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Managed and Unmanaged switches
- Thread starter ndua1298
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TimRegester
Technical User
Put simply the unmanaged switches have no managed functionality, speed and duplex mode are autonegotiated and cannot be changed, the switch merely forwards traffic as if on one VLAN. Some unmanaged switches will use traffic prioritisation queues for well known traffic types and priority tags. Essentially they forward at Layer 2 between all points. Unmanaged switches are almost always fixed configuration with no add in cards and no slots. The 3Com Officeconnect and Baseline switches fit in this category.
A Managed switch out of the box would work the same way, all ports being in the default VLAN traffic would be forwarded in the same way. But management means you can manage the ports and VLAN configuration as well as being able to report to and recieve instructions from SNMP based network management software as a minimum . The 3300 42xx and 3800 series fit this bill
The other managed 3Com switches are a mixed bunch:
There are layer 3 switches like the 49xx, 4005, 40x0, 7700 and 4007 series can forward frames depending on IP IPX and Appletalk etc destination addresses, participate in routing schema etc. There are layer 4 switches such as the 4400 that can forward, prioritise orblock depending upon the source application. Some of the switches can sense Proxy servers and automatically forward all internet bound traffic to them. Each of the above switches are (the 4005 and 4007 apart) wirespeed and non-blocking so at layer 2 no frames should be blocked buffered and dropped. Some of the unmanaged switches also boast a non-blocking architecture.
Some of the switches use XRN technology which allows a fully resilient core to be built with no spanning tree issues.
A Managed switch out of the box would work the same way, all ports being in the default VLAN traffic would be forwarded in the same way. But management means you can manage the ports and VLAN configuration as well as being able to report to and recieve instructions from SNMP based network management software as a minimum . The 3300 42xx and 3800 series fit this bill
The other managed 3Com switches are a mixed bunch:
There are layer 3 switches like the 49xx, 4005, 40x0, 7700 and 4007 series can forward frames depending on IP IPX and Appletalk etc destination addresses, participate in routing schema etc. There are layer 4 switches such as the 4400 that can forward, prioritise orblock depending upon the source application. Some of the switches can sense Proxy servers and automatically forward all internet bound traffic to them. Each of the above switches are (the 4005 and 4007 apart) wirespeed and non-blocking so at layer 2 no frames should be blocked buffered and dropped. Some of the unmanaged switches also boast a non-blocking architecture.
Some of the switches use XRN technology which allows a fully resilient core to be built with no spanning tree issues.
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