GigaBrick 2600 Quick Reference
GigaBrick 2600 Quick Reference
GigaBrick 2600 Quick Reference
How To
This document describes the initial installation of the Hotbrick Gigabrick 2600 and also the typical
functions of a web-managed switch such as VLAN and QoS.
When you have connected the gigabrick you can access the interface by means of the Web-
Management Utility. After installing and starting the application you come to the next screen.
When you select discovery the application will detect the gigabrick as shown on the screenshot. After
this you can select the gigabrick and push the “Add to monitor list” button. Then it will appear in the
bottom pane and you can select “configuration setting” to go to the next screen.
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Here you can change the settings that will be needed for your specific network.
Now you can get ready to log on to your gigabrick. In this example we use the default address of
192.168.0.1.
After accessing this address from your browser you will come to the login screen where the pass-
word is admin, or you can just use the WEB ACCESS button on the utility.
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After login you come to the switch status page where you can check current settings and the status
of the switch.
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Now we will take a look at the setup starting with the port setting.
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You can change the setting of the port by pressing the blue number of the port.
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The first setting is the port speed. You probably only need this when you have different speed sub-
nets when using a VLAN. In normal conditions you will leave it on auto.
The second setting is flow control. Set it to enable to avoid data transfer overflow.
The third setting is Quality of service. You can set it to normal or high.
When set to high then the port has a high priority to manage data.
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A few points follow for using this setting however:
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You can “group” ports to create networks that are independent of the other ports.
The hotbrick is layer 2 based, a so-called port-based VLAN. One of the advantages is that switches
that use layer 2 information for VLAN are generally quicker than those that use layer 3 information.
End-users that use an unroutable protocol can not be a part of a layer 3 VLAN (netbios). Futhermore
Layer 2 VLANs are more effective with IPX or Appletalk.
There are multiple reasons for utilizing VLANs to reduce the need for routing in the network:
1. Higher Performance and Reduced Latency. As the network expands, more and more
routers are required to divide the network into broadcast domains. As the number of routers
increase, latency begins to degrade network performance. A high degree of latency in the net-
work is a problem now for many legacy applications, but it is particularly troublesome for newer
applications that feature delay-sensitive multimedia and interactivity. Switches that employ
VLANs can accomplish the same division of the network into broadcast domains, but can do
so at latencies much lower than those of routers. In addition, performance, measured in pack-
ets per second, is usually much higher for switches than for traditional routers. Additionally,
latency is also highly correlated to the number of hops a packet must traverse, no matter what
internetworking device (switch or router) is located at each hop.
2. Ease of Administration. Routers require much more complex configuration than switches;
they are “administratively rich.” Reducing the number of routers in the network saves time
spent on network management.
3. Cost. Router ports are more expensive than switch ports. Also, by utilizing cheaper switch
ports, switching and VLANs allow segmentation at a lower cost than would be the case if
routers alone were used for segmentation. In comparing VLANs with routing, VLANs have their
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disadvantages as well. The primary benefits of VLANs over routing are the creation of broad-
cast domains without the disadvantages of routing and a reduction in the cost of moves and
changes in the network.
Security
The ability of VLANs to create firewalls can also satisfy more stringent security requirements and
thus replace much of the functionality of routers in this area. This is primarily true when VLANs are
implemented in conjunction with private port switching. The only broadcast traffic on a single-user
segment would be from that user’s VLAN (that is, traffic intended for that user). Conversely, it would
be impossible to “listen” to broadcast or unicast traffic not intended for that user (even by putting the
workstation’s network adapter in promiscuous mode), because such traffic does not physically trav-
erse that segment.
WLAN
This is particularly important when you use Wireless Access points in your LAN. Because wireless
LAN is the most insecure part of your network you can make a special wireless VLAN group.
Even if the security of this group is breached there is no way to listen in on the rest of the network.
Trunk setting
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This setting is for cascading 2 or more gigabricks to multiply your number of switch ports.
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Port mirror setting
With this option you can forward traffic from a specific port or ports to a sniffer port.
Some settings:
The rest of the settings are reasonably straightforward so I will only provide screenshots.
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We have the covered the settings of the Hotbrick Gigabrick 2600 at this point.
Note that the firmware can be updated for additional functionality; you should use the Web Manage-
ment Utility in order to do this.