Catalyst Express 500 series connection problems

Question

Hello! our company is currently using two 500 series switch connected to eachother using the g1/1000mbits port, a cisco router is also plugged in to one of the switches for broadband internet access. After deployment the following problems came up, we are unable to use our wireless access point even when the port is set up as being "access point" using the smartports feature, we simply cant ping the access point no matter what port type we set on the switch and we keep having the error message on the router that it has denied connection from that device, my feeling is that for some reason i'm not aware of the router is blocking certain devices to transfer data no matter what type of port we define on the smartports feature. I cant find anyway or option on the router software to disable this blocking or filtering of the data in order to connect any devices i want normally without any restrictions. for some reason the switch is not accepting connections from the access point...
Any help would be much appreciated.
Fernando - London - UK

Answer 1

Hi, well, i did disabled STP but it didnt help, i'm going to post the network topology more exactely and the settings being used so its easier to get any help as i think i missed some points about our network :) ....so here it goes :
1. All the devices and client computers are using fixed ip addresses on the range 192.168.254.x
2. Topology :
Switch number 1 connected devices:
17 client computers connected
1 printer
1 cisco router (with dhcp disabled and using fixed ip too)
1 Netgear AP using set with DHCP
Switch number 2 connected devices:
10 client computer connected
Switch 1 and 2 are connected using the G1/1000mbits uplink port
Settings being used on BOTH switches (they are both catalyst 500,same software version) :
- default vlan1 is set and enabled
- STP enabled
- IGMP snooping enabled
- all ports are enabled and set to auto mode for speed and duplex
- port Gi1 that is used to connect both switches is set as "Switch" type with smartports.
- gateway (cisco router) ip address set
- security set to "low"
- STP settings on switch 1:
currents roots: VLAN1 , priority:32768 , root port: fa24 (where the router is connected), route path:38
- STP settings on switch 2:
currents roots: VLAN1 , priority:32768 , root port: Gi1 (uplink to switch 1), route path:42
switch 1 specific settings:
- the port where the AP is connected is set using smartports as "Access Point" and the port where the printer is connected is set as "Printer" also using smartports on the switch device manager software.
- the port where the cisco router is connected is set as "router" with smartports
Facts:
- I am able to ping all the devices on the network from any computers connected to both switches.
- I am able to ping the printer from any computer connected to both switches as well.
- When AP is connected directly to the cisco router wireless clients have access to internet with no problems
- all wired client computers on both switches connect to the internet using the router without problems.
Issues:
- Cannot ping the AP from any client computer on the network
- When printing from Switch 1 clients everything goes well, but when i print from clients on Switch 2 i am unable to print as its unable to connect to the printer, however i can ping the printer on the command-line !
- When i try to plug in the network cable from the AP to its designated port on Switch 1 the network crashes !
Error messages:
When trying to print from clients on Switch 2 or when try to connect and use AP on switch 1 i get or "access denied to device connecting to portxx" or i get an STP blocking error .
Hope the picture is clearer now.
thanks once more.
Fernando.