in my mind, allow me to share files and print amongst computers and devices plugged into the switch. When they do finally hook up the internet, I can just drop that cable from the router to the switch and we'll be good to go.

Greg Peterson
05-01-2011, 11:09 AM
You should be able to set the network printers IP through a configuration screen on the printer.

Rich Engelhardt
05-01-2011, 11:30 AM
Make sure the ports on the switch and the router are autosensing.
It should say something to that effect somewhere in the manuals.
If they aren't, you'll need a crossover cable to connect the switch to the router.

Glenn Vaughn
05-01-2011, 2:27 PM
I would suspect that until the switch is connected to the router you may vot be able to get it to work. IP addresses, in most installations, are assined via DHCP - his is normally a funxtion of the router. The manual for the printer may reference a default IP address for the printer. If it does, you can try using that IP to try to connect to the printer.

Jay Runde
05-01-2011, 5:14 PM
If your devices are set up for DHCP, you most likely need the router hooked up as well as it was most likely acting as the DHCP server. If you are using static IPs, make sure they are all on the same subnet. ie 192.0.0.x. with subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

Bryan Morgan
05-01-2011, 10:51 PM
If your devices are set up for DHCP, you most likely need the router hooked up as well as it was most likely acting as the DHCP server. If you are using static IPs, make sure they are all on the same subnet. ie 192.0.0.x. with subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

This is correct. Hook one cable from the switch to the router (any port but the WAN port) and make sure the router and switch are on and all your devices (computers/printers) are off. Then power them up one at a time. They should each get an address from the router.

The default IPs for most devices these days that can't pick up an IP is 169.x.x.x. If you have older printers or someone set up static addresses on the printers the computers on the default 169. subnet will not see them.