Problem with connecting two switches

[Fuzzywolf]

Hi, I have a network of 34 computers running windows xp and they share a common connection to the internet from a router.

The router is connected to two switches.

The computers are all connected to one of the two switches, a Linksys model sr224 ver 1.1and a d-link model des-1024d ver a1.

Neither switch has an uplink port that I can see on it, so I got a crossover cable to link the two together so I could create a network to share a printer between all the computers.
The problem is, when I put the crossover cable in to a free port on both switches, the connection to the internet goes out.

What is wrong with the setup?

Any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bberson]

If each switch is to connected to an individual port on the router, unless the router has been programmed to provide two distinct subnets on the respective ports then the two switches are already connected to each other via the router. Adding the crossover cable creates a loop. Just plug the printer into a spare port on one of the switches.

 

[Fuzzywolf]

Thanks. Does that mean that I could set up all the computers in the lab as a network and share files across it?
What network settings under XP would you could recommend?

 

[bberson]

Sounds to me like they're already connected as a network. Unless intentionally someone programmed the router to prevent file sharing you should just be able to share folders on the computers without substantially changing any network settings.