Discussion of Cisco Catalyst 2960 series switches and miscellaneous chatter about SFP modules (started with OT posts from EtherREGEN thread)

[Superdad]

I guess it is my fault for mentioning the Cisco Catalyst WS-C2960-8TC-S (originally about $650, now about $25 on eBay) as a cheap and cheerful upgrade while folks await the radically different from anything on the planet EtherREGEN.

 

Lots of discussion ensued, including about SFP modules, etc. All of which was wildly off-topic and a distraction in the EtherREGEN thread.

 

So I have moved it all here. Feel free to continue in whatever direction you desire... 

[rickca]

6 hours ago, Superdad said:

This particular Cisco Catalyst 2960 WS-C2960-8TC-S -- originally about $600, now $22 used on eBay was a lovely and surprising enhancement to my system

OK I bought one.  For $22 on recommendation from @lmitche and @Superdad how can you go wrong?  I still want an EtherREGEN.

[davide256]

6 minutes ago, rickca said:

OK I bought one.  For $22 on recommendation from @lmitche and @Superdad how can you go wrong?  I still want an EtherREGEN.

Tag. Same here.

[charlesphoto]

The newer Cisco 2960’s can sound better - my 2017 2960L-16PS (1G) better over a 2010 2960 -8 (10/100). But even that trounces the Netgears etc. I picked up my 2960L for $155 on ebay (new almost $1k but usually half that). Using as a whole house/office switch so worth the cost. 

 

I have to say that the oM is quite possibly one of the biggest upgrades I’ve made to my system, network, digital or analog. I think no matter how one goes, oM, oR, or eR, one will see huge gains. Perhaps even most with mid-range gear such as mine. Thanks JS! 

[elan120]

2 hours ago, rickca said:

OK I bought one.  For $22 on recommendation from @lmitche and @Superdad how can you go wrong?  I still want an EtherREGEN.

It works even better in my system when using with JS-2.

[LewinskiH01]

Anybody knows if there is a meaningful difference (soundwise) between Cisco Catalyst 2960 WS-C2960-8TC-S and WS-C2960-8TC-L? Can't find a S unit around here and Cisco's website doesn't tell much. The L is Base Layer and 30W while the S is Lite Entry Layer and 20W. Whatever that means 😊

[jamesg11]

17 hours ago, rickca said:

OK I bought one.  For $22 on recommendation from @lmitche and @Superdad how can you go wrong?  I still want an EtherREGEN.

None available here in Oz. That $US22 one ships to Australia ok, ... for $US200+ shipping cost!!

[rickca]

On 6/12/2019 at 3:15 AM, Superdad said:

This particular Cisco Catalyst 2960 WS-C2960-8TC-S -- originally about $600, now $22 used on eBay was a lovely and surprising enhancement to my system (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Cisco-WS-C2960-8TC-S-Catalyst-2960-Series-8-1T-SFP-Port-Switch-LAN-Lite/282887525803?). Biggest bang for the buck I ever got. (thanks for the tip @lmitche!)

 

Good seller.  I ordered it on 6/12 and received it on 6/14.  I haven't even had a chance to plug it in yet.  For $22 I expected something totally beat up.  It looks brand new.  It will replace a ground shunted Netgear GS105.

[charlesphoto]

1 hour ago, rickca said:

Good seller.  I ordered it on 6/12 and received it on 6/14.  I haven't even had a chance to plug it in yet.  For $22 I expected something totally beat up.  It looks brand new.  It will replace a ground shunted Netgear GS105.

 

Keep in mind they take a LONG time to boot compared to instant start consumer switches. 

[stevebythebay]

3 hours ago, charlesphoto said:

 

Keep in mind they take a LONG time to boot compared to instant start consumer switches. 

Ordered one as well.  Just a question or two: does the switch from nfdtrading come with any manuals, and will resetting to factory default bring the switch to an unmanaged state?  I’d like to avoid any chance of it messing up my existing network environment.  If so, any gotcha’s in how to get to the switch so that it can be reset?  I’m assuming there’s some login userid/password and default IP or if using DHCP I”ll find it on my network easily enough.

[Tintinabulum]

My understanding is switch on without anything plugged in (except mains...), wait till the light sequence finishes (ages) sorry can’t remember the final state, important thing is not plugging anything in before it has set itself up.

 

Great box, haven’t tried optical yet, it has SFP cage.

[rickca]

I just powered it up once without any ethernet cables plugged in to make sure it POSTed OK.  Then I simply replaced my Netgear GS105 with the Cisco switch and it just worked.

