4 separate networks through one network switch

[RicB]

Can anybody recommend a suitable HP device and point me in the right direction of how to configure it to achieve the following?

I want to use one network switch with at least 16 ports to act as though it was 4 network switches with 4 ports each.

So, for instance, traffic travels "freely" between ports 1,2,3 and 4 but this traffic will never crossover to other ports. Then the same for 3 more networks.

All ports are 10Mbit/s UTP (10/100 auto sensing will be fine).

It does not matter if the unit has more than 16 ports.

Ideally, the unit should be 19 inch rack mountable with a single AC power supply input.

One more consideration (but don't let this put you off if you can recommend something for the above): The switch will go into an existing installation that uses CISCO switches/routers. I do not think that any VLAN's are configured in the CISCO kit but I cannot know for sure. I would like "my" HP switch to achieve the above by forcing the routes taken by traffic and not modify the packets at all (with tokens or tags or anything).

[Matt Hobbs]

Any ProCurve that supports VLANs can achieve what you're after here by creating untagged VLANs.

With the 2524 you can also setup 'isolated port groups' which is slightly different and can be useful in certain situations.

Most of the other products can use 'source-port filtering' which is very similar.

[DaGuru · Accepted solution]

Hi Ric,

You have a lot of available options depending on your budget.

Any of the ProCurve 24 port models from the 1800 Series up support VLANs. In your case you'll want to create at least three additional VLANs and assign four ports to each VLAN.

Fore example VLAN 1, 2, 3, and 4. (The switch will come pre-configured with VLAN 1, which is usually referred to as the native VLAN) Assign ports 1-4 to VLAN 1 (untagged), ports 5-8 to VLAN 2 (untagged), ports 9-12 to VLAN 3 (untagged), and ports 13-16 to VLAN 4 (untagged). Each network you connect to each set of ports will stay disjoint.

You can use the web interface on the switch to easily navigate and set your configuraiton.

I highly recommend purchasing one, then sit down and play with it to learn how VLANs work. If you get stuck on anything specific feel free to post a question to the forum and someone will respond.

Hope this helps,
Dennis