I recently purchased a GSM4212UX PoE++ switch. The device works fine and seems to bridge most traffic but will not bridge a broadcast layer 2 frame we use in some testing. The layer 2 MAC frames include a destination address of FF:FB:******. I cannot find any management settings that affect this behavior. Any reason why these frames are unable to bridge to other switch ports?
By rule of thumb, I tend to state this isn't a valid Ethernet MAC address, and it should not be used therefore - this appears to be the reason the switch does not forward this invalid broadcast frames. Only specific MAC addresses are actually valid. The IEEE 802 standard defines which MAC addresses are valid.
I don't see anything that indicates that the Multicast MAC I'm using is somehow invalid or illegal.
I discovered a setting under the AV Log-In menus that allows me to configure 'Multicast', then configure all ports to 'Force Multicast'. This setup solves the problem - the "FF:FB:5C..." frames are now forwarded by all 8 ports.
However, as soon as I disconnect and then re-link a port, that forwarding stops working until I re-visit the Force Multicast setting and re-issue it. So I have no idea what is going on with this switch.
