Question about Cisco WS-C2960S-48TS-L Uplink

Nov. 20, 2013 - PRLog -- Q: I have a Cisco WS-C2960S-48TS-L, but I don't have an SFP module for the uplink.  Can I just use one of the 48 LAN ports to connect to the upstream router?  The uplink circuit will be less than 50 Mb anyway.

A: You certainly could configure one of the 48 ports to be a trunk port to use as an uplinh port.

Q: That is what I am hoping but the Cisco documentation seems to make a very strong distinction between uplink ports and LAN ports but I can't figure out why.  Any idea why they do that?

A: Trunk port allow you to have multiple VLANs traffic to pass thru your switch/switches.  That is the big distinction.

Q: So I can't define the any of the 48-LAN ports as VLAN trunks - only the uplink ports?

A: You certainly can configure any of the 48 ports to be a trunk port.  Uplink port on any of the 48 ports does not always allow you to have multiple VLANs access.

Q: BTW, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.   I'm a little confused by what you are saying though.  It sounds like you are saying that I can have a trunk port on one of the 48 "LAN" ports but that it might not allow multiple VLANs.  This is confusing to me because I thought that allowing multiple VLANs was the meaning of a trunk port.  I'm sorry if I am misunderstanding.

A: Two things that you need to know:

- A trunk port: will allow multiple VLANs to pass thru that port when it is configured as a trunk.  If you will use one of you 48 ports as a trunk port, a failure in your switch will shut you down; this will be a disadvantage if you use one of the copport ports.

- Uplink port: Could be either copper or fiber.  If your uplink fails since connection to another node is down, that does not affect the use of the rest of the local nodes.

Another word, if you have an uplink port available, it is always more practical to configure your uplink port as a trunk port instead of using one of the 48 ports on your switch.

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