Re: NetworkManager and STP

["Darren Albers" <dalbers gmail com>]

> Are you saying that the switch takes a long time to actually start
> passing traffic from the machine on which NM is running, even though the
> port is active?

That is correct, most enterprise level switches support the
Spanning-Tree protocol that checks when a device is connected that it
does not cause a loop.  A loop would be when someone connects a hub to
two switches, a loop like that could take down an entire network.

In MOST cases if the switch is being used as an access layer the
switch will be configured for portfast to avoid this all together but
if the switch is in a datacenter it is probably enabled.

This is not an issue that NM has faced alone, Win9x and older MAC OS
versions had problems with this.

Here are some links (Dry reading!) on STP and portfast on Cisco
switches in particular:
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/12.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanning_tree_(networks)
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/rtrmgmt/sw_ntman/cwsimain/cwsi2/cwsiug2/vlan2/stpapp.htm

Thanks,
Darren