[SOLVED] What am I doing wrong? PC's and more won't identify TP-SG108E

[Isaac Zackary]

So I got the hairbrained idea to ditch my router and hook everything up via a network switch. I might still hook up the router, but have some pretty good reasons not to have Wi-Fi in the house.

I got a TP-SG108E network switch and hooked it up to my Netgear CMD31t modem (cable to ethernet only, no wi-fi).

I hooked up three different computers, all three with Windows and one also has Linux that I also tried. But I couldn't get the computers to recognize the switch.

I tried making sure everything was set to DHCP in both the network switch settings and on the PCs, but to no avail.

I tried setting the IP address and Submask manually on the PCs and the switch, and also didn't have any luck.

I also have a T-Mobile 4G/3G Cellular to ethernet CellSpot that wouldn't connect to the internet through the switch.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[bill001g]

This comes down to why do you think a router even exists if people could just buy a $20 switch. The wifi function is almost secondary to what the router is doing.

Key here is the ISP only gives you a single IP address. This means only 1 device can be attached to the modem. When you do what you have done you would only get 1 pc to work. Likely the reason none work is you did not power cycle the modem and it still locked your routers mac address. The modem may also be using the switch mac address or something. In any case it will never work that way.

The main function of a router is to share this single IP address between your devices.

The simple solution is to just turn off the wifi radios in router if you do not want them. I tend to do this and only turn them on when I need wifi which is rare since I have ethernet in ever room.

There are routers that do not have wifi but they tend to be more expensive than just buying a very basic wifi router and not using the wifi.

 

[Isaac Zackary]

This comes down to why do you think a router even exists if people could just buy a $20 switch. The wifi function is almost secondary to what the router is doing.

Key here is the ISP only gives you a single IP address. This means only 1 device can be attached to the modem. When you do what you have done you would only get 1 pc to work. Likely the reason none work is you did not power cycle the modem and it still locked your routers mac address. The modem may also be using the switch mac address or something. In any case it will never work that way.

The main function of a router is to share this single IP address between your devices.

The simple solution is to just turn off the wifi radios in router if you do not want them. I tend to do this and only turn them on when I need wifi which is rare since I have ethernet in ever room.

There are routers that do not have wifi but they tend to be more expensive than just buying a very basic wifi router and not using the wifi.

Very helpful! Thank you! I have a D-Link DIR-655 router and couldn't find any way of turning off the wireless portion.

I did power cycle everything seemingly a billion times. Ok, that's an exageration, but I've been trying for the past 6 hours.

I will plug the router back in. It also does not have enough ethernet ports (4) if I could turn off Wi-Fi. I'm not sure if plugging the switch into the router (with 8 ports) would work??? I guess I could manually plug in and unplug things if need be.

But thanks again!

 

[bill001g]

It will work to plug the switch into a lan port that is what people do all the time.

That is kinda a old router. Might want to get something with gigabit ports if your internet is faster.

This is the manual for that router it show on page 28 there is a box to enable/disable the radio
https://eu.dlink.com/-/media/Consumer_Products/DIR/DIR 655/Manuels/DIR-655_C1_Manual_v3_00_EU.pdf

 

[Isaac Zackary]

It will work to plug the switch into a lan port that is what people do all the time.

That is kinda a old router. Might want to get something with gigabit ports if your internet is faster.

This is the manual for that router it show on page 28 there is a box to enable/disable the radio
https://eu.dlink.com/-/media/Consumer_Products/DIR/DIR 655/Manuels/DIR-655_C1_Manual_v3_00_EU.pdf

Thanks for saving me from insanity!

My internet speed is about 25Mb per second download and about half that upload. It's a remote area so not a lot of options.

Looks like that page also mentions a scheduler! That's something I'd really be interested in!

Thanks again! I'll try the switch in a LAN and see what happens.

 

[Isaac Zackary]

Well, it kind of works.

I have the modem going to the router and the router going to the network switch. But computers on the switch can't keep a stable connection. It cuts out from time to time, sometimes for a couple minutes. For an example, a Zoom call will stay on for 5 or 10 minutes and then cut out and reconnect. Sometimes it takes a few seconds, sometimes a minute and sometimes it doesn't reconnect.

I might just send the switch back and work with only 4 ethernet ports. When I need to use something on ethernet I'll just have to plug and unplug as necessary.

But before I do that I will try to troubleshoot it, as I see a benefit in having more ethernet ports, not only for having more devices, but as a way of turning off the internet to certain computers and rooms by unplugging the switch. Maybe a couple computers are trying to have the same IP address or something.

 

[Isaac Zackary]

Ok, so I'm still having problems. Even with the computer connected to the router and not the switch, when the switch is connected to the router I get drop outs.

But I also noticed that when I tried to access the IP address of the router I get the switch's login. So I guess both have the same IP address and that's causing the issue. I will try to change the switch's IP address and see if that fixes it.

 

[hang-the-9]

Ok, so I'm still having problems. Even with the computer connected to the router and not the switch, when the switch is connected to the router I get drop outs.

But I also noticed that when I tried to access the IP address of the router I get the switch's login. So I guess both have the same IP address and that's causing the issue. I will try to change the switch's IP address and see if that fixes it.

That switch you got is a managed one, you don't need it for basic home use. Get a cheaper simpler unmanaged switch, plug that into one of the router ports to expand it. No need to mess with setting switch IPs or configuring ports on it.

 

[Isaac Zackary]

That switch you got is a managed one, you don't need it for basic home use. Get a cheaper simpler unmanaged switch, plug that into one of the router ports to expand it. No need to mess with setting switch IPs or configuring ports on it.

I would have to pay for return shipping and might come out paying the same or more. The last thing I shipped from here just the other day cost me $40 and was even smaller and lighter, which also cost me more than what this switch cost me. But if you think I can't make this switch work I can send it back and get another.

I was going to get the TP-SG108 (with no letters on the end) but thought this one (the TP-SG108E) could work like a router. Obviously I don't know what I'm doing. But what do you think? Keep this one (the TP-SG108E), get the TP-SG108 or get another brand?

 

[SkyNetRising]

But I also noticed that when I tried to access the IP address of the router I get the switch's login. So I guess both have the same IP address and that's causing the issue. I will try to change the switch's IP address and see if that fixes it.

Obviously - 2 devices on the same network can not have same IP address.
This causes IP address conflict.

 

[bill001g]

I have a couple of those. By default they will get a IP address via DHCP. If for some reason they don't then they take the 192.168.0.1 IP. I would just go into the switch and change the IP to 192.168.0.250. You could also just change it to some completely different IP subnet if you have no need to access it.

 

[Isaac Zackary]

I shall do that and let you know what becomes of it.

 

[Isaac Zackary]

It seems to be working just fine now!

So I made sure the switch was in DHCP mode. Not connected to the router the IP address was all zeros. But when I connected it to the router it went to 192.168.0.1 , the same as the router. I then unplugged everything, the modem the router and the switch and plugged them all back in one by one. But again, the IP address was 192.168.0.1. So I did what you @bill001g said and changed it to 192.168.0.250. Now it seems to be working perfectly fine!

Wifi is on a timer, the switch is on a timer and anything that needs internet 24/7 is on the router via ethernet. Woohoo! I'll let you know if it continues to work as intended.