Hi Tim,
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Tim Wegner
> Sent: Monday, 25 June 2001 8:33 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [Leaf-user] What exactly is the uplink port?
>
>
> I am a happy EigerStein user + Seawall user. I now have an
> increasing "farm" of various boxes behind my firewall/router that
> form my Leaf experimental testbed.
>
> Here's what I'm sure is a Newbie question. But alas, my linksys
> switch came with zero documentation, and while I'm an
> experienced software developer, my only network experience was
> getting my LRP box up and running, though that's a darn good
> education in itself.
>
> I have a Linksys 10/100 switch. It has 4 ports plus 2 uplink ports.
> One of the uplink ports is connected to my LRP box via a
> crossover cable, which is in turn connected to the DSL modem. My
> other boxes are connected to the regular ports. All is well.
I have not seen a hub or switch with multiple uplink ports. If you told
us the model number of your Linksys switch, then maybe I could look at
the product info on this device and give a better answer. The only
Linksys switch of this size I can find is the EZXS55W, and this has only
1 uplink port.
> Now I am running out of ports on the Linksys switch due to a spurt
> of spending too many hours on Ebay (two Dell boxes and a really
> interesting Crystal rack-mount box). Undoubtedly I will buy another
> switch with more ports, but in the meantime, I thought, why not
> use the other uplink port? So I connected my Dell 166 mhz boxes
> (Ebay, $70 heh heh!) to the switch via the uplink port using a
> crossover cable. I fired upWin98/IE explorer, and Voila! my box
> was on the net.
Normally, the last normal port and the uplink port are shared - in other
words these two connectors are *both* connected to the same "port" and
one is wired "straight" and the other "crossover". This precludes the
use of 2 computers connected to both of these ports.
> But even though the Dell box can access the internet through the
> uplink port(internet browsing works), the Dell box seemed to be
> insulated from the rest of the network for Windows networking - the
> uplink port Dell box can't see the others on the network
> neighborhood, nor can the other boxes see the uplink box. But
> when I connect the "uplink" box to the network via the normal ports
> (using a regular cable), everything works.
Strange.
> Questions:
>
> 1. What is different about an uplink port and the regular ports on
> the switch, other than that the uplink port uses a crossover cable?
> (Looks like TCP/IP packets go over the uplink port but not Netbui.)
Usually, just the wiring. Nothing else. Looks like you have a weird
switch there, considering every other switch I have seen has only one
uplink port.
> 2. Can I exploit this seeming isolation from Windows networking
> caused by the uplink port to use the Dell box connected via the
> uplink port as a Web server (e.g. is this a poor man's DMZ?) I'm
> pretty sure this is a bad idea and I should get a second network
> card for the LRP box and have a really isolated web server on a
> DMZ, but I thought I'd ask.
Without knowing which model number this switch is, and being able to
find out more info on this switch, I dunno. As I said, this is a weird
situation.
Regards,
Hilton
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