 

The switch comes from NFD with nothing but the IEC power cable.  All the manuals for WS-C2960-8TC-S are available online, just google it.  If you want to clear all configurations from the switch and assign a new IP address you can do a reset.  This deletes the configuration and reboots the switch resulting in an unconfigured switch.  I didn't need to do this.

 

To reset the switch, wait for POST to finish and then press and hold the Mode button. The switch LEDs begin blinking after about 3 seconds. Continue holding down the Mode button. The LEDs stop blinking after 7 more seconds, and then the switch reboots.

 

Here's one place to start for documentation.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst2960/hardware/quick/guide/ol14970.html#wp34533

[auricgoldfinger]

40 minutes ago, rickca said:

Then I simply replaced my Netgear GS105 with the Cisco switch and it just worked. 

 

Did you hear any change?

[rickca]

4 hours ago, auricgoldfinger said:

 

Did you hear any change?

Unfortunately there are several things changing in my system at the moment.  I didn't plan it this way!  I can't give you a confident answer right now.  After things settle down I may try swapping the Netgear switch back in to compare.

 

What I really want to do is compare the Cisco to the EtherREGEN!  Alex and John have reimagined the switch.

[Afveep]

Can the optical port on this Cisco switch be used to feed an OpticalRendu (while waiting for the EtherREGEN!)? I just received mine and did a reset. It works fine for copper, but does not connect to my Optical SignatureRenduSE with the SFP supplied by Sonore.  I know that the SFP works fine as it works in the Trendnet switch with optical port. I note that the Cisco spec says that the optical port is for "uplink"; I'm not network-savy so not sure if this means that it will only connect to other switches and routers or if it can be also be used to connect to a device as well in which case maybe my Cisco has a bad optical port?

[Ben-M]

SFPs are not fun to play with. They're all supposed to meet a standard spec, but unfortunately they all only work under certain circumstances and you can never be certain what those are.

 

Usually a switch maker will brand their own SFP modules and guarantee their functionality, but once you start mixing brands there's no telling what might work.

 

So, your Cisco switch might have a bad SFP cage, but more than likely you've just stumbled upon an incompatible configuration. Not to make things sound gloomy, but I can't say what might be a working one. I'd Google the model number and something like "compatible SFP module" and see what other people have said online. 

[charlesphoto]

You need to use a Cisco (or third party Cisco coded) SFP in a Cisco switch. The Cisco SFP will work in non-Cisco devices, but not the other way around. Also, you may need to go into the switch to manage the uplink to get it to work. Mine will link, but not pass on ethernet, so I gave up and went FMC/oM to oM route (and happy I did). 

[Account Closed]

1 hour ago, Afveep said:

Can the optical port on this Cisco switch be used to feed an OpticalRendu (while waiting for the EtherREGEN!)? I just received mine and did a reset. It works fine for copper, but does not connect to my Optical SignatureRenduSE with the SFP supplied by Sonore.  I know that the SFP works fine as it works in the Trendnet switch with optical port. I note that the Cisco spec says that the optical port is for "uplink"; I'm not network-savy so not sure if this means that it will only connect to other switches and routers or if it can be also be used to connect to a device as well in which case maybe my Cisco has a bad optical port?

I think this is a 10/100 switch and the opticalRendu is Gigabit so that could also be the problem.

[Afveep]

Thanks all. Sounds like I should just wait for my EtherREGEN. My Trendnet switch works well with its SFP port with the Sonore-supplied SFPs. I figured for $22 bucks, I couldn't go wrong trying out the Cisco switch. didn't think about the Cisco SFP compatibility. Maybe I can hunt around for some used ones and experiment; looks like new Cisco-compatible 3rd party SFPs would be at least $50. 

[rickca]

18 minutes ago, bobflood said:

I think this is a 10/100 switch and the opticalRendu is Gigabit so that could also be the problem.

The documentation for the WS-C2960-8TC-S says that the 8 ports are 10/100 but the dual-purpose uplink port has 1 10/100/1000 Ethernet port OR 1 SFP-based Gigabit Ethernet port.  

 

I think you can configure the uplink port as an access port, but I haven't yet figured out how to do it.  I may not try.

[soares]

4 hours ago, Afveep said:

Can the optical port on this Cisco switch be used to feed an OpticalRendu (while waiting for the EtherREGEN!)? I just received mine and did a reset. It works fine for copper, but does not connect to my Optical SignatureRenduSE with the SFP supplied by Sonore.  I know that the SFP works fine as it works in the Trendnet switch with optical port. I note that the Cisco spec says that the optical port is for "uplink"; I'm not network-savy so not sure if this means that it will only connect to other switches and routers or if it can be also be used to connect to a device as well in which case maybe my Cisco has a bad optical port?

From what I read around, it seems that the Cisco is only compatible with Cisco's SFP. Not sure also is the oRendu will connect to Cisco.

