[Ilugc] Re: [slightly OT] managed switches
- From: manokaran@xxxxxxxxx (Mano)
- Date: Thu Jul 6 10:15:14 2006
On 7/6/06, Suresh Ramasubramanian <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Kenneth Gonsalves wrote:
what are the advantages of a managed switch over an unmanaged one? Or,
rather, why would one need a managed switch?
suppose your switch is sitting in a datacenter a couple of continents
away? connected to a big rack of servers, pushing high amounts of
traffic? that's when you need managed servers.
for a small office lan - go get a good unmanaged one (by which i mean
"anything but d-link")
A managed switch is one which has an IP address assigned to itself
through which you can access its console and configure its settings.
You can setup virtual LANs - where the same switch can make it appear
that one set of nodes are on a network different from the other set
(connected to the same switch). For example you can have the nodes of
the accounts dept to be on a separate (virtual) LAN from the rest - so
tools like packet sniffers do not help trouble makers.
IMO, for LANs with upto 100 nodes unmanaged switches would be the
ideal option. When you buy a managed switch you would also have to pay
for a CCNA type to configure it properly for your network and 'manage'
it on a regular basis - what good is a managed switch if there is no
one to manage it!
regds,
mano
--
According to aerodynamic theory the bumble bee cannot fly. But the
bumble bee does not know this theory so it keeps flying anyway - Mary
Kay Ash
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