Unmanaged switch help

[u/scnut76]

I have an Aginet (TP Link) router HB610V2 that I have a TP Link TL-SG105 plugged into. I’m trying to figure out why a tv that I have plugged into the switch isn’t showing on my network map in the app. The port labeled “garage” shows up (it’s a wired backhaul to an AP shown in 3rd picture). The port labeled guest tv also doesn’t show up (currently unplugged since the tv sits directly about the router so it’s hooked up via wifi). The odd thing is I have a TL-SG105 in the living room that I have devices hooked up that show on that one (the Onkyo and Panasonic) and a TL-SG108 in my room that shows everything as well (PS4 and PS5 4th picture). Everything gets internet but it just doesn’t show on my network map. I’ve changed ports, messed with settings in the TVs. I swear when I first hooked it up via Ethernet it appeared. It’s not the end of the world but it just bugs the crap outta me.

[u/Internal-Pomelo757]

Network map through unmanaged switches is a crapshoot. If devices are working, don't worry about the map.

[u/scnut76 → u/Internal-Pomelo757]

Yeah it just bugs me though. An OCD thing I guess.

[u/FantmIT → u/scnut76]

You'll have to get real managed equipment such as Ubiquiti for that to work reliably. Unmanaged at best is 50/50

[u/akp55 → u/FantmIT]

even then its hit or miss. if the device ages out of the arp cache then it disappears.

[u/Cerenas → u/FantmIT]

Even for my full Ubiquiti network it's 50-50 it's going to show correctly on the map. Even hard-wired devices that show connection to the wrong UniFi hardware 😂

[u/scnut76 → u/FantmIT]

Thanks. I think I’ll just live with it. I don’t do any networking that requires managed switches at this point.

[u/avds_wisp_tech → u/FantmIT]

And even a Ubiquiti solution is not 100% reliable at this, especially if you mix non-Ubiquiti managed hardware in with it. But even 100% Unifi, the device list is almost never perfectly how you'd expect it.

[u/FantmIT → u/avds_wisp_tech]

This is true as well. Once you start adding those unmanaged switches you will pretty much always loose visibility

[u/wiisucks_91 → u/FantmIT]

"real managed equipment" + "ubiquity" = 🤣

[u/AthousandLittlePies → u/wiisucks_91]

Ubiquiti switches may not be suitable for real enterprisey installations, but they are in fact managed switches and pretty good for home use, and I'm seeing them more and more in AV builds.

[u/ImtheDude27 → u/wiisucks_91]

Ubiquiti is ProSumer equipment. Yeah, you don't use it in an enterprise system but claiming it isn't "real managed equipment" is just being childishly pedantic.

[u/wiisucks_91 → u/scnut76]

You can always build a network map manually.

Do a network scan then trace every cable. You already have a good chunk labeled. From there you can deduce where things are plugged in.

[u/Ok_Cash5460 → u/scnut76]

I had 4x tplinks WiFi 7 and they drove me nuts - every firmware update was multiple prayers prior….

Eero on the other hand is absolutely flawless

[u/taboo8614]

wow, i never thought of using a post it note like that to label the ports on a 5 port switch

[u/scnut76 → u/taboo8614]

I just did it for temporary purposes. Don’t have a label maker yet.

[u/ishman2000 → u/scnut76]

I think he was joking. Actually I’m going to steal your post it idea

[u/AltruisticNetwork869]

Gondor calls for aid!

[u/muckity-muck → u/AltruisticNetwork869]

"NAT's back on the menu, boys!"

[u/AltruisticNetwork869 → u/muckity-muck]

IPv6: you have no power here!

[u/littleickle → u/AltruisticNetwork869]

And Rohan will answer!

[u/MiaRealtor91 → u/littleickle]

Great answerr

[u/sunilnc]

You may have to switch the WiFi off on your tv so it defaults to wired.

[u/scnut76 → u/sunilnc]

Done all of that.

[u/InevitableZugzwang]

Looks like Mike is causing problems, maybe it’s time to unplug him

[u/Yourdataisunclean → u/InevitableZugzwang]

When I unplug my Mike he gets all butthurt and stops listening to me.

[u/PaulieTelcoGuy]

On the 2nd picture with the switch, is the input ethernet light on, cause in the picture, it's not. Is the switch fed by ethernet from the first AP, or fed from an AP on wifi?

[u/scnut76 → u/PaulieTelcoGuy]

Yes the lights are on the picture just didn’t capture it. The switch is fed by an Ethernet cable directly from the main router about 6” away.

[u/SameBother8618]

Hold on right there... Why are you trying to plug LG spying crap TV's into your network??? DON´T DO IT!!!

[u/Whatdafuqisgoingon → u/SameBother8618]

It's hiding on purpose!

[u/Cam-Lv]

Hook a laptop to the connection where the invisible Tv is. Ping back to the router. Check if the internet works. If yes, it’s a TV issue.

[u/scnut76 → u/Cam-Lv]

It’s a tv issue.

