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thank you for the response... what if the 2 ports on our side are on 2 different switches but same VLAN...? &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Same scenario?
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thank you for the response... what if the 2 ports on our side are on 2 different switches but same VLAN...?      Same scenario?

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Yep. &nbsp;Same scenario. &nbsp;One of the ports on one of the switches should be blocking.
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Yep.  Same scenario.  One of the ports on one of the switches should be blocking.

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Hi there experts. &nbsp; &nbsp;I will try to describe this the best I can ... this setup is actually tested and working but what I am not sure about is whether its recommended and normal. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Or that it might cause network issues now or in the future. &nbsp; &nbsp; We have a third party product which essentially is another completely separate physical network from ours. &nbsp; &nbsp;They have there own custom network switches. &nbsp; &nbsp;We are trying to setup redundant links between our network and the third party. &nbsp; &nbsp; The third party network is not manageable so no configuration is possible. &nbsp; &nbsp;We were advised to just enable Spanning Tree on our switches and plug in 2 ports from the same VLAN and it would work. &nbsp; Sure enough it does. &nbsp; &nbsp;However from my very basic knowledge of networking this seems wrong. &nbsp; &nbsp; It seems to be creating a loop?
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Hi there experts.    I will try to describe this the best I can ... this setup is actually tested and working but what I am not sure about is whether its recommended and normal.      Or that it might cause network issues now or in the future.     We have a third party product which essentially is another completely separate physical network from ours.    They have there own custom network switches.    We are trying to setup redundant links between our network and the third party.     The third party network is not manageable so no configuration is possible.    We were advised to just enable Spanning Tree on our switches and plug in 2 ports from the same VLAN and it would work.   Sure enough it does.    However from my very basic knowledge of networking this seems wrong.     It seems to be creating a loop?

Spanning Tree Across multiple layer 2 switches

A switch is a device that filters and forwards packets of data between LAN segments. Switches operate at the data link layer or the network layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model and therefore support any packet protocol. LANs that use switches to join segments are called switched LANs or, in the case of Ethernet networks, switched Ethernet LANs. A hub is a connection point for devices in a network. Hubs are commonly used to connect segments of a LAN. A hub contains multiple ports; when a packet arrives at one port, it is copied to the other ports so that all segments of the LAN can see all packets.

Switches / Hubs

Networking software modules are interfaced with a framework implemented on the machine's operating system that implements the networking functionality of the operating system. The best known frameworks are the TCP/IP model and the OSI model. Systems typically do not use a single protocol to handle a transmission. Instead they use a set of cooperating protocols, sometimes called a protocol family or protocol suite.[9] Some of the best known protocol suites include: IPX/SPX, X.25, AX.25, AppleTalk and TCP/IP. Other protocols indirectly related to networking include the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and its related technologies, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Domain Name Server (DNS) and other Internet protocols.

Networking Protocols

Network design and methodology, also known as network architecture, is the design of a communication network. It is a framework for the specification of a network's physical components and their functional organization and configuration, its operational principles and procedures, as well as data formats used in its operation. In telecommunication, the specification of a network architecture may also include a detailed description of products and services delivered via a communications network, as well as detailed rate and billing structures under which services are compensated.