Server Fault Stack Exchange
Server Fault Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [switch]

a device that bridges network segments, operating at the OSI link layer level.

Switches (in the context of this site) are devices with multiple network ports, which allow interaction between all devices connected to these ports.

Basic switches operate at the data link layer level (in TCP/IP networks) and forward packets based on the link layer address in the packet headers. They are different to hubs in the way that hubs generally broadcast incoming packets to all other ports, whereas switches keep tables of link layer addresses they have seen at specific ports and only forward packets to the relevant ports. Basic switches are also known as layer 2 devices.

Higher grade switches can include functionality at higher layers of the OSI stack. This can range from IGMP snooping (for multicast support) and VLANs through to NAT, VPN, firewalls or even application layer functionality (web caching or proxying). Such switches are known as multilayer devices.

1527 questions
21
votes
3 answers

How do I know if I need a layer 3 switch?

We currently have a flat network with a bunch of unmanaged switches. I would like to use VLANs to segregate certain users like guests and I would like to use 802.1x. However, I'm not sure if what I need is a layer 3 or a level 2 switch. From what I…
eekmeter
  • 245
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
15
votes
7 answers

How do you keep track of what's connected to your switches?

Currently we manually document the connections to the ports of our switches. Of course, maintenance is a chore, and the documentation is out of date as soon as you save it. Are there any tools for querying switches, preferably via SNMP, that can…
Kamil Kisiel
  • 12,304
7
votes
1 answer

Layer 2 vs Layer 3 switches

I am a bit confused on when I need and should use a layer 2 or layer 3 switch. In the corporate network we have Aruba 3810 core switches, and all the access switches are HPE 1950 24/48 PoE+. We have 7 vlans, IT mgmt, workstations, machines, wlan,…
kmd
  • 71
7
votes
3 answers

What is an "FX port" in the context of a switch?

Looking at this switch datasheet, the concepts of "FX port", "FX switch" and "inline FX" crop up. (The obvious Google searches are not really helpful.) What does FX mean in the context of a network switch?
Randomblue
  • 1,175
7
votes
2 answers

Is there a network switch with a web interface that reports bandwidth use per port?

I have a number of network enabled devices in the office. I've always wondered how much bandwidth each one is using. I happen to have a 16-port gigabit switch that is dying, so I was wondering if I could replace it with a slightly smarter switch…
Christopher
  • 1,381
  • 1
  • 12
  • 22
6
votes
2 answers

Modular Switch: swapping modules

This weekend I'm planning to (at long last) take a bunch of a equipment off of a hand-made (2x4s and plywood) bench and mount it all in a proper rack. One of the items to move is an HP 5406zl modular switch with two modules, shown below: It's…
Joel Coel
  • 12,982
3
votes
2 answers

10 gigabit or 1 gigabit switch

We are planning to move mysql to dedicated box. At this moment we have web servers and mysql is running on each. Question is: cheaper is to buy 10G switch and put 10G network card into mysql server. Or buy normal gigabit switch and connect mysql box…
Guntis
  • 683
3
votes
3 answers

How many switches?

im designing a network for a small business. There are three departments in the business retail sales - 80 employees, sale support - 10 employees, accounts - 15 employees. I've decided to use star topology. It will have one router connecting to many…
mrpho
  • 31
3
votes
3 answers

Switch eliminated collisions. But what about

Sorry for asking pretty simple question. But I don't understand that there are no collision problem with switch... When 3 PC connected with hub, 2 PC trying to connect to other 1 at the same time would make collision. Like this situation, switch…
KevinOelen
  • 343
3
votes
4 answers

Switch with 48 port all PoE

We are looking for a 48 port PoE switch. My budget is around $1200. Is there any switch that is reliable for that price range?
ekamtaj
  • 239
3
votes
1 answer

Failsafe Ethernet Switches on UAV

As a side project we are working on a new internal network for a small UAV and will base it on 100mbit Ethernet instead of serial coms that's usually used for these types of aircraft. We have gone through the entire network and shown that we can…
Mikael
  • 33
3
votes
1 answer

Gigabit port mirroring to a maximum throughput 150 Mbps IDS

I maybe installing an IDS that has a maximum throughput of 150 Mbps. Instead of putting it inline on my main gigabit port to the rest of the network, I would like to just mirror that port and install the IDS on that. The question I have is will I…
pizzim13
  • 197
3
votes
1 answer

Switches connected to one another

This question is mainly about the logic of unmanaged switches. I've seen posts here and elsewhere saying that it's okay to plug in a switch to a SOHO router (using a crossover if necessary), which is basically the same as plugging a switch into a…
Caleb Hearon
  • 35
2
votes
3 answers

Network switch time between replacement

How often do you roll out new network switches/ how often are the older ones replaced?
Bump
  • 167
2
votes
1 answer

Multiple subnet on the same switch

A Cisco ASA out of the box is licensed for 2 ½ VLANs. One VLAN for the outside (public) network One VLAN for the inside (private network) A third VLAN which is restricted to be able to talk to either the inside VLAN or the outside VLAN, but not…
Brendon
  • 21
1
2 3 4