I wasn’t convinced by the EE8 hype, then I borrowed one from the dealer, and there was a definitely uplift in SQ, more so than when I changed the power cables for Powerlines, so I brought one
Borrow an EE8 when you feel system is under control. Few if any seem to return them. Next level is adding Farad 3 power supply to it for another big uplift.
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Thanks, that all makes sense. Will wait and see and let things setlle done. Like I said I may take the Cisco out completely. Early days yet.
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An expensive Ethernet cable for the connection to the streamer might sound better to you, but the important point is that the whole thing should be always stable with the cheapest Ethernet cable that is made to spec and if it isn’t stable, putting in even £1 million Ethernet cables won’t help at all.
Yes. This is why I will leave things as they are and next port of call if there are further problems is to take Cisco switch out completely. I think this is best. And give it a month or so and then maybe buy shorter runs of BJC from router to ND5XS2 and NAS to router and see how I get on.
I haven’t read every post but if you purchased the 2960 second hand you may want to factory reset it.
I have a 2960 and ee8 and they are both rock solid.
Doing a reset? How do you do that? Tbh. I am not a network expert.
Five months ago I bought a Primare NP5 streamer. Initially I used a basic Netgear switch before the NP5, absolutely rock solid, no problem connecting to the streamer.
However, after reading how good the 2960 is, I bought one on eBay (pre owned).
It was removed after a couple of days, connectivity kept failing and I thought it was running a bit hot.
Although to be fair, it increased clarity a little.
Sorry I’m not in front of mine (I’m at work). Search this site or google. I know there have been folks here that have done a factory reset.
Tbh. It works fine now by taking out the ND5XS2 and NAS feom the switch. I don’t have laptop so won’t be able to do a reset on Cisco. It’s an old switch. These switches seem like trouble to me unless brand new. Reseting, reconfiguring. If you know about networks and have the computers and savy then fair enough to tinker. I am not into that.
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IIRC you hold the ‘Mode’ button for more than 10 seconds and it will restore factory defaults - ensure you leave it for quite a while after doing this as it does a couple of reboots. Worth a quick google. I did it without using the Console cable
It will get an IP address, and you can connect via a browser http://192.168.?.? - in fact you could try that now without a reset and see what you get.
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I do not have a laptop! So how will I get that information?
Glad you have a workaround. I use my 2960 primarily for Networking only throughout the house. The real magic switch for me is the EE8. I only have my Naim gear attached to it but there are 3 extra unused ports.
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Actually you dont, just thought it would be interesting to see.
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Just so you know Dan. The Netgear switch we recommend is just 20-25GBP and plug n play. High value switch.
Hello Dan. I had all sorts of problems with a Cisco 2960 last year. Things were dropping off the network and it took hours to get them back. Sometimes Naim streamers would disappear in the evening and reappear in the morning, all very odd. I got rid of the 2960 and bought a simple current Cisco small business unmanaged switch; I need a switch because the router has only one output. This switch handles the main connections in the house and has been no trouble at all, and compared to the power guzzling 2960 is very energy efficient.
I then have an EE 8 switch connected to the Cisco, the Nova and the NAS, using Chord Clearway streaming cables. The rest of the cabling is Blue Jeans Cat 6A. The EE does work well, making things sound a bit nicer, which is the only way to describe it. I had one previously and managed to convince myself that it was pointless, but after it had gone I missed it. So I bought another and the niceness returned.
It’s a setup that works well and is not silly money. The three Chord cables cost about £300, and the Cisco small business switch about £50, with the EE on top of course.
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Just been at dealers and we discussed the switch and they think it benefits a good streaming set up suggested the EE8.
I have taken to Cisco out completely as it was still feeding the TV and sky box and so on.
So currently no switch. All cables are Blue Jeans Cables.
Will see if getting rid of switch settles down the network. Early days yet.
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Hi Dan - I used the 2960 for quite a while. It’s a very decent switch and its diagnostics and network statistics have been very useful. I used it as my main switch in my office along with all the other network gear, daisy chained to an EE8 (later on replaced by a PhoenixNET) that sit in the lounge with my Hi-Fi. I only swapped out the 2960 for a Cisco Meraki GS110 switch as I needed Gigabit connectivity (and a couple of fibre ports).
I would recommend keeping the Sky Box, AV amp etc running off a decent 8 Port Gigabit switch - Netgear etc. Connect that to the Router. Get another switch, either the 2960 you have or something like an EE8. Connect that to first switch and just connect the ND5XS2 and NAS to it. Don’t sweat on the Ethernet cables too much. Get some decent unshielded CAT5e or CAT6 cables and you’ll be fine.
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I use 2960s because I wanted a couple of fibre ports!
I have 3 of them on my network, and they’ve been running with no issues at all for a few years.
Yep, nothing wrong with mine apart from it being one of the older blue models with 100Mbit ports (Gigabit trunk) and a single SFP port. Still in the cupboard and used for diagnostics when needed.