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COPYRIGHT & TRADEMARKS
Copyright © 2000 Linksys, All Rights Reserved. Instant EtherFast is a registered trade-
mark of Linksys. Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are registered trademarks
of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and brand names are the property of
their respective proprietors.
LIMITED WARRANTY
Linksys guarantees that every EtherFast 10/100 12-Port, 16-Port, and 24-Port Switch is
free from physical defects in material and workmanship under normal use for five (5)
years from the date of purchase. If the product proves defective during this warranty
period, call Linksys Customer Support in order to obtain a Return Authorization num-
ber. BE SURE TO HAVE YOUR PROOF OF PURCHASE ON HAND WHEN CALLING.
RETURN REQUESTS CANNOT BE PROCESSED WITHOUT PROOF OF PUR-
CHASE. When returning a product, mark the Return Authorization number clearly on
the outside of the package and include your original proof of purchase.
IN NO EVENT SHALL LINKSYS’ LIABILITY EXCEED THE PRICE PAID FOR THE
PRODUCT FROM DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUEN-
TIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THE PRODUCT, ITS ACCOMPA-
NYING SOFTWARE, OR ITS DOCUMENTATION. Linksys makes no warranty or rep-
resentation, expressed, implied, or statutory, with respect to its products or the contents
or use of this documentation and all accompanying software, and specifically disclaims
its quality, performance, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. Linksys
reserves the right to revise or update its products, software, or documentation without
obligation to notify any individual or entity. Please direct all inquiries to:
Linksys P.O. Box 18558, Irvine, CA 92623.
FCC STATEMENT
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digi-
tal device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide
reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This
equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed
and used according to the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio com-
munications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a partic-
ular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television
reception, which is found by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged
to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:
• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna
• Increase the separation between the equipment or device
• Connect the equipment to an outlet other than the receiver’s
• Consult a dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for
assistance
002 Contents
Introduction
2
Planning Your Network
6
Installing the Switch
8
Mounting Your Switch to a Rack
8
Connecting Nodes to the Switch
8
Powering on the Switch
9
Appendix
10
LED Displays
10
Expanding Your Switch
11
Installing Expansion Modules
12
Fiber Module Specifications and Distance Rules
13
Specifications
14
Twisted Pair Wiring
15
Customer Support
16 Introduction
Congratulations on purchasing your new EtherFast 10/100 Dual-Speed
Switch for your network's 10/100 migration needs. Ready to run right out
of the box, the EtherFast 10/100 Dual-Speed Switch is the easiest, most
flexible way to boost your network's performance with full duplex data
transfer and dedicated bandwidth to each of your nodes while migrating to
the power of Fast Ethernet. Unlike a standard hub that wastes network
bandwidth by bouncing packets around until they finally reach their desti-
nations, a switch forwards packets only to their intended recipients, imme-
diately reducing network traffic congestion and improving overall efficien-
cy for your entire network.
Whether you're planning on moving to a Fast Ethernet network now or
later, every Linksys EtherFast 10/100 Dual-Speed Switch is ready to go to
work for you immediately. Use its switching power on your 10BaseT net-
work to improve traffic efficiency tremendously. Connect your file server
to the switch to improve access times for all of your users in one step. And
when you're ready, migrate your entire network to 100BaseTX while using
switching to achieve full duplex speeds of up to 200Mbps – the speed is
yours!
Every 12, 16, and 24-Port Switch comes with a built-in expansion slot.
Now you can take advantage of the biggest craze in high-speed networking
technology -- fiber optics! The 100BaseFX Distance Extender Module lets
you uplink to fiber backbones and send your data up to 2 kilometers --
that’s 2000 meters (6560 feet).
Every switch packs a full suite of error detection and correction features
for reliable communication every time. Auto partitioning, data collision
control, and incoming frame retiming ensure that not a single bit of data is
lost, even during the heaviest moments of network traffic. Built to last,
your new switch is optimized to deliver high-end video, multimedia, data-
base, and other speed-intensive applications at blazing speeds.
