Does a switch need an IP address ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Polaris
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Polaris

Hi Experts:

Just wondering, is an IP address required for setting up a switch? Why "yes"
and why "no"...

Thanks in Advance !
Polaris
 
Hi

Regular Network Switch is a transparent device you do not need to set it and
there is no IP address. You plug the computer to its ports configure the
Computers Network

Settings and they will talk one to the other.

Basic Networking links: www.ezlan.net/basic.html

Jack (MVP-Networking).
 
Thanks! I was confused when a coworker told me that he needed to use an IP
address to set up a switch...
 
There are some swithes that are also routers. In those cases, yes it needs
an IP address, but it is because of the router. Maybe your friend was
referring to that.

RT
 
Thanks. I better ask him next week!

Rafael T said:
There are some swithes that are also routers. In those cases, yes it needs
an IP address, but it is because of the router. Maybe your friend was
referring to that.

RT
Click to expand...
 
Polaris said:
Thanks! I was confused when a coworker told me that he needed to use an IP
address to set up a switch...
Click to expand...



Regular el-cheapo consumer grade switches are 'unmanaged'.
There is nothing to configure on them, and so they do not have an IP
address.

Some switches are called 'managed' switches.
These a usually more expensive high-end devices for use on large, complex
networks.
These have an IP address so you can log onto them and configure things.

The kind of things you can configure are:

Port enable / disable;
Port MDII/MDX / speed / duplex;
Spanning Tree Protocol enable / disable per port;
VLAN setup;
Trunking;
Port teaming;
802.1x authentication;
SNMP

These are not things you'd normally deal with on a small network,
and cheap unmanaged switched don't support these kind of things.
 
You set a ip address on a switch if you want to telnet to it. You would want
to telnet to it to manage it. You configure a switch with a serial
connection and hyperterm. This is when you would set a ip address for your
remote management. This applies to a managed switch. Non managed doesn't
have the feature set that comes with managed.
 
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