Cisco 2960 Issue

My newly built house has a number of data points distributed throughout with a panel in the garage to patch them to the Network Switch. In the garage I have an 8 port Cisco 2960 and Belkin switches. I patch an Atom, a Mu-so Qb and my NAS drive to the Cisco and everything else to the Belkin. I have a second 8 port Cisco 2960 between the Atom and it’s data point.

Both Cisco switches were bought second hand off an auction site and were described as factory reset. Unlike the Belkin switch they have never been Plug ’ N’ Play and have required a combination of power cycling of devices, switches and router to get running. Usually power cycling the router works but not immediately. I’ve power cycled it, gone to work with it not working and come home and everything is good, so not sure how long it’s taking except that it’s far from immediate.

A few months ago I had to take the switch between the Atom and the data point out as the Naim app could not see the living room where the Atom is. Having reestablished the path I was then able to put the Cisco 2960 back in and power cycle and keep things working. Earlier in the week and entirely randomly I could not see the NAS on my Network and both rooms with streamers could not be seen by the Naim app. The power cycling described above has not restored the path. I have had to disconnect the garage Cisco 2960 and use the Belkin (with immediate success) and haven’t got round to trying to put the Cisco back in.

I’m sure it’s obvious I have only a rudimentary knowledge of Home Networks but would welcome any simple advice. Anything even mildly technical will go straight over my head however.

A Google search for factory resetting a 2960 will show you how to restore to factory defaults (unmanaged mode). You’ll need a console cable - I bought one off eBay for a few quid.
At least doing this will confirm if the switch is faulty or not.

As said above, a factory reset should be done… but as you describe it I can’t think what could be configured on the switch to cause it work like that other than some sort of sticky ACL security.
Now because the 2960 is a managed switch you can connect to it to see exactly what is happening otherwise it is guesswork, however if you don’t have any real true IT experience, this may not be possible … but you can google it.
So I suspect
A) some previous config… do factory reset.
B) faulty Ethernet lead connecting switch, or faulty switch…feels unlikely
C) switch port interoperability… though very unlikely…

But as I say without logging onto the managed switch (which is the whole point of managed switches) it’s guess work… and if using a device like a 2960 I would learn how to do this, otherwise you may be better off with an unmanaged consumer device

As you have a second 2960, have you tried swapping them over to see if the issue is still there? At least that might tell you if one has settings that are causing this problem.
Then try a factory reset - as someone with no IT training, it took me a bit of head scratching but it’s not that bad!
Compared to an unmanaged switch, they do take a little longer to start up, but only a couple of minutes, so I assume that’s not your issue here.

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