I have a connected a router (D-Link DIR-655) to a Sitecom 8-port Switch.
If I put all computer/printer cables into the switch and only one cable to connect the router with the switch, everything works well.
But if I put one of the computers/printers into the router, it seemed to be that a second network is created because there's no communication possible between computers that are connected to the router and computers that are connected to the switch.
How can I solve this?
PS. I have 3 PC's, 3 Mac's and 1 Network Laserprinter.
Best Answer
You are connecting to the wrong part of the router. Routers by definition are two halves, a local side (Local area network) and a remote side (wide area network, upstream, uplink, etc). A router routes traffic between two distinct networks with different address spaces. Sometimes routers have built in switches as well. If your router has a built in switch, it is likely that this the switch ports make up the LAN half, and there is another port for the other side of the router.
If you want to combine two switches into one network where one of the switches is built into a router, you need to make sure to link into the switch/lan side of the router. If you connect your switch to the WAN port you will end up with two switches in two distinct networks. If you connect the two switches together directly they will make one contiguous network.
Sometimes you need a cross over cable to link to switches, sometimes the switches auto-detect and do the cross-over conversion internally. Keep that in mind when running a cable between two switches.