LAN newbie confused about Switches, PLS Help!

[metermac]

Having moved out of the dorms and into a house with my friends, we have setup a small network of about 5 computers. Following a friend's advice, I bought one of the switches that Anand has reviewed.

Right now, we're just trying to get windows workgroup (network neighborhood) working until we get DSL or wireless. The problem is that with the switch 2 things must happen:
1) an even number of computers must be on at the same time
2) the computers have to be on opposite ports (currently: 1,2,7,8 although 3,4,5,6 should work).

Is this normal? We're all used to hubs, where if you plug it in, it works.

Here's some info:

Switch: D-Link DSS-8+, 10/100 Autosensing
Wires: Cat5 all straight, no crossovers.
Computers: all running Win98SE
TCP/IP: default except for specified IPs of 1.0.0.x and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0
IPX/SPX: default settings

If you need more info, message me.

Thanks for your help, metermac

 

[Wik]

That is very odd, I may be wrong but I think you have a bad switch.

 

[Kanly]

with conditions 1+2, there is something seriously wrong.

Bad switch?
You sure all settings are correct?
It shouldn't matter how many comps are on, or what port they are in.
Should be just like a hub, plug and go.
You don't have one of the comps plugged into an uplink port?
Bad cables? (went nuts for a couple of days one time before i remembered to check cable)
do you need ipx/spx?
Bad network cards?

 

[Abednigo]

Yeah, something's not quite right. We have (2) 5 port switches unevenly loaded with no problems.

 

[Kanly]

yeah, i have 3 comps on a 5port switch right now.

 

[striker99]

return the product and get a new one.

 

[LANMAN]

Buy a 3Com switch instead.. My .02 (personally don't like "D"ead-links...)

--LANMAN