Using a 2940 as a extremely simple switch/hub?

[ermenbarnett]

Greetings,

I am trying to find out if its possible to use an existing CISCO 2940 Switch that we have here at our office as a hub?  Im sure that borders on insane however, let me break down what we have currently and what I'd like to do.

We currently have a very nice setup here at work, with no problems whatsoever, however; we hired a new person and brought in some new printers and we are running out of wall jacks.  Rather then run all new cabling and adding new outlets/faceplates etc... We were just gonna go purchase a simple Netgear 5 port switch/hub from the Local Comp store here in town.  We found in our server room a what appears to fully functional and operational cisco 2940 8 Port Switch with a Gigabit port. 

All IPs in the office are assigned via DHCP, so....on to the meat of my question -- I tried to plug this into our network and I can't get any connectivity out at all. All the ports light up green etc when I plug in the comps but they aren't pulling valid IPs. 

I want to reset this thing and start from the ground up, I am not scared of going into the IOS and modifying what needs to be done...as long as I got a good enough walk through =) 

Before I do that however, I wanna make sure that what I am envisioning is possible....

Respectfully,

Ermen

[cadet alain · Accepted solution]

Hi,

the NetGear device you're talking about is a switch not a hub as these devices are not produced anymore so the Cisco device is the same type of device which is manageable unlike the Netgear device you wanted to buy( I suppose not knowing the model number).

If you want to insert the Cisco you should set it to default before inserting it:

-plug a blue console cable in the console plug and connect other side to a PC

-open a teminal emulator like Putty

- connect to the switch and type enable to enter privileged mode

- erase the vlan database: erase vlan.dat

- erase the startup config: wr erase

-reload the switch: reload

Then you should be good to go.

Regards.

Alain

[mvsheik123]

If you reset all the ports to Vlan1- it should work. We have couple of small offices where users space got 2 Network ports only,  so we placed small switch (not 2940 though) for PC/Printer and 2nd port for Phone. No issues so far (except the cheap switches break sometime) :-).

hth

MS

[ermenbarnett]

Thank you very much for the responses!

I consoled in and did as instructed however when I plugged in from the wall outlet to any of the ethernet ports on the front 2 things didn't happen.

#1 the Link light doesnt turn on ... Not amber .... not Green ... nothing

#2 Still no connectivity

Do I need to enable one of these ports as a uplink port?

Respectfully,

Ermen

[Leo Laohoo]

Let's try this way.

Connect the 2940 directly to your other switch.  Use a CROSS-OVER cable. 

[ermenbarnett]

Ok,

Heres a bit of an update.

I was using a cross-over and still wasn't getting anything, which then lead to me removing the faceplate.  #2 and #3 weren't hooked up, I re spliced the wires, connected them, tucked in the excess, and then remade the connection...

WHAMO.

Up and running!

Tyvm All, I appreciate it highly!

Ermen

[jszapipes]

Remember to set the ports to trunk. Whenever you connect two like devices, in this case a switch to another switch, use a crossover cable and make sure the ports are configured to trunk.