From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Apr 18 19:04:27 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B44EC16A4CF for ; Sun, 18 Apr 2004 19:04:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp.omnis.com (smtp.omnis.com [216.239.128.26]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1BCA743D3F for ; Sun, 18 Apr 2004 19:04:27 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Received: from softweyr.homeunix.net (24-161-166-146.san.rr.com [24.161.166.146]) by smtp-relay.omnis.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2E9FC100572; Sun, 18 Apr 2004 19:04:26 -0700 (PDT) From: Wes Peters Organization: Softweyr.COM To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 14:06:27 -0700 User-Agent: KMail/1.6.1 References: <20040408011945.S40836@ganymede.hub.org> In-Reply-To: <20040408011945.S40836@ganymede.hub.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <200404101406.27758.wes@softweyr.com> Subject: Re: Stupid question about managed switches X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 02:04:27 -0000 On Wednesday 07 April 2004 21:23, Marc G. Fournier wrote: > Please excuse this, but my experience with them is zilch ... am going > with the HP Procurve 2826(?) Layer2/Layer3 switch, as was suggested, but > I'm curious as to how they work ... > > For instance, I know when I setup a router, I have an IN IP and an OUT IP > configured ... but, with a managed switch, what do I have? > > For instance, right now, I have a default gateway on the providers switch > of 200.46.204.1 ... and my servers are .2, .3, .4 and .5 ... if I put a > managed switch, vs the unmanaged we have now, between the providers > switch and the servers, does my default route then change to be the > switch itself? Or is the 'login part' of the switch thought of the same > way as adding just another server to the network, for connectivity > purposes? > > As I said, stupid question, but for someone whose never played with a > managed switch before ... :( There are managed switches, and then there are routing switches. Managed simply means there is a processor on the box that can manage some aspect of the switch; in some cases this is as simple as being able to turn ports on and off and reset the switch. Routing switches employ virtual routers to route between the VLANs managed by the switch. The usual way to do this is to assign an IP address to the virtual router in the "normal" IP address range of each VLAN. The router then routes between these virtual interfaces in the normal manner. I can't speak to the insides of the HP equipment, but Xylan/Alcatel used a modified version of the Net/2 TCP/IP stack running on VxWorks in the management processor. -- Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket? Wes Peters wes@softweyr.com