Cannot connect "new" to switch control panel

eiTau · August 8

Hi all, I'm about as green as it gets in terms of getting my hands dirt with hardware. I bought an OLD Netgear PoE capable GS728TPP (v1, i wish it was a v3) switch for cheap. As a quick check before I put it in the corner and wait for the time to start my main project, I tried to access the control panel of the switch, and couldn't.

Why did I buy this old piece of history? I'm working towards setting up some IP cameras for a club test facility at my college and we're trying to put it all on an isolated lan for a few reason I wont get into. The goal was to buy something cheap to get it working and upgrade from there, in going REALLY cheap i might have screwed myself a bit.

What have I done? My computer is plugged directly into the switch with NOTHING else connected to the switch or my computer's ethernet. I got a solid orange and little blinky green lights. Which to me mean it detects something (orange) and is sending data (green), could be wrong though. I reset the switch which is supposed to default to an IP of 192.168.0.239. Typing that into my browser it thinks for a while then times out:

yes i use firefox get over it.

I also found that it can use a default subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. So i tried entering 192.168.0.239/255.255.255.0 and that gave the same result.

I don't think I'm doing this wrong cause I've edited router settings before this way but that was probably 5 years ago.

Additionally, I found Netgear has two pieces of software: "Netgear discovery tool" and "Smart Control Center"

Netgear discovery tool doesn't detect anything:

idk if that IP address is one of the fun ones so i blocked it out for giggles.

Smart control center doesn't detect anything:

Same IP blocked as above, and I'm positive its the right adapter.

I also tried the netgear genie app but it would be scanning the network and not find anything as well (it would find my wifi gear and other wifi enabled devices on my network but with wifi off it wouldn't find anything).

So this brings you and me to present day, I have no clue what is wrong. The switch could be broken but again, I got a solid orange and little blinky green lights so I don't think its that. I could totally be trying to access it though the browser wrong. There could be a setting off in both the desktop and laptop I tried to access it with that I don't know about. I have no idea. please help

Edit:
Forgot to add, when i do arp -a in command line i don't get 192.168.0.239 which leads me to think it has a different static IP and I maybe didnt reset it properly or arp -a doesn't bring up switches.

Naijin · August 8

50 minutes ago, eiTau said:

Hi all, I'm about as green as it gets in terms of getting my hands dirt with hardware. I bought an OLD Netgear PoE capable GS728TPP (v1, i wish it was a v3) switch for cheap. As a quick check before I put it in the corner and wait for the time to start my main project, I tried to access the control panel of the switch, and couldn't.

Why did I buy this old piece of history? I'm working towards setting up some IP cameras for a club test facility at my college and we're trying to put it all on an isolated lan for a few reason I wont get into. The goal was to buy something cheap to get it working and upgrade from there, in going REALLY cheap i might have screwed myself a bit.

What have I done? My computer is plugged directly into the switch with NOTHING else connected to the switch or my computer's ethernet. I got a solid orange and little blinky green lights. Which to me mean it detects something (orange) and is sending data (green), could be wrong though. I reset the switch which is supposed to default to an IP of 192.168.0.239. Typing that into my browser it thinks for a while then times out:

yes i use firefox get over it.

I also found that it can use a default subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. So i tried entering 192.168.0.239/255.255.255.0 and that gave the same result.

I don't think I'm doing this wrong cause I've edited router settings before this way but that was probably 5 years ago.

Additionally, I found Netgear has two pieces of software: "Netgear discovery tool" and "Smart Control Center"

Netgear discovery tool doesn't detect anything:

idk if that IP address is one of the fun ones so i blocked it out for giggles.

Smart control center doesn't detect anything:

Same IP blocked as above, and I'm positive its the right adapter.

I also tried the netgear genie app but it would be scanning the network and not find anything as well (it would find my wifi gear and other wifi enabled devices on my network but with wifi off it wouldn't find anything).

So this brings you and me to present day, I have no clue what is wrong. The switch could be broken but again, I got a solid orange and little blinky green lights so I don't think its that. I could totally be trying to access it though the browser wrong. There could be a setting off in both the desktop and laptop I tried to access it with that I don't know about. I have no idea. please help

Edit:
Forgot to add, when i do arp -a in command line i don't get 192.168.0.239 which leads me to think it has a different static IP and I maybe didnt reset it properly or arp -a doesn't bring up switches.

Did you set a fixed IP to your PC in the same range?

eiTau · August 8

4 minutes ago, Naijin said:

Did you set a fixed IP to your PC in the same range?

Nope, ethernet settings on automatic DHCP for IP assignment and DNS server

Naijin · August 8

5 minutes ago, eiTau said:

Nope, ethernet settings on automatic DHCP for IP assignment and DNS server

Well that should explain it, a switch does not offer DHCP. If you don't set an IP address, you can't connect to your switch. Set your IP address to 192.168.0.10 for example, with 255.255.255.0 and leave DNS and gateway empty. Can you ping the switch then?

An other option is to connect the switch to your modem/router and then to your PC with DHCP, then run the Netgear discovery tool.

Modem/router > cable > switch > cable > PC

eiTau · August 8

Yes! That worked! Thank you. Why did it have to be in the same range?

DoctorNick · August 8

19 minutes ago, eiTau said:

Yes! That worked! Thank you. Why did it have to be in the same range?

Because that's how networking works. It's the same when setting up a router. You can't see a network on a different subnet, unless it's re-routed to that network, so to speak.