Pros and cons
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A prevention loop runs what’s called Spanning Tree Protocol or STP.
An important part of network traffic is broadcasts, packets that are sent to every device on a network. When such a packet enters a switch it is rebroadcast to every port.
If you create a loop by plugging an ethernet cable from a switch back into the same switch these broadcast packets will start to endlessly circulate. They will leave the ports that are looped and come back in again and be rebroadcast over and over again.
This uses up more and more CPU, memory, and bandwidth on the network until it switch stops functioning either crashing dropping traffic.
Spanning Tree works by detecting such loops and shutting down one of the ports before it can do any damage.
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