Router

sparkite

So there I was thinking that by connecting a second CAT5e wire between my eircom router and switch that this would add redundancy and perhaps increase speeds (even just a little bit). However when i connected a second cable the internet didnt work and all the lights were flashing as if all components were trying to communicate with each other and failing.

Perhaps someone could explain why this is so?

Thanks in advance.

FruitLover

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switching_loop

You can increase bandwidth between two switches by combining ports if both switches support it, but I doubt that yours do (usually only on SMB/enterprise switches). But this almost certainly won't make any difference to your internet speeds, as your switch-to-switch (your router has a switch built into it) connection is almost certainly faster than your router-to-internet connection (an exception would be if you were using a 10Mb switch, and a >10Mb internet connection).

TeaServer

Hi Sparkite,

Without knowing the details of the switch involved or indeed the ability of the eircom router to handle redundancy in physical links it sounds to me like you created a loop in your network configuration which almost always end in complete network outage if not configured correctly.

Google 'broadcast storm' for an better idea of what is can happen in badly configured networks.

/T

sparkite

Aye, sounds like a loop.

Was hoping for redundancy rather than speed increase.

Thanks guys.