VLAN – Simple Question About VLAN Switching

You could access the two VLANs via a 802.1q trunk on the switchport connected to the computer. The NIC would have to be able to tag packets and recognize tagged packets.

The L2 switch by itself will not allow you to communicate between the two VLANs. You would need a router.

Please ignore the comment above, it was supposed to be an answer but I can't delete it.

I have this evening spent some time in a remote session with Deliberant support, and between us we managed to nail down the issues so it now works. I'm posting this information in case it is of help to anyone else in the future.

1) The Deliberant APC web interface will not respond to tagged frames. This requires the switch ports connected to the APC units to have at least one untagged VLAN assigned, and this VLAN to be used for management of the units. By setting the ports at each end to tagged in VLAN2, untagged in VLAN1, and a PVID of 1 the APCs can be managed from VLAN1 while still allowing VLAN2 traffic.

2) Always check your physical switch ports! After trying to get VLAN2 to work over the bridge unsuccessfully the company electrician handily pointed out that he'd moved some cables, but didn't tell the IT department that he'd unplugged anything. He thought he'd put the cables back in the same place, but when we checked during the support call found that the cables were put in the wrong ports.

The support call wasn't a complete waste of time in that it identified (1) as an issue, but had the IT documentation been updated to reflect the remote switch cable configuration having been changed the VLANs would have been working prior to the support call. As it is we would still have had the issue of not being able to manage the Deliberant APC units given that they drop tagged frames directed to their management interface.

Dan