Hello everyone. I am new here - to networking in general, and Lawerence Forums.
Recently acquired the SG-6100 and I have to say I’m at a loss as to where to begin with getting it in service (home office).
I realize what I’m about to ask is very broad, but does anyone know how this thing works?
I’ve had an SG-1100 and got by with a basic level of knowledge. The 6100 is confusing to me in its “discrete ports” (I know they’re on individual nics) particularily.
I don’t know, any insight basic or in-depth would be so appreciated.
Thank you!
The discrete ports are just individual interfaces and they are not ports of a hardware switch. That means that in stock configuration traffic needs to be routed between these ports.
Having said that, you can go ahead and configure a software bridge across selected ports and get the a similar functionality as if you had ports on a hardware switch.
If this is not something you know and can configure you are best off by connecting the pfSense device LAN port to a managed Switch (this is your trunk) and configure your networks as VLANs on the pfSense and on the Switch. This setup is called a router-on-a-stick if you want to look up further details.
Thank you for the reply!
Ultimately I will be configuring a router-on-a-stick (or a close relative of) for two of the ports with managed switches and AP’s off of those. I have a lot of basic networking knowledge to gain, so thank you for your patience (as well as anyone else that chimes in). I’ll be posting a question on specific configuration of a trunk port on the 6100, as well as how to create a physical management port that can reach all switches and AP’s and the firewall itself.
Than you again!
Alright… Here we go.
On the 6100 is there a need for a native vlan? My current understanding of a native vlan is that it is primarily used to communicate with network equipment (switches, etc) for management purposes.
I’m going to be asking a lot of questions, so again, thanks for any replies!
a switch port can have native/untagged AND taged traffic simultaneously.
“native” or “untagged” means the traffic that is directly available on a network interface e.g. eth0 connected to a switch port using the interface name “eth0”. This can be ANY VLAN number!
“tagged” traffic is accessed using the VLAN numbers that are associated with the port together with the interface name, such as “eth0.333” for VLAN 333.
There are a lot of simple embedded devices where you can only use the untagged/native traffic because you cannot address the tagged traffic on that device.
So the native / untagged traffic is not necessarily used for management traffic fir network devices, but you CAN use it for that.
Thanks xerxes. I do appreciate the explanation!
Perhaps it’s best if I explain what I am attempting to accomplish.
I have an sg6100. I have a netgear managed switch (new).
I would like to create a physical management port on the 6100 which will be administered directly by a “console” computer.
I have already assigned ix2 as LAN (management), so the LAN ports “1, 2, 3, 4” on the back of the 6100 are open for data connections.
I would like to “trunk” LAN port 1 to the uplink port on the netgear switch. I will have several data vlans (tagged) traversing this. I would also like to login to the netgear switch from my “console” computer in order to configure/ update it.
I know this is a lot more work than a few words can accomplish, so if anyone wants to chime in on any aspect of this project it would be awesome!
Thank you again!
if the netgear switch supports VLANs then what you described can be done and is not a big project really. I have not seen a concrete question in your reply.
The thing is that you just need to do it. but describing it step by step for someone who does not have the knowledge makes it a long textual description.
I would recommend to watch some videos how to set up VLANs on pfSense, I am sure Tom has some about that. You will probably also find some videos on how to set up VLANs on your netgear switch.