[geeks] Switch incompatibilities

[David Passmore]

On Thu, Nov 29, 2001 at 12:23:00PM -0800, David Passmore wrote:
> 
> Either the Cisco or SMC switch is simply not passing IP packets (they are
> passing broadcast ethernet packets, as evidenced by the fact that I can see
> ARP requests). I can see MAC addresses of machines on the other side of the
> link. It is a protocol level thing, not a physical thing, which is what
> really has me stumped.

Hmm. Turns out it was a physical thing after all. The cable worked fine for
10 megabits, but didn't work for 100. You would expect it not to link up, or
at the very least show physical errors, but it didn't. It just refused to
pass IP packets until I recrimped the connectors, crossing the blue-white
and blue-green wires (like I had been taught, but this cable came with the
pairs stuck together, so I originally wired it straight through). This made
all the difference.

David