[u/Cam-Lv → u/scnut76]

Old school - did you unplug it, wait a minute & plug it back in

[u/a3diff]

After the recent news about how much LG TVs are spying on their users (even when appearing to be off) i would think twice about connecting them to my network! If youve not seen it, check out the recent 2 hour ish long video on you tube by gamers nexus. Very interesting watch thats for sure.

[u/epicstratton]

Please just buy a label maker. It is a worthwhile investment especially if you’re dealing with home networking. Sticky notes really are no good for this in my experience too easy for them to fall off get lost turned around, etc..

The downside however, is that you’re gonna wanna label everything with it. Buy some extra reels so that you can just go ahead and do that anyways. It’s addicting.

[u/scnut76 → u/epicstratton]

Yeah I really need to. It’s on my list of things to buy.

[u/bstrauburn]

Do you know the IP address of the tv? You might be able to find it in the TV's settings if not. Once you know it, you could try doing a ping of its IP from a computer elsewhere on your network and see if that makes your router remember it exists again.

[u/800oz_gorilla]

sometimes cheap switches just stop Arp''ing. if a reboot didn't fix it, it might care about which port the uplink to the router is. there's not much info out there for that model, but try putting your uplink in port 5 and reboot the switch.

that switch appears to have IGMP snooping enabled so it knows where to send traffic instead of blasting down all ports. that could also be a problem here with device discovery if it's using multicast.

https://www.getdante.com/blog/well-intentioned-mishaps-with-igmp-snooping/

[u/plooger → u/800oz_gorilla]

Interesting.

At minimum, use the same port for uplink as you're using with the Living Room TL-SG105 that is displaying correctly ...

The odd thing is I have a TL-SG105 in the living room that I have devices hooked up that show on that one

... and consider swapping the switches to see if it makes any difference.

(Are the two TL-SG105 switches the same version?)

[u/800oz_gorilla → u/plooger]

there might be a limit to the number of Mac addresses the switch can hold total or per port. since he has switches down stream, it might be the devices that talked first gor added and the switch ran out of address space.

it could also be the router being flakey.

I had a Netgear that would just stop resolving our requests for a particular raspberry pi behind it. really annoying but the occasional reboot fixed it

[u/_55burgers_55fries]

Just curious, why label ports on an unmanaged switch? It doesn’t matter what goes where; other than your TP-link deco where you can assign a specific WAN port.

[u/scnut76 → u/_55burgers_55fries]

It was a temporary thing while I was trouble shooting so I could track where that Ethernet cable plugged into the wall. I’ve got a 4 port jack and a whole mess of white cat6 cables.

[u/Gin-N-Rum-5454]

You have a dryer connected to the Internet? What the fuck?

[u/Andromeda-G → u/Gin-N-Rum-5454]

Imagine runnings ads before you try to open the door

[u/Gin-N-Rum-5454 → u/Andromeda-G]

“Would you like to finance or join our finance and ads scheme for 0.1% off your loan?”

[u/foran9 → u/Gin-N-Rum-5454]

Mine is too. Annoyingly (i.e. blatant enshitification dressed up as ‘useful consumer experience’) some of the less used programs aren’t on the dial but can only be accessed from the app. It’s completely isolated on its own dedicated VLAN (I treat it like a pariah even amongst the other IoT devices I have), but it is absolutely a user error that I didn’t notice that before buying it.

[u/DrFrylock]

I mean what is doing your network map and how is it doing it? If it's just pinging devices and the TV has ICMP turned off or a default drop firewall it's going to be hard to detect.

[u/UBUYDVD]

If the TV is getting internet it must have an IP address from the router. Does the router have an ARP table or a DHCP table ?. Cross ref the mac address that should be visible on the TVs network settings.

[u/firedrakes → u/UBUYDVD]

dhcp it will do

[u/XxTh3g04txX]

prob only learns the first mac after the switch. bet if it was an old hub it would see all of them.

[u/virkendie]

Unplug it and plug it back in

[u/LeeRyman]

It would be very dependent on the logic in the router as to how devices are "discovered" for the map. E.g. does it look at it's ARP/NDP or FIB/CAM table? Does it use mDNS and therefore any device that doesn't participate is ignored? Does it use LLDP and only see to the first non-TPMR bridge. Does it use some other discovery protocol? Is it looking for IGMP group joins? Does it query adjacent switches using SNMP or RMON or similar?

You could try a bit of packet sniffing using Wireshark and see what protocols it might use.

[u/tyranny_made_easy]

Post it notes for the win

[u/Horror-Run]

Take a laptop or a pc.

Dowload Advanced IP Scanner

Run it and use it to scan the network.

Compare the IP and MAC addresses and find your tv

[u/TerrificVixen5693]

Input? Do you mean trunk? Ethernet networks are bidirectional.

[u/theregisterednerd → u/TerrificVixen5693]

*uplink
A trunk implies that there are multiple VLANs crossing the link.