From the course: Troubleshooting Network Connectivity
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Switching loop
- [Instructor] Switching loops are the bane of every Layer Two network, and will absolutely ruin your day. If protection mechanisms don't kick in, you can expect heavy packet loss if you're lucky. If you aren't lucky, you can expect every connected switch to become unresponsive. Most often, a loop will begin when a user has a free cable connected to a wall port. For some reason, when a user sees a dangling cable, they feel the need to plug it in somewhere, and that can be another open wall port. Loops can also be seen from VoIP phones. Somes phones have an additional ethernet port allowing users to piggyback their computers off of the phone. If this piggyback port is plugged back into the switch, it can cause a loop. When connecting switches together, if multiple ports are connected and STP or bonding isn't properly configured, then a loop can occur. It may sometimes seem that it's easier to create loops than to prevent them. I'll first start by saying don't use unmanaged switches in…
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