Uplinking the 5-Port Hub

The EtherFast 5-Port Auto-Sensing Hub has a special switched uplink port with it’s own distance extension capabilities. If you are mixing 10Mbps and 100Mbps hardware on your 5-Port hub, the hub can be uplinked to other 100Mbps hubs at a distance of 5 meters (16.4 feet) -- just like other hubs.

However, if all ports on your 5-Port Auto-Sensing hub are running at 100Mbps, then the uplink port automatically becomes capable of sending data over an uplink cable of up to 100 meters (328 feet). The LED marked ‘SW’ will light up, indicating that a 100 meter uplink can be established. Please note that in order for the distance extending switch to become active, all four remaining ports on your 5-Port hub must be running at 100Mbps, (remember that one port on the hub is lost when the hub is uplinked). This feature is only present on the 5-Port Auto-Sensing hub. All other auto-sensing hubs can only be uplinked using 5 meter cables when connecting to 100Mbps Fast Ethernet hubs.