Time Capsule and a bunch of switches

Question

Hi all,
I have been a PC for many years. Last fall, with the inheritance of an old iBook G4, I saw the light!
Earlier this month I bought a new Macbook Pro and a 1 TB Time Capsule. I set about to dismantle my convoluted home network and replace it with the TC.
I couldn't believe how easy it was for the TC to take over the reins on the wireless part. I simply opened the AirPort Utility. It offered to create the new network upgrading from the old. Cynical PC that I was, I said to myself, huh! The network doesn't exist anymore. Good luck! I guess it took the settings from my MBP's internal AirPort Extreme because, the next thing I knew, it was done! Not only did my MBP connect flawlessly, so did my son's Toshiba Satellite.
Thus ends the good news...
As I said, my LAN is complicated. I have a larger than normal number of Ethernet-connected devices in my home. You might call it "switchville".
The new setup looks like this:
cable modem ---> 1 TB TC (as router providing DHCP, etc.) ---> ...
...on the first TC LAN port is an HP Color Laserjet 2025dn printer (IP changed to 10.0.1.xxx subnet and works fine on wifi Mac and Windows)
...on the second TC LAN port is a 5-port Linksys switch
...on the third TC LAN port is another 5-port Linksys switch
There are Bluray players, XBox 360s, HP media server, various Windows XP/Vista wkstns, etc. on the two Linksys switches.
Also on two of the ports on the switches are other switches to accommodate multiple devices in my son's room and in the living room.
Governed by my old Linksys 8-port router and separate wi-fi access point, all this worked just fine.
Now, I can't seem to get an Internet connection on the Ethernet devices connected to the switches on the TC's LAN ports. The XP Pro SP3 wkstn I've been fighting with I'm pretty sure can connect to the TC as it does not report the old "network cable disconnected" message, although I can't seem to ping it, but I get the "limited or no connectivity" message and no Internet!
I guess what I really need to know is; is all this even kosher or am I asking the Time Capsule to do something that is impossible for it to do? And, if not, what setting(s) am I missing?
Hope this all makes sense and thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions!

Answer 1

The Time Capsule...and most other newer routers will easily provide more than 200 IP addresses to devices that need to connect, so there's no limitation there.
In most complex networks involving a number of switches, it's often a bad ethernet cable or cable(s) that are the cause of poor or no connections.
Start at the TC and work back. Disconnect everything everywhere after the TC.
Then using a laptop (wireless off) and a "good" ethernet cable, simply test each port on the TC to make sure that you can get an internet connection.
Then, before you plug the ethernet cable from one of the LAN ports on the TC into the "next" switch, plug the cable into your laptop and test again to make sure that you have a good internet connection. Then, test each of the ports on the switch.
You get the idea. You have to test each connection point one at a time working your way back to the end of the network. There are no shortcuts. You have to test each connection before moving to the next.
It's almost always either a bad cable (and I include the RJ-45 connector as part of the cable) or less likely, a switch with a bad port. If you have a collection of older ethernet cables, it's also possible that you have a 'crossover" cable mixed in somewhere. Depending on the capabilities of each switch, this can also cause a "no connection" situation.