When an Access port is needed or Not on a Cisco Switch

[Cisco10956]

My question - Would I need to make fa1/1, fa1/2 access ports ??  " switchport mode access " 

Is it because I already used the

no shut

command already on the two ports. ???

- The whole point is for desktop 1 and 2 to be able to ping each other, and for VLAN 1 also to ping each desktop. 

Switch     -  192.168.10.51 - Configured for VLAN 1

 Int Vlan 1 

192.168.10.2 255.255.255.0

no shut

Computers

Desktop 1 - 192.168.10.50 - fa1/1 

Desktop 2 - 192.168.10.51 - fa1/2 

note : Subnet mask for all the devices is 255.255.255.0

[Karsten Iwen · Accepted solution]

The

no shut

is enough for the systems to communicate with each other. But it is a best practice to statically configure the ports to access if a "normal" end-device like a PC is connected.

[Martin L]

Yes, you should add switchport mode access and switchport access vlan 1 just in case ports were configure differently or port was set as a trunk port (remove switchport mode trunk if port was trunking).

on brand new L2 switch you do not have to do any config, switch by default should work with all port in vlan 1. however, with used switch, sometimes ports get stuck and you need to reconfigure them.

Regards, ML
**Please Rate All Helpful Responses **

[Scott Leport]

Best practice for hosts is configure them as access ports, as mentioned above by Karsten and Martin.
Also if you want the hosts to transition through the spanning-tree process quicker, configure portfast on the switchports where you have hosts (PCs, IP phones etc) connected.