ZyXEL Communications MES3500-24F User Manual

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Chapter 3 Hardware Overview
MES3500-24/24F User’s Guide
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Connect the male 9-pin end of the console cable to the console port of the Switch. Connect the 
female end to a serial port (COM1, COM2 or other COM port) of your computer. 
3.1.2  Ethernet Ports 
The Switch has 24 10/100 Mbps auto-negotiating, auto-crossover Ethernet ports. In 10/100 Mbps 
Fast Ethernet, the speed can be 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps and the duplex mode can be half duplex or 
full duplex. 
An auto-negotiating port can detect and adjust to the optimum Ethernet speed (10/100 Mbps) and 
duplex mode (full duplex or half duplex) of the connected device.
An auto-crossover (auto-MDI/MDI-X) port automatically works with a straight-through or crossover 
Ethernet cable.
The Switch has four 1000Base-T Ethernet ports, which are paired with a mini-GBIC slot to create a 
dual personality interface. The Switch uses up to one connection for each mini-GBIC and 1000Base-
T Ethernet pair. The mini-GBIC slots have priority over the Gigabit ports. This means that if a mini-
GBIC slot and the corresponding GbE port are connected at the same time, the GbE port will be 
disabled.
When auto-negotiation is turned on, an Ethernet port negotiates with the peer automatically to 
determine the connection speed and duplex mode. If the peer Ethernet port does not support auto-
negotiation or turns off this feature, the Switch determines the connection speed by detecting the 
signal on the cable and using half duplex mode. When the Switch’s auto-negotiation is turned off, 
an Ethernet port uses the pre-configured speed and duplex mode when making a connection, thus 
requiring you to make sure that the settings of the peer Ethernet port are the same in order to 
connect.
3.1.2.1  Default Ethernet Negotiation Settings
The factory default negotiation settings for the Gigabit ports on the Switch are:
• Speed: Auto 
• Duplex:  Auto
• Flow control: Off
• Link Aggregation: Disabled
3.1.2.2  Auto-crossover
All ports are auto-crossover, that is auto-MDIX ports (Media Dependent Interface Crossover), so 
you may use either a straight-through Ethernet cable or crossover Ethernet cable for all Gigabit port 
connections. Auto-crossover ports automatically sense whether they need to function as crossover 
or straight ports, so crossover cables can connect both computers and switches/hubs.
3.1.3  Transceiver Slots
These are slots for mini-GBIC (Gigabit Interface Converter) transceivers or 100 Mbps Small Form-
factor Pluggable (SFP) transceivers. A transceiver is a single unit that houses a transmitter and a 
receiver. The Switch does not come with transceivers. You must use transceivers that comply with 
the SFP Transceiver MultiSource Agreement (MSA). See the SFF committee’s INF-8074i 
specification Rev 1.0 for details.