Can I use 3com's baseline switches 2024 in a VLAN?

[starriol]

Good afternoon.

We need to implement VLANs on my company's network. We are going to buy a new Cisco router and would like to create VLANs.

Our topology includes a central switch, that we need to change, since it's a cheap & old model, that links with other 4 switches (model 3com baseline switch 2024). Our question is, can I buy a certain model of Cisco switch and create a VLAN trunk with the router, and make a VLAN for each of the 3 com switches? Consider they cannot be administrated, they are basic models.

I hope you got my point.

 

[spidey07]

Yes, any vlan capable switch should be able to do this. It may be a better idea to get a layer3 switch and have it do all the routing, that way you're not passing traffic through the actual router for LAN stuff.

 

[starriol]

But please take into consideration that the switches that are connected to the main one, are NOT vlan capable... 3com baseline are non manegeable. So, clients connect to switch A (non manegeable) and the, this connects to the main switch, which is manegeable and supports vlan.
Get the idea?

 

[spidey07]

Yes, that's why I posted what I did. It's a very simple design/configuration.
port1 - switch A. This port is in vlan 20
port 2 - switch B. This port is in vlan 30.
...etc.

Trunk port to a router carrying vlan 20, 30, etc. This is called a router on a stick. It works just fine, although you're causing contention when routing between vlans and I wouldn't recommend it when L3 switches are so cheap these days. So just do the routing in the switch.

 

[starriol]

So, what do you mean that I would cause contention?

A level 3 switch would do the commuting between vlans right?

 

[jlazzaro]

with router on a stick, all traffic is trunked back to the router as inter-vlan communication requires a layer 3 device. so for vlan2 to talk to vlan3, it would have to go from the switch, to the router, and back to the switch all over a single connection.

or, get a layer3 switch and eliminate that need.

 

[starriol]

Sounds right... I think I'll do that.

Thanks!