Router to Switch communication problems

[jda104]

Hi, new here so excuse me if i'm making any snafu's in posting etiquette.

Small company i work for is trying to save a buck by doing the reinstall of our network by themselves. Having not much experience other than being familiar with all the hardware, i'm trying to set this thing up.

The network consists of our windows 2000 server with SP4, 4 hardwired pc's all running XP prof., a few wireless laptops running XP prof. and the networking devices and cable modem.

The setup is so far is the Modem going into the WAN port of the router, the router has outgoing connections to the wireless access point and the switch. From the switch we have connections going to the hub (which has all the hardwired pc's on it), the server, and an external hardrive.

I have everything connected in this fashion and i'm able to access the data server on all the pcs, but only the laptops using wireless have access to the internet.

I took the hub cable that went from the hub to the switch and made it so that it was from the hub to the router and everything still worked the same way. The only way i'm able to get the hardwired pc's onto the internet is by disconnecting the switches connection with the router. When i do that i can access the internet with the hardwired pc's but no data server connection obviously. I'm unsure why when the switch is plugged into the router that it nullifies the internet connection that the pc's had.

Pretty shabby write up and i'm sure i'm missing a lot of specifics, if anyone has any leads or tips or questions please post i'll try to answer asap.

Also connecting a firewall after this is all setup, haven't connected it yet because i didn't want to cause myself more problems.

Thanks in advance

 

[jlazzaro]

what model hardware? check the switch to see if any of the ports are auto mdix capable. if not, try a crossover cable from the router to the switch.

 

[jda104]

router is a Linksys BEFSR41 etherfast cable/dsl router
switch is 3COM Office connect dual speed switch 16 port, not sure if any of the ports are auto mdix capable, the switch has a port that can be changed from uplink to regular though (which doesn't matter if i have the correct cables if i understand correctly)

 

[spidey07]

plug that uplink into the router and flip the switch to MDI.

Yes, the switch between MDI and MDI-X matters a lot. You should get a green link light for the port on both ends (router port and switch port)

 

[jda104]

alright, i used the patch cable i had and connected the router to the switch, i tried with mdi depressed in uplink mode and with mdi not depressed in regular port mode. Neither time worked, but i got the full range of green lights on the router and switch each time, both times the internet would not work.

when connecting these, should my patch cable that's connected to the router be in a regular slot or uplink? or it shouldn't be an issue if i tried both mdi ways on the switch?