Do all internet networking switches handle internet traffic routing?
I am setting up a network with about 10 ports needed for devices. A few of those ports are for IP phones, and so they need the POE feature on the switch, which is power-over-ethernet.
I am using a simple cable router which will be providing the internet for the network.
Here are my questions. Are all switches able to route internet traffic from the router to the devices plugged into its ports? Do I just plug the cable router ethernet output into one of the switch ports, and the rest of the devices into the other ports, and the switch will know how to route the traffic?
I know how to setup static IP addresses for the devices to have, so there are no conflicts, I just wasn’t sure if I need to be looking for a special switch when I am having an internet router involved in the mix. I wasn’t sure if there were switches that had a special port input for feeding the network internet, or if all switches can handle a router input.
Thanks
Great, Thank You JoelKatz.
Now I know that I can just look for any switch that has the number of ports I need and POE.
It sounds like you won’t be doing anything complicated with the switch like setting up vlans though if you’re going to have ip phones they really should be on their own vlan so one vlan for data, one for voice, one for management just as an example.
Once you do that on the switch, you need to set up qos so that voice traffic gets priority. There ARE switches that are capable if routing called layer 3 switches and are quite common though they are usually used at the distribution and core layers of the network and so usually don’t have ip phones attached but I wanted to let you know that there are definitely switches that route. Hope that helps!
September 11th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
No, switches aren’t able to route Internet traffic to the devices plugged into their ports. But they don’t need to, the router will do all the routing. Yes, you plug the cable router into one of the switch ports and the rest of the devices into the other ports. The switch will not know how to route the traffic, but it won’t matter, the router does know how to route the traffic. The switch just needs to switch the traffic, and it will know how to do that because … it’s a switch!
Some switches do have a special ‘uplink’ port for connecting to another switch, typically the switch built into a router. But the only difference is that the uplink port is wired to connect to a switch rather than a PC. Most modern switches have auto-MDI/X, which means they can figure out what kind of device they’re talking to automatically. On the off chance you do find that the port you connect the switch to the router to doesn’t light up, the problem is this, and a crossover cable will fix it. But that’s only an issue if neither device has auto-MDI/X, and almost all do.
So, to put it simply, in all likelihood, it will ‘just work’.
Update: You can also get two 8-port switches (since switches with more than 8 ports are very expensive) and connect each one to a port on the router. Do not connect the switches to each other.
Note that many switches that support POE do not support POE on all ports. Also, many switches have a total wattage limit. For example, there are 8-port POE switches with a 55W total limit. If your phones draw 12W, that will effectively limit you to 4 POE ports anyway.
References :
September 11th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
It sounds like you won’t be doing anything complicated with the switch like setting up vlans though if you’re going to have ip phones they really should be on their own vlan so one vlan for data, one for voice, one for management just as an example.
Once you do that on the switch, you need to set up qos so that voice traffic gets priority. There ARE switches that are capable if routing called layer 3 switches and are quite common though they are usually used at the distribution and core layers of the network and so usually don’t have ip phones attached but I wanted to let you know that there are definitely switches that route. Hope that helps!
References :
CCNA