Procurve 2626-Genius in simplicity

[RobbieN]

Hey folks
Trying to make things simple, which is apparently out of the ordinary.
I have a 2626 linked to patch panel with about 14 pc's on an internal private network (192.168.16.xx) governed by a SBS server functioning as DHCP server, and DNS server.
in the opposite direction, towards the WAN/Internet, I have a single connection running from the 2626 (on port 2), to a simple Linksys Wireless Router, which pulls DSL.

Despite identifying the router as the gateway on the switch, I cannot ping the router, I don't have any internet connectivity from the switch through the patch panel, etc.

In short, the gateway defined never seems to be pingable, EVEN FROM THE SWITCH menus.

I have no need for VLANS, enormously complicated routing schemes or otherwise-I just want an understanding of why this simplest of structures would seem so enormously complicated on this switch. It almost appears that auto-sensing does not work. Any thoughts?

As far as VLANS go, I appear to have a pair of default VLANS configured, nothing set in them that I understand or think I need. Are they deletable? Do I need to configure these to make the switch work almost in unmanaged fashion?

[Joel Belizario]

Hi Robbie,

Can you post a copy of your switch config?

Does the switch have an IP from DHCP or static assignment?

Cheers
Joel

[RobbieN]

Joel,

Thanks for the reply, but at the moment don't have access to it.
DHCP when invoked appears to head down to LAN side and pull an IP from the local server. Gateway set (again Linksys router IP) never seen on the LAN side, cannot ping it even from the switch web interface.

So, while I've got 2 locations to pull 2 scopes (quite different), I cannot ping one of them (router). Even stranger-all of the output ports from the switch connect to a patch panel to disseminate throughout the building. If I plug laptop directly into switch, I have internet connectivity (though cannot ping the router). Same setup through patch panel allows ping of switch, not router, no internet access.

[Joel Belizario]

Can you verify that the ports / patch panel is labelled correctly?

I might be totally off track but the symptoms sound like one VLAN is not setup for internet access and when you plug into the wall port you are not necessarily being connected to the same VLAN as you are when you plug in directly to the switch.

Since there are two VLANs I'd first try to find out which ports are assigned to which VLAN and how they have been configured.

[RobbieN]

Well that's a place to start. Naturally Patch panel not labelled, where's the fun in that?

Seriously, the inbound connection from the WAN, regardless of which VLAN it technically inhabits should be TAGGED, correct? Might this be the reason why despite everything lighting up as it should (both from the router and the ppanel), that I cannot ping the declared gateway?

Since I plan on returning EVERYTHING to the same band of IP's and subnet, do I need to set up 2 VLAN's? can I not merely establish one VLAN with a tagged port 2 to designate the uplink? Or is there more to it than that?

Thanks for trying to answer, as I said-not my mess trying to clean up someone else's...

[Joel Belizario]

Uplinks generally are tagged but in that context they also carry traffic for more than one VLAN, ie. each frame is tagged with a VLAN ID so the upstream / downstream device knows how to forward traffic accordingly.

I think of it as multiplexing different streams of traffic onto a single cable but I used to work with video so I guess it makes more sense to me that way... :)

If you are going to have a simple flat layer 2 network you would just leave everything untagged and in the default VLAN (as the switch will always have one VLAN defined by default).

However you mentioned you have 2 scopes running?

[RobbieN]

I am trying to make this a simple flat layer 2 situation.

when I said 2 scopes, I meant the DHCP server on the internal LAN (MS Server 2k3)offers 192.168.16.0-50, which covers all of my devices within the office. If need be, I thought I might leave the router DHCP functionality on, but specify same segment, but addresses 192.168.16.100-150-thereby allowing the switch (again if needed) to speak coherently to the gateway(router)at 192.168.16.1, and allow me the option if need be of bypassing the internal LAN scope for additional hardware, so I don't need to complicate the existing Active Directory mess I then have to face.
I realize I have a default VLAN. If i stay with a single VLAN, does that eliminate the need to configure ports at all? I have no complicated routing issues at all, and would expect that the inherent auto-sensing ability of the switch to kick in and simplify things.
Should I not just have to set auto-sense on all 24 ports, set to VLAN 1 and it should forward traffic apropriately if gateway is made explicit?

That, however, is not yet what I'm seeing occur, was wondering what I'm overlooking.

[Joel Belizario]

I'm not sure having two devices distribute IP addresses is a good idea, in my mind there would be contention from the clients end which is the "correct" DHCP server.

The auto-sensing features of the switch are related to negotiation of link speed and duplex, and also to compensate for the type of cable plugged in (crossover / straight through), dependent on the connection. This does not impact on the switch's ability to forward traffic.

What is defined as the default gateway for clients on the network?

[RobbieN]

Yes, admittedly a pair of uninformed DHCP servers not ideal, but for the moment I did not think it would impact the ability to get out on the internet. I was planning on losing one of them shortly.

I've tailored the interal LAN pc's with the gateway I designate on the switch (router IP address). As I can't ping the gateway FROM the switch, this is almos t an irrelevant gesture.

Again, an odd situation where it seems as though physically I get a response (lights on the port) from plugging in the router. That said, the Procurve never receives an IP from the router (proving it's not communicating), and does not forward requests to the internet, does not appear to make pinging possible either.
Specific question: on 1 VLAN alone, do I need to set the uplink port as "tagged"?

[Joel Belizario]

Well I guess from a best practice perspective it would wise to tag all uplinks even if it were just for one VLAN.

My Cisco experience is limited, but I was once told by a colleague that in the Cisco IOS ports in the default VLAN (1) can ONLY be untagged however in HP software you can set them to either tagged or untagged depending on your setup.

Any progress with the switch config?