I have set up a VLAN on my Procurve switch, with ports 12 and 13. The Internet comes in on port 2. My issue is that I can't give the VLAN an Internet connection and have the rest of the switch have Internet, too.
Why can't I add the port that gives the switch Internet to multiple VLANs? Can anyone help?
I just want all my VLANs to get an Internet connection, or do I need a router per VLAN?
Best Answer
That is a layer-2 switch. When using VLANs, you need a layer-3 device (router) to get traffic from one VLAN to another VLAN.
Hosts can send frames directly on a VLAN from one host to another host, but for a host to send traffic to a different network, the host must send the traffic to its configured gateway (router). The gateway must be on the same LAN as the host (otherwise, the host would need a gateway to send to its gateway, creating a chicken/egg problem).
Switches switch traffic on the same LAN, but routers route traffic between LANs.