Maximum # of switches on a LAN?

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I seem to remember back in the dark days of Networking 101 that there was a maximum number of ethernet switches on the same LAN (or was it segment?).

Our situation is that we have a large Netgear ethernet switch, and connected to it are 25 ethernet cables laid round the floor of the building, each terminating in a socket box at the far end, with a patch cable then going to the PC’s NIC.

Except it isn’t quite as simple as that, as some of the ethernet socket boxes are in the wrong location, and it is necessary to put a small powered Belkin 5-port Network Switch at the end of some of the cables, to give an ethernet connection for up to four PCs at that location.

So my question: is there a maximum number of 5-port Network Switches that can be installed without Unhappiness Occuring? (And no, I am not even thinking of connecting more than 25 of them…!)

(It’s when you have to implement bodges like this that you realise the benefits of flood wiring…)

BATcher

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I’ve never heard of any hard limitation on the number of switches. The practical limitation would appear to be the number of transmitting devices; you can sniff the traffic to determine whether there are too many packet collisions on any given “collision domain.” It seems unlikely that 5 devices per port on the Netgear would be too many, unless the users are really hammering the connection. On the other hand, if you are using “old” cable that is more subject to interference, you might be better off replacing it with a few runs of CAT6 cable.

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Thanks very much – I wonder what I can have been (mis-)remembering?

The problem is that the 3″ square plastic trunking is already stuffed full of Cat-5, telephone and (yes!) 230V mains cables, and heaven knows what else, so laying more cables is not an option. And we don’t have the odd few £K to rip everything out and start from scratch again…

BATcher

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Why not go wireless?

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And go from a minor headache to a slower and larger one? I’m more likely to go HomePlug!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Hence the

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I know of a classroom that has 20 machines connected to at least 5 switches, through one router and one DSL modem.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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