I recenlty picked up some used Netgear GS108T v2 switches (running latest firmware 5.4.2.33) to go along with my recently built pfSense firewall running on a HP 730t with an Intel quad port I350-T4. 🙂 I am planning on setting up some VLANs, but I haven't done that part yet. Yesterday, I tried to hook up the 3 GS108T v2 switches to my network, but I ran into an issue where my internet would completely go down. FYI, pfSense has only a Wan and a Lan with no VLANs setup; it's basically in the default configuration which worked fine when connected to my Orbi RBK50 (running latest firmware 2.7.2.102) in AP mode for the last week or so.
So I connected one GS108T to my Lan port on pfSense. Then I connected the other two GS108T switches and my Orbi RBR50 to the GS108T switch connected to the pfSense box. I then connected the Orbi RBS50 to one of the other GS108T switches. All of the switches are using the default setting with all ports untagged using VLAN 1 and PVID 1. When I try to use this configuration, my internet will stop working on wired devices, and the Orbis will do some strange things like showing offline, but still allowing some devices to connect.
So my question is, shouldn't the GS108T v2 switches work like this if I just leave all ports at the default of untagged with VLAN 1 and PVID 1? I haven't setup any VLANs on pfSense or the GS108T switches yet. I was just trying to get them to work in the most basic mode first before I tried creating any VLANs.
As a side note, I did notice previously that my Orbi RBK50 in AP mode would cause my network to go down when connected to my XB7 in router mode. I was only able to get around this by powering up the Orbi RBS first, and then booting up the RBR50. I'm not sure this is related, but thought I would mention just in case it helped. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking it might be the Orbi causing the issue, but I wanted to rule out I didn't have the GS108Ts configured incorrectly.
In the default config, the GS108Tv2 behave almost like unmanaged swtches, making a flat network on VLAN 1, all port VLAN 1 untagged, and PVID 1.
Hard to say what yo understand as "hook up the 3 GS108Tv2 switches to my network" ... do these connect the Orbi devices over a wired network?
Hi schmaku, and thanks for your reply.
So I was right in assuming the switches do act like "dumb" unmanaged switches in their default configuration.
The Orbi RBR50 is connected to the first wired GS108t switch (which is connected to pfSense lan), and the Orbi RBS50 is connected to another GS108T switch which is connected to the first GS108t swtich. There is another GS108T connected to the first GS108T, but it only has devices connected and not another Orbi satellite.
Now that I know that the GS108T switches work like unmanaged switches in their default configuration, I am starting to wonder if it's not the Orbis that are causing an issue with the setup. The Orbis (AP Mode) displayed a very similar issue when connected to my XB7 (router mode) where right after I connected the RBS (wired backhaul) to the network, the network would go down. There might be something happening on the network with the Orbis in AP mode when trying to establish a wired backhaul. I do know that I've heard from eFurry in the Orbi forum that the Orbis will cause a ARP storm right after connecting in wired backhaul, but they suppossedly settle down after a minute or two.
Is there a way to address an ARP storm on the switches if it is the culprit?
Re: 3 GS108T v2 Switches Connecting to pfSense Lan
These classic Orbi and Orbi Pro (I don't know for sure about the newer WiFi 6 ones) make use of STP to find the right path for wireless vs. wired backhaul.
In connection with Orbi, there is no other choice than using the (off-standard!) legacy STP and define a prio aka ID of 32768 on switches supporting STP/RSTP/MST.
Alternate approach could be to disable STP (read also no RSTP or MSP) and enable the "Forward BPDU while STP Disabled".
Unclear if and how this can have an impact on "edge" connected switches.
The biggest problem is that we have zero Netgear information, documentation, and assistance on these issues.
Re: 3 GS108T v2 Switches Connecting to pfSense Lan
Thanks again.
How do I define a
The default state for these switches is Spanning Tree State set to Disable with BPDU Flooding also Disable. Are you saying I could try leaving the Spanning Tree State to Disabled and then Enable BPDU flooding?
I'm not 100% sure where I would define a priority aka ID of 32768 on this switch. Do you know where this is?
Re: 3 GS108T v2 Switches Connecting to pfSense Lan
Thanks again for your help. I also found the below post where Flash008 gave some instructions on how to resolve it (basically like you mentioned), and it seems to be working.