2 About Fast Ethernet
As the demand for desktop video, multimedia development, imaging, and
other speed-intensive applications continues to rise, the need for high per-
formance, fault tolerant LAN technology will become more critical.
Standard Ethernet, which has been the most popular networking technolo-
gy to date with a maximum data throughput of 10 Mbps, is becoming
insufficient to handle the latest video, multimedia, and other speed-inten-
sive client/server LAN applications.
Among the proposed solutions to the dilemma of network speed, Fast
Ethernet has emerged as the most viable and economical. Capable of send-
ing and receiving data at 100 Mbps (megabits per second), it is more than
fast enough to handle even the most demanding video and other real-time
applications.
Although there are a number of different competing Fast Ethernet imple-
mentations, 100BaseTX is by far the most popular. Operating on two pairs
of Category 5 unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cabling, 100BaseTX supports
high speed signaling and is relatively inexpensive. Because it uses four
wires for data transmission and the same packet format, packet length,
error control, and management information as 10BaseT, 100BaseTX can
be made to communicate with older 10BaseT equipment when routed
through a switch.
This scalability is one of 100BaseTX's major advantages over other forms
of Fast Ethernet: it allows critical, speed-dependent network segments to
be upgraded to 100BaseTX speeds as needed without rewiring, refitting,
and retraining an entire site. Heterogeneous networks can now mix both
slow and fast network segments for different users or for different depart-
ments. Publishing, R&D, video, multimedia, or accounting departments
can enjoy a 100Mbps pace, while other corporate segments can operate at
slower and more economic 10Mbps speeds.
A network without a switch is often called a shared-bandwidth network
because the net's overall bandwidth is shared among all of the nodes –
each PC, file server, or other node gets a piece of the bandwidth. In a
shared network, data packets are sent to all available nodes until they fall
upon their destination. Much of the bandwidth, consequently, is wasted
because some packets have to spend time "looking" for their destinations.
3 Switched Ethernet
, by contrast, is closer to the notion of individual tele-
phone lines: a switching hub examines the incoming MAC addresses of
network packets and forwards them directly to their destinations without
repetition, reducing bandwidth waste and resulting in more predictable net-
work performance. Each node receives its own full-speed pipeline -- band-
width isn't divided up. Switched Ethernet can improve data transfer speeds
and overall efficiency for 10BaseT networks, 100Mbps networks, or both.
The Advantages of Switching
The two main advantages of using a switch like the 10/100 Dual-Speed
Switch are migration and performance boosts.
100BaseTX and 10BaseT networks are not automatically compatible with
each other. Because of their different speeds, their hardware is not readily
interchangable – a 10BaseT network adapter, for example, cannot be con-
nected directly to a 100BaseTX network segment. By using a switch,
10BaseT and 100BaseTX hardware can be made to communicate with
each other so you don't need to discard your slower 10Mbps network hard-
ware as you migrate to Fast Ethernet.
As for performance, switching technology boosts any network's efficiency
right away. A network without a switch is called a shared network, which
means that the network's total bandwidth is equal to its speed divided
by the number of users who are actively using the net. A switched net-
work, by contrast, gives each user a full-speed pipeline that isn't shared by
any other users, which causes an immediate speed and/or efficiency
increase of up to 80%.
4 Here are some scenarios in which a switch can be applied:
· Speeding up a 10BaseT Network
On a 10BaseT network, you might connect users to one of the switch's
10/100 ports and the file server to the other, allowing the server to service
more users faster because it enjoys its own switched pipeline into the net-
work.
· Mixing 10BaseT with 100BaseTX
10BaseT and 100BaseTX hardware not readily compatible with each other.
With a switch you can create 10Mbps network segments for servicing
users that don't need tremendous speed, and 100Mbps segments for users
who depend on graphics, video, multimedia, database, or other speedy
applications.
· Adding 10Mbps Network Peripherals
In addition, since 100BaseTX is a relatively new standard, there aren't as
many network peripherals available for it as the