Hey all, quick question:
I’m using a Netgear Orbi mesh network so there’s limited LAN ports on the router. I have a Netgear 8 Port UNMANAGED switch (GS308) to connect my various hubs (Flic, Lutron Caseta Pro, SmartThings, HE,) and a couple Raspberry Pi’s.
All hubs and the Pi’s have static IP assigned via the router.
I have zero problems with most all of the devices connecting via the switch and provisioning on the network with their assigned IP’s.
Except the Hubitat Elevation C7 and the Lutron Pro.
They work direct to the router
The ports work fine with other devices
Neither will provision even if solo device on switch.
Neither will fetch a new IP via the switch if I remove the static assignment
I’ve tried power cycling switch then device, device then switch and various combos
Any ideas? Right now I’m one port shy from being able to get all my stuff into the temporary rack I built in the new space for my network gear and it’s holding up work having the Lutron hub being the sole holdout in the old location.
I'm not sure what the status of this is currently, but some Hubitat hubs (C-5 and newer, I think?) have historically had problems with auto-negotiation on some network switches, with a few Netgear models being the top culprits. The Settings > Networking page allows you to change this option under "Set Ethernet speed" (if you search old posts, you may find a hidden "endpoint"/URL you used to have to do to get the same result--no need for that anymore). If this is the problem, this should help you. If not...at least you've ruled it out!
The Lutron thing must be a separate issue, of course; I haven't heard about similar issues there, at least not with the Smart Bridge Pro you might use for Caseta. (My RA2 Main Repeater is very picky and one of few devices I had to assign a static IP address for directly on the device, but I don't recall that issue with Caseta.)
The GS308 should work fine. The Hubitat hub uses the slower 100 Mbps networking protocol, but your Gbps switch should be backward compatible. It should not matter whether your Hubitat is plugged directly into the hub or into an unmanaged switch.
The nice thing about a network switch as compared to a network hub is that it allocates the available bandwidth (in this case 1 Gbps) as needed by the various connected devices based on demand. A network hub sends all signals to all hubs, making it less efficient. Hubs are were common in the early days of Internet, but switches are a much better alternative, especially with those with a large number of devices.
A managed hub is great where the network administrator needs to give specific channels priority, but that is a feature you are unlikely to need in your home network.
Just as a data point, I have a C-7 and a C-5 on two different GS-108 switches. No problem. Both are set to Fixed 100mbps on the Hubitat hub in Settings. I realize it’s not the exact same hub as yours, but it’s similar.
If the switch meets IEEE specifications, then it should be backwards compatible. If you have an off-brand switch, it might not meet specs. If you had a network hub rather than a switch, it might not be compatible since a hub tries to send all data to all ports. Even newer multi-gig network switches should be able to handle a 100 mbps device.
