Cisco Routers and XBOX 360’s
Yeah, ok, probably a strange combination, but I run a Cisco router at home – for security, flexibility and ok, for the general geekiness of it.
Over Christmas I did a fair bit of rewiring for my home network (how difficult is it to find white CAT5e cable these days? Blimey! Thanks Universal Networks 
). But a problem appeared – my XBOX would not automatically get it’s IP address when it powered up. First I thought it was the cable, but after remaking it several times and testing it I ruled that out. Then I threw a bog standard switch in the link and it all worked fine.
WTF.
A discussion with a friend of mine this morning made the penny drop. The Cisco has spanning tree enabled by default. DOH.
A quick
no spanning-tree vlan 1
And all was well – my XBOX now behaves properly Now I can listen to music while I’m having to work from home today.
Edit:
Ok, after a message from the friend in question, I’ve decided that I have to finally make an edit to this post to actually name (and shame) my on-tap Cisco Geek. And I introduce you to Mr Hill, also online at Ninja Badger. And yes he is a *REAL* Cisco Geek.