WizNet W5100 not connecting to modern switches and routers

Question

I have an Arduino data collector with a W5100 module (see bottom of picture). Simple fixed IP connection:

 byte mac[] = { 0xDE, 0xAD, 0xBE, 0xEF, 0xFE, 0xED }; 
 byte ip[] = { 192, 168, 1, 242 };
 Ethernet.begin(mac,ip);  

This works with my old routers (Asus WL500, TP-Link MR3420), but fails to connect when plugged in a gigabit switch or my new router (D-Link DWR-116). The connection LED on the new devices does not lit up or blinks slowly, showing repeated connection attempts. So the W5100 fails to make the physical connection.

I made it work by adding my 10-year old Surecom switch to the mix, but wonder what the problem could be. Is there some cable configuration that is used by the W5100 but have been removed from these new network devices? (Not sure if the cable is cross or straight, trying another cable is messy, the whole thing is built in the wall.)

Answer 1

I think your problem is due to the MAC address that is being loading into the W5100. Try setting the 2 low order bits of the first byte to 0.

These bits define whether the MAC address is unicast or multicast and whether it is private or universal. Some switches appear to block ARP requests if these bits are set incorrectly.

I changed the first byte of the MAC address from x'47' to x'44' and things started working.

Answer 2

I just made a setup on my Dell PowerConnect and it starts to accept the W5100. I had to change the port speed to 10M and it starts working. The 100M and 1000M was not accepting the w5100. Before, I had a CISCO wifi 10/100M wired connection between it and w5100 and it connects fine, but this isn't the main network on my company.

Answer 3

sounds like a mac address issue. I googled for Tp-Link MAC address bytes and it worked perfectly. (it is first 4 bytes)