no link between 2 M245 switches on a 100Mbps cable

[shoval_k92]

Hello all,

I have 2  M4250-10G2F managed switches that I wish to connect via 100Mbps cable.

The cable is made of 2 twisted pairs and therefore limited to 100Mbps speed.

As I connect the cable, I can see that there is no link between the 2 connected ports (no LED activity and the link is DOWN via the terminal).

However, if I disable auto-negotiation and set the speed to 100 the Link is UP and there is LED activity.

Has anyone encountered this kind of behavior? Is this the normal for managed switches?

I Am still a newbie and still learning.

[schumaku]

This could be a minor flaw - caused by the switch link auto detection, or by unlucky cable quality for example. Keep in mind this would be a very niche situation, most users expect reliable link negotiation in the 1 Gb/s ... 2.5 Gb/s on fully standard compliant cables.

Let's see if Netgear community support will chime in here, and does provide some more insight.

To answer your question: I'm aware some smart switch models PHY chips don't support Fast Ethernet. This is not the case here.