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I have the following setup, using two standard cheap switches that are interconnected by a long Ethernet cable:

|------ SWITCH #1
| [ ] Equipment with public IP 217.x.x.101 (subnet 217.x.x.96/29)
| [ ] Equipment with private IP 10.0.0.1 (subnet 10.0.0.0/24)
| [ ] Free port
| [ ] Free port
| [ ] Free port
| [ ] Ethernet cable going to Switch #2
|------
   ^
   |
   |
   v
|------ SWITCH #2
| [ ] Ethernet cable going to Switch #1
| [ ] Free port
| [ ] Free port
| [ ] Free port
| [ ] Equipment with private IP 10.0.0.2 (subnet 10.0.0.0/24)
| [ ] Router with public IP 217.x.x.102 (subnet 217.x.x.96/29) with internet access

Considering that:

  • I do not need networks 10.0.0.0/24 and 217.x.x.96/29 to communicate between them, and I do not need 10.0.0.0/24 equipment to have internet access.
  • I only need 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 can communicate between them; and 217.x.x.101 with 217.x.x.102 (and with internet access, through .102)

Is this setup "correct"? Will it work as expected?

From my very limited networks knowledge, I think there should be no problem with this setup, no need to use a managed switch or any high end equipment.

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  • 2
    "no need to use a managed switch or any high end equipment." -- well do you care about it working well and being secure? If this is a home set up, then it's off-topic. If it's a business set up then, well yes, you need a managed switch otherwise you're doing your company a disservice.
    – ETL
    Sep 27, 2019 at 15:11

2 Answers 2

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You can use as many ip networks as you want, the switches operate on layer 2 also called 'link layer' and don't care about the higher layers like the 'network layer' (IP), which is layer 3 in the OSI model.

That being said, some switches have layer 3 functionality but that's more of an added feature than main function. You will want to use managed switches in case you want to isolate these two networks and not allow hosts from one of the blocks to be able to communicate with hosts from the other.

In you setup any host can setup any IP and assign to any network without restriction. With managed switches you can create VLANs and isolate the networks for added security. If you don't need that you are perfectly okay with your current setup.

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You need VLAN support to be able to separate the traffic. You have this feature with:

  • traditional managed switched - $$$
  • "smart" switches - $$
  • SDN - an OpenFlow switch - $$ - $$$$

Another solution would be to use IPsec.

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    You don't need VLAN's to separate the traffic, you need VLAN's to segregate the traffic... if you need to do that. Any number of hosts will communicate just fine on any number of Layer 3 networks in the same switch without VLAN's.
    – joeqwerty
    Sep 27, 2019 at 15:36
  • 1
    That was my meaning. Thank you for clarifying that. I am not a native English speaker. Sep 27, 2019 at 15:51

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