Switches

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Please forgive my ignorance but i really have no idea about switches other than the function that they perform, so i have a couple of questions:

(1)If i have a Gb layer 2 switch can i connect a PC with a 10/100 Mb NIC to ones of its ports and it will still function (albeit at half duplex and at a maximum of 100Mb)?

(2)If i have a 10/100Mb switch connected to the port of a Gb switch, would the max speed of the connected segment be 100Mb?

I realise these questions are simple to those who know but i am getting easily confused with these basics!Any resources or links would be much appreciated too if possible

Thanks

 

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I have never been in an environment large enough to warrant using a gigabit switch, but from what I've read the answer depends on the switch itself. Some are designed so that they use gigabit connections only on the main trunks and will support 10mb, 100mb, or 1000 mb on the switched ports. Others wont support the slower ethernet connections. It just depends on the switch and what it was designed to be used to do.

 

If I understand your questions correctly, then it should be "yes" to both of them. You can't make a connection go faster than the slowest connected device. Keep in mind that a switch will typically come with 100 MB ports for ethernet connections to workstations on the subnet but also can have one or more GB ports for connections to high use servers or routers. Also, you can't just plug one switch into another using any port. You might want to study up on spanning tree protocol to understand how two or more switches can be networked to avoid switching loops.

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td...ntman/cwsimain/cwsi2/cwsiug2/vlan2/stpapp.htm

http://www.nikmakris.com/cisco_spanning_tree.asp

 

Thanks guys and thanks for the links Trip, very useful indeed!!