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I am trying (again) to apply VLANS to my network. Just for the fun of it, to separate my IP Cameras and Media Server and to prune back VLAN1.
I have had success connecting several pairs of switches but have reached a problem when daisy chaining 3 Prosafe switches. All on latest software. This picture is a partial snapshot of my network. I have tried several combinations of Tags but I haven’t cracked it yet. I refer to them as
Top --> Middle --> Bottom here.
The chain starts at Port 11 on the main the distribution switch (top). Between the top switch and middle switch the trunk ports are tagged 'T' at both ends - that works. If I tag both ports on the middle to bottom switch I lose sight of the bottom switch, on the Prosafe Client PLUS Utility and the web interface.
Interestingly after setting the last switch to factory defaults and rebooting via DHCP (with VLAN unchanged i.e. All VLAN1) it returns a VLAN3 address for default 192.168.3.239 IP address . So the PFsense DHCP server is seeing it on VLAN3. Possibly tagged by the middle switch, but why VLAN3?
For info Port 1 on the top switch connects to the Pfsense router. Any 'T' Tags added to this line results in loosing access downstream. VLAN3 and VALN4 work fine with this configuration.
Interestingly after setting the last switch to factory defaults and rebooting via DHCP (with VLAN unchanged i.e. All VLAN1) it returns a VLAN3 address for default 192.168.3.239 IP address . So the PFsense DHCP server is seeing it on VLAN3. Possibly tagged by the middle switch, but why VLAN3?
Kindly double-check the physical connections as it might lead why the pfSense DHCP server is able to detect the bottom GS105E switch on VLAN3.
Let us try this: Set a static IP address to the GS105E switch that is within the IP address range of VLAN1. Then, disconnect the middle GS108Ev3 switch from port 11 (tagged) of the top JGS516PE switch for the meantime and connect port 4 (tagged) of the bottom GS105E switch to port 11 of the top JGS516PE switch. Check if both the JGS516PE and GS105E can be accessed from the pfSense router through VLAN1. Are you able to access both JGS516PE and GS105E web-GUI through VLAN1?
thanks for the response. I did as you suggested; both switches can be accessed through the web-GUI on VLAN1. The VLAN3 problem was due to an incorrect PVID I suspect.
Out of necessity I have reset the GS105E switch and disabled the VLAN. In that mode all three switches are visible. The devices on the bottom swicth are visble.
The pfsense seems not to care if Port 11 on the top switch is T or U. I have made some changes and thought i had cracked it but no.
I have tagged Port 11 on the top swicth and added VLAN4 to the middle switch. DOesn't make eny difference.
I can access VLAN1 devices on the bottom switch but not VLAN4 devices. To me, that suggests it is not a firewall issue. Other VLAN4 devices on other switches are fine.
DHCP addresses are not issued to the VLAN4 devices on the bottom switch. VLAN1 devices are. So the DHCP server (192.168.1.254 pfsense) doesn't see the bottom VLAN4 devices as VLAN1 or VLAN4.
..suddenly one of the vlan4 devices has "appeared", the other hasn't.
The relevent entries in the ARP table have "incomplete" against the MAC address. Perhaps a static address would resolve it but I prefer to keep these devices with DHCP auto set rather than with static IPs as both are remote cameras and not very accessible.
There must be a "selective" problem with the ARP packets..
