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Connecting Two GS116Ev2 Switches Best Practices

Jackaloopt
Guide

Connecting Two GS116Ev2 Switches Best Practices

I have two GS116Ev2 switches connected together with one CAT6 ethernet cable between the two.  One of the switches which is located in the office upstairs and connected to the R7000 router and the other is located on the first floor.  I did not do any special configurations to either of the switches (LAG, VLAN, etc.) and the connections had seemed to be working until I noticed the other evening that I was getting a message on my AppleTV 4K stating the I was unable to playback content smoothly from my PLEX server because my network was not fast enough.  I checked the cables on each of the devices, rebooted each switch but I was still seeing this error. 

 

What I wanted to ask is if there is a better, more preferred way that I should connect these two switches together that will provide better throughput without having to run any further cables? The one CAT6 cable I had run previously and currently connects the two switches goes through a party wall and I had to tear into the wall to have it installed and would like to avoid doing any further construction.

 

Model: GS116Ev2|ProSafe Plus 16 ports gigabits switch
Message 1 of 3

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Jackaloopt
Guide

Re: Connecting Two GS116Ev2 Switches Best Practices

Hello,

After some trial and error, I found that the Ethernet cable to the AppleTV 4K was at fault and everything is working again.

 

To answer your questions:

The Cable Modem, router, first switch and video server are all located on the second floor office and connected by their respective Ethernet ports.

The second switch and AppleTV are located in the Den on the first floor.

The connection is Router>Switch>Switch>AppleTV.

 

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Message 3 of 3

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antinode
Guru

Re: Connecting Two GS116Ev2 Switches Best Practices

> [...] One of the switches which is located in the office upstairs and
> connected to the R7000 router [...]

   Presumably to one of the LAN Ethernet ports?

> [...] and the other is located on the first floor. [...]

   And where's the router?  As a general matter, I'd try to run a
separate cable from the router to each of the switches, but I wouldn't
expect any serious trouble if the arrangement were router -- switch --
switch (instead of switch -- router -- switch).

> [...] I checked the cables on each of the devices, [...]

   Did you look at the port-status LED indicators (which should indicate
the link speeds)?

> [...] I was getting a message on my AppleTV 4K stating the I was
> unable to playback content smoothly from my PLEX server because my
> network was not fast enough. [...]

   And where are those devices connected?  I'd try reducing the hardware
between these devices, to see if you can assign blame anywhere.  But I'd
be a little amazed if network switches were the source of any such
problem.  I'd worry more about your (unidentified) "my PLEX server", for
example.

Message 2 of 3
Jackaloopt
Guide

Re: Connecting Two GS116Ev2 Switches Best Practices

Hello,

After some trial and error, I found that the Ethernet cable to the AppleTV 4K was at fault and everything is working again.

 

To answer your questions:

The Cable Modem, router, first switch and video server are all located on the second floor office and connected by their respective Ethernet ports.

The second switch and AppleTV are located in the Den on the first floor.

The connection is Router>Switch>Switch>AppleTV.

 

Message 3 of 3
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