Using a dg834gt as a switch?

Azuse05 · 15 Nov 2009 at 18:30

Rather than buy another switch I'd rather use an old dg834gt I have as a 4 port one (just for afew consoles). I've also flashed to the 1.03.22 firmware released last week, purely because the dgteams hasn't been updated for a year.

Now I've turned the dhcp off, assigned a static ip and accepted it won't pull ntp over a lan port but my router is running tomato and the gt doesn't show up on it, despite the fact I can log into the gt. Some minor poking has made it appear in tomatos device list buy turning on RIP on both devices but I have no clue what Rip actually is.

So, could someone please be kind enough to explain what RIP is, which setting I should use (currently 2M) and the effect using this will have on my lan?

Sin_Chase · 15 Nov 2009 at 20:28

If you want it to be a switch, why would you expect it to appear anywhere?

Turn off the WAN connections, disable DHCP, NAT and the Firewall and away you go. Job done.

You do not need RIP in your LAN and not being able to sync the time on a 'switch' is not really an issue!

Azuse05 · 15 Nov 2009 at 20:58

Well, doesn't it need an ip?

Sin_Chase · 15 Nov 2009 at 21:00

Nope.

Azuse05 · 16 Nov 2009 at 12:18

Well that makes things simple

Out of curiosity, why don't switches need ips?

edGfaCTor · 16 Nov 2009 at 13:50

switch your firmware back to dgteam one it is far better then netgears own ones which have loads of bugs.

switch is just like an automatic switcher so all it does is transfer the traffic to the port that needs it in simple terms so the router sends address and the switch puts the traffic in the right lane

iMacMart · 16 Nov 2009 at 16:15

Azuse05 said:
Well that makes things simple

Out of curiosity, why don't switches need ips?

We have IP's on ours at work so we can manage them and know when they are down etc

Azuse05 · 16 Nov 2009 at 18:20

It's working fine now, although it's not possible to remove it's ip completely so I just gave it one to avoid any future conflicts.

As for the dgteam, I already said it hasn't been updated in a year and it's based on the .16 firmware which is why it's stable (the only stable one netgear managed to do), while the .19 was bugged to hell. People are quite quick to forget the dgteams has it's own bugs too. In any case this new 03.22 claims to be a bug fixer while adding the nat + firewall off I want. So far it seems to have indead fixed the last versions bugs, well see how stable it is long term...

Sin_Chase · 16 Nov 2009 at 18:27

You cannot remove it's IP as it is still a router but it will work just fine as a switch now that you have conflicting roles turned off (DHCP, Firewall).