HI there,

My heart was full of joy when my boss delivered a packet to my office, it was our first cisco Cisco SG 300-10 10p Gigabit Switch.

Background info:
I'm the new IT-guy in a small/medium sized firm and would like to replace all network equipment with shiny new cisco toys. I am very new to the IT-world, as I am only 20 years old and a student(not even work related), this did not stop my boss from recruiting me though. I discovered quickly that cisco's patented technologies are worth a shot, and since most of our network-equipment is outdated anyways I thought ''why not give the market leader a shot?'' (So I shot the market leader *PANG PANG*)


PROBLEM:

No matter how I plug in the switch to my computer, I cannot seem to find the ip-adress of the switch, I work in a windows XP/Windows 7 environment. There is this standard IP-adress that is ought to work, but requests time out when I try to ping it. The switch has a console port, but I never used a port like that before so I have no idea what software is required to run the console.

One more thing: I chose for a managed switch to further increase my understanding of networking in general. This switch will be the backbone switch for all other switches in our company, I figured that it is best to start with the backbone and work my way up to edge-switches. Currently, there is no router installed in our network, although we have one...I need to gain more knowledge about it before plugging it in.

all for reading, my CCNA study guide has been delivered and I am eager to read it

Start with the admin guide it looks to have everything you need to get going. As a tip and not to be mean but always RTFM for everything you take control of first before asking questions. Others in other forums (and to an extent here) will blast your for not doing this first before asking questions.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switche ... 308-01.pdf

As for what you need to configure on it, well that is a different story for another thread. Your on a good start with the CCNA material and keep at it.

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http://blog.movingonesandzeros.net/

I do not 'love' anything about this. Use a proper title next time. Most people will not even bother to read a thread if it has no correct title

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www.mellowd.co.uk/ccie/

device should have come with a nice powder blue cable.
this is the console cable,
there are two types
db-9 to RJ45 or RJ45 to RJ45
the RJ45 to RJ45 are mostly used for OOB and a RSM
so I assume you have a db-9 to RJ45 cable
the RJ45 end goes into the switch console port
the DB-9 cable to your computers 9 pin serial port
if your computer does not have a 9 bin serial port
you can get a usb/db-9 dongle
use a terminal application i.e. putty to access the device
should be standard 9600baud 8-N-1

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"If you're good at anticipating the human mind. It leaves nothing to chance."
-Jigsaw

Yeah.... at least I found your shooting of the market leader entertaining. Pang Pang!

Pick up the Cisco Press ICND 1 and 2 books and get busy or get busy on Google.... you need to get over your fear of utilizing the console port, and fast. There is no "special" software needed to access it. You can do it with HyperTerminal, PuTTy, and others.

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Regards,

Steven King
San Diego Cisco User Group - http://www.sdcug.com
"The only time something is impossible is when you think it is." - Kevin Corbin, CCIE #11577

Hmm! I figured it out, hooked up the switch to a router and stumbled across the arp interface on the router which binds mac to ip adresses.

Soon after I entered the switch interface I felt humbled down...there is a phletora of options 'n stuff....and this all for a small business switch! I have no idea where to start!

@steven king
I have the sybex ccna guide from todd, does it get the job done or do i need icnd instead?
+
I know the network+ stuff inside out but absolutely nothing is related to the bells and whistles presented by the switch.

Yeah, I would get started on that reading ASAP. Net+ just touches the surface of CCNA...

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http://3rdlayer.wordpress.com/
See most people talk about the OSI model as having 7 layers but they don't mention layer 8 where a lot of the problems actually occur.

To start with, your approach is generally wrong. Buying a managed switch is ok to ease administration tasks but the real way to increase your understanding of networking is to start from the basic stuff trough console.

Once you figure out how to configure the switch trough CLI, you can use the interface to save time and effort but untill then, my personal reccommendation is to dig deep into those CCNA books. Good luck!