Connecting 2 Switches

[lazo1]

Hello,
My current 16 ports switch is insufficient for my company after a year.

Can I just buy another switch and connect both switch using a normal Cat6 cable?

Switch 1 (16 ports) will connect 2x to server, 1x to internet, 12x to workstations, 1x to Switch 2.

Switch 2 (8/16/24 ports) will connect 1x to Switch 1, 3x to different network printers, and the rest for future use.

The switch is unmanaged DHCP switch. Model is TP Link SG1016D (http://www.tp-link.com/products/productDetails.asp?class=switch&pmodel=TL-SG1016D)

Ignore about the router/internet/modem. Focus only on the local network.

Does it work that way? Thanks

 

[KingArcher]

Yes its should without any problem.

 

[lazo1]

Thank you KingArcher for very fast reply.

I understand that my Switch 2 will have lower performance (as it is limited by the only 1 cable connecting to Switch 1. (max data between Switch 1 & 2 is only 1gbps)

In future I might add more workstation and putting the workstation in Switch 2 will suffer lower performance.

Is it true that the maximum available ports for a switch is 48 ports? What are the ways to have multiple switches interconnected at best performance?

 

[KingArcher]

Yes the max. is 48 ports per switch.
Cascading switch can have bottle necks because of the single link between switches.
The other option is Stackable Switches. Were all the switches connected act as Single switch.
Stackable Switches

 

[Kewlx25]

Higher end switches have high speed "uplink" ports. Also, many allow "teaming" ports together. Even if you may not have a 10Gb uplink, you can still "team" several 1Gb ports together. Obviously both switches need to support this.

 

[Captain-Price_ZA]

Thanks for all the reply's I got so much info I wanted. Very last question if I have 2 x 24 unmanaged switches with 1gigabit ports how do I connect them together with 1 cable then that will only give my 1gbps between the 2 or do I connect them with let's say 4 cables and that will give me 4gbps am I Correct here? Or will the 4 cables cause problems?

 

[FiL]

if you combine two switches you have a few options.

1 - Link them together with 1 cross link

pro's

*simple
*no spanning tree concerns

cons

*no resilience
*only 1 port bandwidth uplink


2 - Link them together with 2+ teamed interfaces

pro's

*multiple sessions can use full bandwidth of ONE link
*resilient

cons'

*only some switches support teamed interfaces (Cisco via EtherChannel/ Port Channel etc) if you are using a cheap unmanaged switch this option isn't available


3 - Link them together with 2+ unteamed interfaces

cons

*do not do this, you'll just create a spanning tree loop, the switch will either fall over (crash)

or

use a protocol like spanning tree to shut down all but one of the cross-links to avoid a spanning tree loop, thus defeating the point of it