Linksys Gigabit switch EG008W

Dyslexia at ocsiC

Oh, for crying out loud!

2 January 2010. New year, new goodies. As devices in my computer closet have proliferated, they now outnumber the four ports on the back of my router, and so I bought a shiny new 8-port switch that will accommodate them and leave room for expansion.

It's a great switch, Linksys Gigabit 8-Port Workgroup Switch. I feel plural, I am a workgroup. At first glance it's a very user-friendly device: there's no setup involved, it's truly plug-and-play, and the ports on the back and the indicator LEDs on the front are clearly labeled.

Front, with clearly numbered indicator lights

Back, with clearly numbered ports

Being careful and systematic as I always am — at least at the beginning of a project — I took pencil and paper to note where the cord from each port went: 1 - Router; 5 - HP desktop; 6 - HP printer; 7 - Systemax linux box; 8 - Canon printer.

After I had finished, I was admiring my work, marveling at how easy it had all been, once I figured out which of my ethernet cables were CAT5 and which were CAT5e — it makes a difference, dontcha know.

Wait a minute! I have only one thing plugged in at that end of the switch, but there are two lights lit.

Front with lights indicating two ports in use

Back with a cord in only in the first port

Then it all became clear: the folks at Linksys numbered the ports and the lights one to eight, each left to right, but that makes port #1 corresponds to light #8.

Port to light correspondence

Number to number correspondence

Hey, Linksys by Cisco! (You may type www.linksys.com into your browser, but it will redirect to www.linksysbycisco.com.) The devil is in the details! If you're going to number things for convenience, at least get the numbers in the right order!

Now I have to make a little table to keep it all straight:

Port	Connected to	Light
1	Router	8
2		7
3		6
4	Buffalo NAS	5
5	HP EVO desktop	4
6	HP printer	3
7	Systemax desktop	2
8	Canon printer	1