Inexpensive Switch that allows locking ports to half duplex?

[lseats]

I asked this in this thread about the MVP load problems:

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=16793

But I would also like to ask here if anyone knows of an inexpensive switch that allows you to lock ports to half duplex. If the read the post linked above you will know why I'm looking.

10/100 will do, but if anyone knows of one that supports gigbit that would be even beter as it would be more versitile on my network.

[bgowland]

Not sure I follow your reasoning.

Do you switch off your MVP everytime you've finished using it (at the wall socket I mean)? The only time I have to go through downloading the dongle.bin is when I've done that and I'm usually around to make sure it all loads up so WAF isn't an issue. My MVP is always just put into standby using the remote and brings up the GB-PVR screen within around 2 seconds of bringing it out of standby.

My PVR is connected using a Netgear FA120 USB adapter to my router and another port on the router is connected to the MVP. I've never messed with full/half duplex or 10/100 speeds - they all just do it.

Cheers,
Brian

[lseats]

Not sure I follow your reasoning.

Do you switch off your MVP everytime you've finished using it (at the wall socket I mean)? The only time I have to go through downloading the dongle.bin is when I've done that and I'm usually around to make sure it all loads up so WAF isn't an issue. My MVP is always just put into standby using the remote and brings up the GB-PVR screen within around 2 seconds of bringing it out of standby.

My PVR is connected using a Netgear FA120 USB adapter to my router and another port on the router is connected to the MVP. I've never messed with full/half duplex or 10/100 speeds - they all just do it.

Cheers,
Brian

I normally leave mine on all the time, but there are many times I need to reset them to get them to reconnect, like power outages, loading a test version of GBPVR, needing to reboot the server for some reason, etc. And with four of them it can be a pain.

With the most recent code they connect a lot better, but I just had an experience where my SMC switches would not switch to half duplex. In fact, one of them still will not after being reset -- I had to juggle connections to get all of my MVPs to load.

I also have a pair of Corinex AV200 powerline Ethernet adapters and I just figured out that the reason I could not use them with the MVPs before is that they will not go into half duplex. If I get a switch where I can lock a port to half duplex I can use that between the AV200 and the MVP. Using a cheap little Linksys switch I was able to get the MVP to load with another network connection and then quickly switch the wires to the the AV200 and it worked great.

[lseats]

I asked this in this thread about the MVP load problems:

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=16793

But I would also like to ask here if anyone knows of an inexpensive switch that allows you to lock ports to half duplex. If the read the post linked above you will know why I'm looking.

10/100 will do, but if anyone knows of one that supports gigbit that would be even beter as it would be more versitile on my network.

I'll answer my own question here in case anyone else is in the market for a relatively inexpensive managed switch. I ordered a Dell PowerConnect 2708 for $76 US. It has eight 10/100/1000 ports and can be managed with a Web browser and allows you to set port parameters. You can find it here:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/pro...l=en&s=bsd

The main reason I'm getting this is to allow me to use my Corinex AV200 powerline Ethernet adapters that simply will not let the MVP load even with an unmanaged switch between the AV200 and the MVP.

I'll post back here once I get it and have had a chance to test it out so that anyone else with this problem will know if this provides a solution.

[lseats]

I received my Dell 2708 switch yesterday and it did the trick. I hooked it up first without locking the port to half duplex and and put it between the Corinex AV200 and the MVP. The MVP would not finish loading. I locked the port to half duplex and the MVP loaded without a problem and streamed just fine.

One interesting note -- before I locked the port to half duplex, I noticed that the Web interface said it was already on half duplex, but the MVP wouldn't finish loading. My suspicion is that it took too long for he switch to go to half duplex and that is what kept it from finishing.

BTW, if anyone has a recent firmware update for the Corinex AV200 powerline Ethernet please PM or email me. I suspect they do have one, but don't have it listed on their Website, and support has been no help at all.