Cisco 2940 switch set up - help needed

[savvypaul]

Brand new Cisco 2940 switch landed today.

Trying to set it up to connect my Vortexbox NAS.

It's plugging, but it is not playing!

Got the Vortexbox connected to the switch and the switch connected to the WAN socket on my Plusnet router.

Any ideas on how to do it properly??

TIA

[terrybooth]

I think it's a managed switch. So the ports will be closed by default. Probably needs Cisco Works or some other management software and probably a serial cable.

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/do ... 2940CR.pdf

[savvypaul]

I'm up and running now.

Connected the switch to one of the LAN ports, instead.

Bencat has the same switch and reckoned it would be plug & play, which it now seems to be.

You can do all sorts of 'management' though, by the looks of the manual.

[CN211276]

My switch is the model listed in my signature. I connected it to my Sky router transferring the connections to the router to the switch; Sonore microRendu,, My Cloud NAS, Sky Q box and PC. Music straight away, but sometimes I had problems connecting to the streamer. This was overcome when I removed the Sky Q connection to the switch and plugged it directly into the Sky router again.

[Lindsayt]

I think it's a managed switch. So the ports will be closed by default. Probably needs Cisco Works or some other management software and probably a serial cable.

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/do ... 2940CR.pdf

That would be the first Cisco switch I've ever come across that had the ports closed by factory default.
It would also be contrary to my CCNA 200-301 text book.

Lets start with the basics.

What LED's are lit on the 2940 when you power it up.
And what's the LED for the port showing when you plug a Cat5 (or better) patch lead in between the router and the switch?
And what when you connect the NAS box to the switch?
The port LED's flashing green is good.

A laptop with putty and the right sort USB to serial lead plus the console lead (normally) supplied with the switch, plus a bit of knowledge plus a few minutes is all you need to configure this switch.

But it should be passing on network traffic OK with no configuration.

Also BTW why did you buy a brand new switch instead of getting a used one off ebay?

Edit - we we're typing posts at the same time. Nice to see it's up and running now.

[savvypaul]

I think it's a managed switch. So the ports will be closed by default. Probably needs Cisco Works or some other management software and probably a serial cable.

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/do ... 2940CR.pdf

That would be the first Cisco switch I've ever come across that had the ports closed by factory default.
It would also be contrary to my CCNA 200-301 text book.

Lets start with the basics.

What LED's are lit on the 2940 when you power it up.
And what's the LED for the port showing when you plug a Cat5 (or better) patch lead in between the router and the switch?
And what when you connect the NAS box to the switch?
The port LED's flashing green is good.

A laptop with putty and the right sort USB to serial lead plus the console lead (normally) supplied with the switch, plus a bit of knowledge plus a few minutes is all you need to configure this switch.

But it should be passing on network traffic OK with no configuration.

Also BTW why did you buy a brand new switch instead of getting a used one off ebay?

Edit - we we're typing posts at the same time. Nice to see it's up and running now.

Thanks Lindsay,

All port LEDs are flashing green.

It was £19 - the used ones were about the same. I guessed that it was a safer bet as it wouldn't have been reconfigured by anyone.

[Lindsayt]

I think it's a managed switch. So the ports will be closed by default. Probably needs Cisco Works or some other management software and probably a serial cable.

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/do ... 2940CR.pdf

That would be the first Cisco switch I've ever come across that had the ports closed by factory default.
It would also be contrary to my CCNA 200-301 text book.

Lets start with the basics.

What LED's are lit on the 2940 when you power it up.
And what's the LED for the port showing when you plug a Cat5 (or better) patch lead in between the router and the switch?
And what when you connect the NAS box to the switch?
The port LED's flashing green is good.

A laptop with putty and the right sort USB to serial lead plus the console lead (normally) supplied with the switch, plus a bit of knowledge plus a few minutes is all you need to configure this switch.

But it should be passing on network traffic OK with no configuration.

Also BTW why did you buy a brand new switch instead of getting a used one off ebay?

Edit - we we're typing posts at the same time. Nice to see it's up and running now.

Thanks Lindsay,

All port LEDs are flashing green.

It was £19 - the used ones were about the same. I guessed that it was a safer bet as it wouldn't have been reconfigured by anyone.

Is it really old unused stock, or something, at £19?

[savvypaul]

That would be the first Cisco switch I've ever come across that had the ports closed by factory default.
It would also be contrary to my CCNA 200-301 text book.

Lets start with the basics.

What LED's are lit on the 2940 when you power it up.
And what's the LED for the port showing when you plug a Cat5 (or better) patch lead in between the router and the switch?
And what when you connect the NAS box to the switch?
The port LED's flashing green is good.

A laptop with putty and the right sort USB to serial lead plus the console lead (normally) supplied with the switch, plus a bit of knowledge plus a few minutes is all you need to configure this switch.

But it should be passing on network traffic OK with no configuration.

Also BTW why did you buy a brand new switch instead of getting a used one off ebay?

Edit - we we're typing posts at the same time. Nice to see it's up and running now.

Thanks Lindsay,

All port LEDs are flashing green.

It was £19 - the used ones were about the same. I guessed that it was a safer bet as it wouldn't have been reconfigured by anyone.

Is it really old unused stock, or something, at £19?

You'll know better than me...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cisco-WS-C29 ... SwOypbe-0j

[CN211276]

I did not get all that with my second hand 2960G and I paid £50.

[Lindsayt]

https://teamkci.com/wp-content/uploads/WS-C2940-EOL.pdf
It appears that Cisco stopped selling that model of switch 11 years ago.
The WS-C2940-TF-S is a Fast Ethernet switch, meaning that the max speed is 100 mbps.

I've been using same speed switches in my home for years.
My son's PC is on a port configured for 10 mbps - to stop him hogging the router internet connection bandwidth. His PC seems fine for speed when he's doing his video conferencing lessons or playing online games with Discord chat on or for game downloads.
All of which indicates that your 100 mbps speed should be fine.

If your switch came from this seller:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cisco-WS-C29 ... SwOypbe-0j
it's interesting how he didn't mention that Cisco stopped selling them in 2010.

I'm assuming yours came in a sealed Cisco box?

£19 is about the right price +/- £10 for that switch.

All in all, if you want a box to extend your home or business network, used or redundant old stock Cisco or HP Procurve switches make a lot of sense, because they are such nice pieces of engineering for such low prices.