Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 9:40 am Post subject: managed vs unmanaged switch
What is the main differebce between managed and unmanaged switch?I heard Managed switch can work at layer 3 also...what are the added features and its benefits?
Joined: Oct 7, 2002 Posts: 242 Location: Oregon, USA
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 11:24 am Post subject:
Richa –
Unmanaged is also called “dumb” such as a “dumb-hub”.
Does nothing just allows all traffic to go all through your network, you have no control.
Managed – allows the SysAdmin to take control of the network, allows ports to talk to other ports or none at all. For example I personally have a USR Total Switch (managed), in my network I have several servers (www/ftp/mail, etc…) all connected to the USR.
I can have them set to where they cannot talk to each other nor are they allowed to talk to my print server or my personal computers, etc…, this is great if ever a hacker would breach a server the rest of my boxes are safe. I have set up if a hacker does breach they would go to a dead end and have no access to nothing. I have TCP/UDP/ICMP Ports choked (turned of or redirected). So yes it does work on OSI Layer 3.
Managed is always best if you can afford it, try eBay for good used equipment.
Jack is right all the up to the point he said a managed switch operates at layer 3. Only layer 3 switches and routers operate at layer 3. Devices that can use routing protocols and control traffic by way of ip address are layer 3 devices.
You can set up a switch to act as multiple switches thus breaking up your broadcast domains. Separating parts of your network. But if you want to allow traffic to cross these separate broadcast domains you will have to route them with either a layer 3 switch or router.
In fact Layer 3 switching is hardware-based routing. The packet forwarding is handled by specialized hardware ASICs (Application-specific Integrated Circuits). The goal is to capture the speed of switching and the scalability of routing. A Layer 3 switch acts on a packet in the same way that a traditional router does.
Also, to be a truly managed switch it should be capable of being a server, client, or transparent in a VTP (VLAN Trunking Protocol) domain.
Joined: Aug 14, 2003 Posts: 1699 Location: Mumbai, India.
Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2004 9:18 am Post subject:
Jack, I wanted to ask you.. how exactly have you set up this dead end system ? When I first read this I thought you were using VLANs, but I have a feeling I'm missing something... _________________ Sahir Hidayatullah.
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Joined: Oct 21, 2003 Posts: 37 Location: Bangalore, India
Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2004 6:26 pm Post subject:
Hi ...
this was a question i was puzzled with too until recently ... so far i've captured that a "managed" port is a controlled port ... which can be restricted to access other ports of the switch ... is that correct ? howz this done ???? can pass an example of CLI commands ?
an "unmanaged" port is "dumb" ... meaning it functions like a normal port allowing all traffic to pass thru ...
but how do u separate these ports ?
do u need a VLAN to configure managed ports ??
Joined: Dec 21, 2003 Posts: 114 Location: singapore
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 7:38 am Post subject:
hi naddy,
u are right we segregate the ports using VLAN on the switch...
here are a set of commands as an example...
on the global config mode...
interface e0/3 **this is assigning port 3 onto vlan 10**
swicthport access vlan 10
spanning-tree portfast ** this is telling the switch to skip from blocking mode to forwarding mode, instead of listenin n learnin....to increase the rate of convergance**
int e0/4 **this is assigning port 4 on the switch onto vlan 20**
switchport access vlan 20
spanning-tree portfast
annd u might want to config a default gateway to the swicth as well jus in case u want to ping it...
global config mode
ip default-gateway 10.1.1.1
interface vlan1
ip address 10.1.1.12 255.255.255.0
** theres VLAN1 as deafualt on urswitch....
in fact all the ports are in vlan 1 on ur swicth bey default**
hmm well hope this helps..and if theres any errors in what i have said above:) fire awayyyyy plz
Sorry, I did not really make myself clear last time. The original question was what is the difference between a managed and unmanaged switch.
Do Not confuse a Managed switch with a configurable switch. If a switch cannot be remotely managed through VTP (VLAN Trunking Protocol) it is not a Managed switch. You can configure switches all day long but a Managed switch involves a switch that can act as a server or a client (or transparent) in a VTP domain. If all of this is Greek to you need to study multilayer switching.
The Multilayer Switching companion guide for the CCNP - 3 course, formerly semester 7 in the Cisco Academy, is a good start. All Managed switches can be configured but not all configurable switches can be managed. I hope this helps clear up a few misconceptions.
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