How I got Bonding to work with a TP-Link TL-SG3210 switch

Hello,

I thought I would share, since I was puzzled how or why this happened to me and the switch I had.  In the end, I got everything to work, and I do NOT think it is a NTGR issue, but if someone else comes across this switch, I have the solution how to make it work.  It worked as Layer2, Layer 2+3, and Layer 3+4 options in the end, I left it on 3+4.

The switch I had was a managed TP-Link model TL-SG3210, 10 port gigabit switch with 2 SFP ports.  It has a management GUI and a command line interface.  The confusing part is that there appears to be 2 ways to make a LAG group with 2+ ports, as there are 2 different tabs to create your LAG.  From expereince, all I can tell is method #1 fails, and method #2 works.  I repeated this and the same was true.

The first tab is called "Static LAG".  This is the way that did not work.  I first made the Bond in the network section of the NTGR RNDP6000 (Pro 6), and that was easy.  I tried 3+4 right off the bat, and it failed, so I switch to layer 2 only, which also failed.  How I got the interface back was to unplug the 2nd ethernet cable, and wait.  I am not sure how long to wait, as I went to bed and in the morning it was pingable again, so perhaps 5 minutes?  I was dreading doing a factory reset, as I did not have a current NAS backup, though it is said you can reset w/o losing data.  I did not want to test that theory it if at all possible.  After I could login again, I switched to layer 2 only, same problem, no ping, no access, no NTGR GUI.  Once again, I unplugged the 2nd cable, and I could go back into the NTGR GUI.

Here is the 1st SS:

So, I deleted the LAG, and I went into the LACP tab, and checked both ports and changed the drop down to enabled.  Seems no different that the other tab, as the other tab you just check 2 boxes and click "Apply".  Well, here I checked 2 boxes and did the drop down, but this time I did not have to unplug the 2nd cable, it magically kept working and I never lost ping but for a few seconds while the config reset.  After this, I switch the settings in the NTGR sections to Layer 3+4, and tested unplugging either cable while I was pinging, and it worked as intended.

Here is the SS of the correct way to do this:

I am posting this in case another person gets into the same situation.  Unplug one of the cables if it stops responding, which should get your access back to make the changes, if needed.

Enjoy!