Hey everyone! I'm a bit confused about VLANs and hope you can help clarify things for me. I have a router and a dumb switch (unmanaged). My question is, can I assign devices to a specific VLAN if they're plugged into this dumb switch? For example, I have my main network and also want a VLAN for phones. If I connect a phone to the switch along with my computers and 3D printers, will it receive the VLAN settings, or is it bound to the port on the switch?
I'm also thinking that if my main network is treated like a VLAN, I might have to dedicate ports since I can't trunk them. But to trunk that port or set things up as I described, would the switch on the other end need to be managed to handle VLAN IDs? Just to clarify, I'm aware of the general uses of VLANs; I'm just struggling with how to implement them in practical scenarios. Thanks for any insights!
2 Answers
When it comes to dumb switches, they keep things pretty basic—none of that nifty VLAN configuration. All ports on your dumb switch will follow whatever VLAN settings are on the router side, and they can't be individually switched to different VLANs. So basically, they're just forwarding everything without any VLAN awareness. If you want to mess around with VLANs as you described, you’ll need to invest in a managed switch that allows for VLAN configuration.
Yeah, you can't really do VLAN management on a dumb switch—they're designed to send traffic without any special control. If you want VLAN capabilities, you’re looking at getting a managed switch that can specify which ports go to which VLAN. It's really simple once you have the right hardware!
Thanks for confirming that! It helps to have some reassurance as I figure this out.
Got it! That’s the kind of clear answer I needed. Thanks for breaking it down!