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MSutherland25

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Can't get GBIC twisted pair to work on Catalyst 3524

I have two Catalyst 3524-PWR-XL switches and purchased some twisted pair GBICs (Prolabs) and connected them together via a Cat 6 certified cross over cable. I can get no link and the ports are enabled with auto everything. Even plugging in a server with a gigabit port with a Cat6 straight through cable also resulting in no link. The switches are running IOS 12.0(5.3)WC(1), MAINTENANCE INTERIM SOFTWARE. Is it because I'm not using genuine Cisco parts or am I making some big mistake somewhere? Help would be much appreciated.

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grblades
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My guess is that you dont have a gigabit compatible crossover cable.
Gigabit uses all 4 pairs of wires so a gigabit crossover needs all 4 pairs crossed. Mosy normal crossover cable have 2 pairs crossed but the other two wired straight through.

Hold both ends of the cable so that plugs are both pointing away from you. Look at the wire on pin 8 (right most one). Are they the same colour? If so then it is wired straight through and not compatible.
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MSutherland25

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I totally forgot that Gigabit uses all 4 pairs. Futher reading suggests that perhaps a straight through cable would be fine since most Gigabit ports can auto MDI. Do you know if that is the case for the Cisco 1000Base-T GBICs?
I know the built in copper gigabit port in a 2950 switch could not auto MDI. Dont know about the GBIC but I would guess not.
I have had issue trying to use other vendors GBIC's and SFP's in Cisco gear.  Cisco likes you to pay $$ for theirs.  There are some that are certified and will work.  Other interesting thing is that the 3524 doesn't list support for 1000Base-T.  That switch was discontinued before there were many T GBIC's available.

Text from Cisco's site:

The Catalyst 3524-PWR XL switch has the following key features:
24 autosensing 10/100 Ethernet ports: full-duplex operation delivering up to 200 Mbps.

Two fixed GBIC-based Gigabit Ethernet ports: full-duplex operation delivering up to 2 Gbps, supports one full-duplex link (in a point-to-point configuration) or nine half-duplex links (in a stack configuration).

IEEE 802.1p support: dual-priority forwarding queues on each 10/100 and Gigabit Ethernet port, enabling network traffic prioritization and seamless data, voice, and video integration.

IEEE 802.3z compliance and support for Cisco GBIC modules:

GigaStack GBIC: for creating a 1-Gbps stack configuration of up to nine Catalyst 3500 XL switches; the maximum distance for a GigaStack GBIC-to-GigaStack GBIC connection is 1 m.

1000BASE-SX GBIC module: for fiber connections of up to 550 m.
1000BASE-LX/LH GBIC module: for fiber connections of up to 10 km.
1000BASE-ZX GBIC module: for fiber connections of up to 100 km.

4 MB memory architecture shared by all ports
8-MB DRAM and 4-MB Flash memory
8192 MAC addresses
 
Standards
IEEE 802.3x full duplex on 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, and 100BASE-X ports
IEEE 802.1D Spanning-Tree Protocol
IEEE 802.1p CoS prioritization
IEEE 802.1Q VLAN
IEEE 802.3z 1000BASE-X specification
1000BASE-X (GBIC)
1000BASE-SX
1000BASE-LX/LH
1000BASE-ZX
IEEE 802.3u 100BASE-TX specification
IEEE 802.3 10BASE-T specification
 
I did find another Cisco page which indicated that the IOS version that my 3524XL_PWR_XL contained does support the Cisco 1000Base-T GBIC even though these only became available some time after the switch. The GBIC manufacturer has suggested that the IOS must be dated 2002 onwards to work properly, so I am just about to update and will report back. Thank you for your comments so far
I have upgraded the software and the GBIC Ts now work. Thank you
Congratulations! Glad it worked out for you.
Second abandoned question from MSutherland25 that I have seen today.
jfrady - please don't get upset with no points awarded to two of my questions. In this case you simply told me that the switch does not support 1000Base-T GBICs. A different Cisco document says this is not the case, the supplier of the GBICs assured me that it was not the case and a software upgrade did solve the problem. Thank you for your contributions
I agree completely with the outcome of this question.  And am certainly not upset as I just provided a suggestion to another of your questions.  I'm glad you were able to resolve the issue.
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GranMod

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