While I am waiting for  the Etherregen I also would like to try a fiber connection with the Cisco and My TPlink FMC, but I still need to know which SFP model I should buy.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks,

Jorge 

[ericuco]

6 minutes ago, soares said:

From what I read around, it seems that the Cisco is only compatible with Cisco's SFP. Not sure also is the oRendu will connect to Cisco.

While I am waiting for  the Etherregen I also would like to try a fiber connection with the Cisco and My TPlink FMC, but I still need to know which SFP model I should buy.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks,

Jorge 

I have used Cisco 1000Base - SX, 30-1301-01 modules for several years with a variety of equipment - Intel NIC, TP Link FMC, DiabloCable switch, no name Chinese switch, Cisco switches.

 

These are easily found on ebay for less than $10 each.

 

As for the Cisco WS-C2960-8TC-S switch, I reset the switch and got it working with one of the Cisco SFP modules feeding my opticalModule (with Ethernet out to my mRendu).

[JohnSwenson]

47 minutes ago, soares said:

From what I read around, it seems that the Cisco is only compatible with Cisco's SFP. Not sure also is the oRendu will connect to Cisco.

While I am waiting for  the Etherregen I also would like to try a fiber connection with the Cisco and My TPlink FMC, but I still need to know which SFP model I should buy.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks,

Jorge 

Each SFP module (the thing you plug into the  SFP cage) contains a manufacturer ID number. The Cisco switch will only connect through a module which has the Cisco ID number! It has NOTHING to do with differences in protocol etc, purely that Cisco wants to force you to buy a Cisco module. Now some third party module makers include the Cisco ID in THEIR modules in order to fool a Cisco switch. The oR and oM do not check the manufacturer ID so it doesn't make any difference what company made the module.

 

John S.

[LewinskiH01]

On 6/12/2019 at 4:15 AM, Superdad said:

 

Well that is the point!  Though of course everyone will just have to wait to find out.   

 

I too have experienced the nice boost that a decent switch can make.  This particular Cisco Catalyst 2960 WS-C2960-8TC-S -- originally about $600, now $22 used on eBay was a lovely and surprising enhancement to my system (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Cisco-WS-C2960-8TC-S-Catalyst-2960-Series-8-1T-SFP-Port-Switch-LAN-Lite/282887525803?). Biggest bang for the buck I ever got. (thanks for the tip @lmitche!)

 

 

Are these sonic improvements with the 2960 accomplished through optics, ethernet or both?

[ericuco]

I was a bit surprised when Superdad posted the information on this Cisco switch with the pending release of the etherREGEN.

 

In any case, I bit and purchased one since is was cheap to do so. I got the switch working in my system but didn't like what I was hearing so I removed. The center vocals seemed to smeared instead of focused.

 

I have been on the fiber optic bandwagon for several years now when this all was the rage here on the forum. Miska had come out with the HQP NAA setup which meant that you needed to include networking equipment to your music system so people started experimenting and fiber optics showed nice results.

 

For me, fiber optics makes good sense because you can don't have to worry (as much) about transmitting unwanted noise and my system always sounded better.

 

Currently, my music server has an Intel NIC with an SFP port so right off the bat, the signal coming out of my server is using fiber optics. It was very simple to install the NIC into my Linux server (built for me by Small Green Computer). If you have ever installed a card into a computer, that is all there is to it. Plus Ubuntu Studio (Linux) handles updates to the Intel card as part of routine system updates which is nice.

 

From the music server, the signal goes into a no-name Chinese switch (bought from AliExpress ... Asia's Amazon) that cost about $100. The switch has 8 SFP ports and 2 RJ-45 ports. Besides the music server, the switch also connects to the opticalModule as well as to my Google Wifi meshpoint with a TP Link MC220L converting the signal to optical. So, the switch only has 3 fiber optic connections and no RJ-45 connections meaning it is fairly isolated. The switch is powered by a quality linear power supply. Yes, I understand the issue with cheap clocks but ...

 

My advice is to go with fiber optics as much as possible. The cables for fiber optics are dirt cheap when compared to CAT 6, 6A, 7 cables plus they are much thinner and flexible so easier to route. There are a lot of used SFP modules available on ebay for cheap so just buy a batch of what works for you (I use Cisco modules). Install a fiber optic NIC in your server ... easy to do if you server allows cards to be added.

 

Personally, I like Linux and not sure why more people don't. Heck of a lot cheaper (Linux is free) with as good as if not better sound that a Win or Apple computer. With Ubuntu Studio, the GUI (graphical user interface) is easy to use for basic functions, very similar to Windows or Apple OS. From my understanding all of the Sonore units are running some form of Linux.