Loop detection on/off function

Question

My question is probably too simple for this website but I'm sure someone could quickly help me, I couldn't find anything online about this. I'm currently looking at unmanaged switches for my home network and found a model I'm interested in: Buffalo 8-Port Desktop Gigabit Green Ethernet Switch (BS-GU2008).

However, I find interesting to see that there is an on/off loop detection switch. It's not a feature I really need on a 8-port switch but I noticed it's just enabled on most other consumer-grade switches without any option to turn it off. Why would I need to turn this feature off, am I squeezing any kind of extra performance in doing so?

Answer 1

It looks like this is buffalos version of STP. (Spanning tree protocol)

It's for larger than one switch networks, and is intended to stop switching loops and "broadcast storms". Both can instantly render a network unusable.

Disabling STP on managed switches can bring a minimal performance gain, it no longer sends or receives spanning tree advertisements. Which have a small impact on network overhead.

It's really not needed if you only have one switch, but is very useful if you expand your network later.

Answer 2

There will not be any significant improvement in performance, if any, by turning this feature off. Usually the switch just sends out a packet after certain interval on all ports and then waits to see if it receives it back. If it does receive the packet back, the switch will detect a loop and will shutdown that port.

The feature does save your from headache if by any chance you create a loop by interconnecting two ports of switch together, which can bring down your Network easily.