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I'm a bit of a novice in this area. I currently have two VLAN-capable switches (HP ProCurve 2850 2824) and some switches and routers that are not VLAN-capable, more like consumer-level devices (such as POE switches for cameras and remote APs). My goal is to separate different networks. I have the hardware but I need to understand the theory a little bit more before trying to do this. To simplify the question, let's assume I only have two VLAN-capable switch (lets call them HP1 e HP2) and a router.

I'll connected all the PC of VLAN 1 to HP1 ports and configure them as "untagged VLAN_1" and all the PC of VLAN 2 to HP2 ports and configure them as "untagged VLAN_2"

Then I can -option A, connect the two switches between them and configure these 2 ports as "tagged VLAN_1 & tagged VLAN_2", then connect HP1 to the router and I think I should set the eth port as untagged as the router seems not to support VLANs, bue then if is "untagged" I can set only onle VLAN, and so if I'll configure it as "untagged VLAN_1" no one from VLAN_2 will be able to access internet

-option B, connect HP1 to the router, setting the eth port as "untagged VLAN_1" and HP2 to another port of the router setting eth port as "untagged VLAN_2". In this configuration, both devices from VLAN_1 and VLAN_2 will be able to reach the router and so to go online, but all traffic from VLAN_1 will be stripped of VLAN identifiers once exiting from the port connected to router, and will be tagged as VLAN_2 when re-entering from the router from the port connected to HP2. So the two VLANs will not be separated.

Are my suppositions true, both for option A and option B? Is there any way to achieve VLAN separation AND internet access with the previous mentioned hardware?

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  • Connecting a VLAN to a device without tagging support requires a dedicated, untagged port ("access").
  • In reverse, a device without VLAN support can only use a single, untagged VLAN on each port.
  • Routing between VLANs requires either a layer-3 switch (like an HPE 2824), or a router which multiple routed ports (VLAN subinterfaces on a VLAN-capable router).
  • You can configure a single (trunk) port for multiple, tagged VLANs between VLAN-capable switches or routers.
  • If you bridge between different VLANs, then they effectively become one.
  • Off-topic consumer-grade routers often have multiple "LAN" ports, but those are actually switched and cannot be configured separately. Most consumer routers can only route between a single WAN and all LAN ports. Most cannot deactivate NAT for IP4.

Your easiest option is to use a 2824 as a layer-3 switch (ip routing) that can be used for routing between VLANs. If you want to separate different security zones the switch also requires (extended) ACL support for restricting traffic.

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With an L3 switch, you'd set your clients' default gateway to the respective switch VLAN/virtual interface (SVI), and the switch's default route via the router's private IP. On the router, you'd add a static route, e.g. for 192.168.0.0/16 via the L3 switch's VLAN interface.

On the switch you could then freely create VLANs with subnets from 192.168.0.0/16 (e.g. 192.168.10.0/24, 192.168.11.0/24, ...) and configure ACLs to limit each VLAN's access to the other VLANs or the Internet.

The 2800 switch series is pretty aged (retired in 2009) and has no IPv6 support - so there's no v6 routing between VLANs or v6 ACLs.

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  • Thanks Zac67, I made a typing error, my two switches are HP Procurve 2824 and therefore should have some Layer3 routing capabilities. So if I understand correctly I will need to connect the modem/router to one of the switches on a "untagged VLAN_3" port to achieve separation from both VLAN_1 e VLAN_2, then use the ip routing to let VLAN_1 communicate with VLAN_3 and VLAN_2 communicate with VLAN_3.
    – Neopard
    Commented Jun 14, 2023 at 15:08
  • Yes, that'll work, just don't forget the static route on the router. 2824 and 2848 are the same except for port count.
    – Zac67
    Commented Jun 14, 2023 at 16:55

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