I'm having big troubles when adding this Dell switch to my network.
Here we use several VLANs to segment traffic. All switches (3com and DLink mostly) have configured the same VLANs, most ports are 'untagged' and belong to a single VLAN, except for the ports used to join together the switches (in a star topology), these ports belong to all VLANs and use 802.1Q tags. So far, it works really well.
But on this new switch (a Dell PowerConnect 5448), the settings are very different (and confusing). I have configured the same VLANs, an the uplink ports are set in 'general' mode (supposed to be fully 802.1Q compliant), I can set the VLAN membership as 'T' on these ports for all VLANs except VLAN 1. It always stay as 'U' on VLAN 1.
Any ideas?
Best Answer
VLAN 1 on a Dell switch is a default system vlan.
Unless someone else knows a way around this (I personally don't and I've spent an eternity on this) VLAN 1 CAN NOT be routed or included in Layer 3 functions. I've given up on using that description and vlan number altogether.
You might be able to move "default" functionality to a vlan other than 1, then delete it, then re-add it as a user vlan, possibly with a reboot??? I've never had this work though. Then again I'm used to working on the "gold-plated" equipment.