Using a switch as a default gateway 1

[drew1701d]

Hi, we're setting up a standalone lab LAN for demonstration purposes, equipment I've been provided with are a couple W2k3 servers , some workstations and a two 3750 Catalyst Switches, question is, can i setup the switch to be the default gateway? I.E. i'd assign it an IP address of say 192.168.0.1 and setup the servers DHCP scope to use it the switch as the default gateway to talk to other workstations on the network, would that work? Or should we just use the server as a default gateway? This network will never have a physical router, just for demo'ing products.

TIA!

 

[vipergg]

If the devices are all on the same subnet or vlan you do not even need a default gateway the switch will know where to send it . Unless you set up the 3750 to route multiple subnets you would not need a gateway . Turn off ip routing and make all the ports "switchports" and put them in the same vlan .

 

[KiscoKid]

You can set the switch to be a default gateway. It supports L3 routing so it has the capability to route between subnets for you.

However if all your servers, workstations and switches are going to be on the same 192.168.0.0/24, you don't need a default gateway to route between them all.

The following URL explains how to setup L3 routing on a Catalyst switch

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk815/technologies_configuration_example09186a008019e74e.shtml