Question : Spanning Tree

We have just installed 15 new HP Procurve 2610-24 switchs onto our network. We have a HP Procurve 2900-24 as our main core switch. As we work in a school some of the students find it highly amusing to try and loop network leads into network sockets therefore causing a loop on the network. Our new switchs have the spanning tree protocol available on them which I understand isolates network loops. My question is, do I activate Spanning Tree on all the switchs or just the core switch and does it have to be activated per VLAN.

Answer : Spanning Tree

Spanning tree should be enabled by default unless you have disabled the protocol; you should also disable any unused ports that are not being used (This will somwhat stop mischief); there are other mechanisms (Layer 2 attacks) you should consider (CDP, Mac Spoofing, Root Guard, Broadcast suppression, etc). There are many tools available that can bring down a network. Do you have a network diagram? Do you have STP disabled?

Billy