Re: What is spanning tree?

From: Damien Hull <dhull@digitaloverload.net>
Date: Wed May 10 2006 - 13:07:31 AKDT

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Well, I don't have access to the switches. I was going to try and figure
out what was going on at one point but decided not to. Their moving soon
any way.

I'm still a little confused about STP. Here's what I know ( think I know)
1. redundant switching
2. Takes care of any loops

What I don't know
1. Is STP part of all switches ( how about soho/linksys? )
2. If it's not part of all switches should I get one that has it?
3. Should a small office of one or two switches use STP?

I'm guessing the answer to that last question is yes.

Jared Armstrong wrote:
> Not being able to find servers sounds very generic. Could be all sorts of
> things.
>
> Could be spanning tree combined with static mac address assignments. A loop
> gets created, a port with assigned macs is then disabled, and then traffic
> has nowhere to go.
>
> If you need to have static mac addresses assigned, make sure they are going
> to be on the port with the highest priority.
>
> ....and if anyone doesn't think STP is important, disable it, and go to some
> random empty office and run a patch cable from one side of the room to the
> other.
>
>
>>From: Damien Hull <dhull@digitaloverload.net>
>>To: aklug@aklug.org
>>Subject: What is spanning tree?
>>Date: Tue, 09 May 2006 12:45:17 -0800
>>
> I think this is the question I should have asked. My assumption was that
> spanning tree was part of switching. After doing some light reading on
> spanning tree, switching, and layer 2 networking I found the following.
>
> From Wikipedia
> switches can also implement spanning tree protocol allowing use of
> redundant links.
>
> This tells me that spanning tree is not part of switching. It's an add
> on protocol to get rid of redundant links.
>
> This leads me to believe that spanning tree is not the problem I
> mentioned before. The one at the high school where users can't find
> servers on the network.
>
> I now believe I have just filled my head with some geek info. On the one
> hand I have a better understanding of switching. On the other I just
> learned a lot about spanning tree that I may never use.
>
> A small office network of one or two switches doesn't need spanning
> tree. Even the high school with its 10 or so switches doesn't need
> spanning tree.
>
> I'm still a little confused.
> 1. Is spanning tree turned on by default
> 2. Do switches with VLAN support have spanning tree
>
> I ask the last question because of IEEE standard 802.1D. It includes
> both VLANs and spanning tree. However, VLANs are specified in IEEE
> standard 802.1Q. :)
>
> I wonder if this makes me sound cool or just geeky.
>
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Received on Wed May 10 13:07:59 2006

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