How to configure switching between network interfaces?
mstrickland16 at nc.rr.com
mstrickland16 at nc.rr.com
Sun Dec 31 13:50:56 PST 2006
Thanks,
I believe thats what i'm looking for. I will probably end up with a cu-fiber switch, but I wanted to know if that was possible in theroy. The switches make more sense anyway because, otherwise, i'll have to setup a makeshift bridge on the server on the other end of the fiber.
- Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: Chuck Swiger <cswiger at mac.com>
Date: Sunday, December 31, 2006 12:49 pm
Subject: Re: How to configure switching between network interfaces?
To: mstrickland16 at nc.rr.com
Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> mstrickland16 at nc.rr.com wrote:
> > How to configure switching between network interfaces?
> > I would like to determine how, or if, the following can be
> accomplished with FreeBSD.
> > Configuration:
> > A BSD box setup with 1 GbE NIC and a 4 port 10/100 NIC
> > The GbE interface will have a static IP configured (192.168.10.x/24)
> > Planned Implementation:
> > Along with possibly serving other data such as NFS or HTTP
> traffic, I would like the interfaces to work as a switch. The GbE
> interface is a fiber optic NIC which connects to the rest of the
> network 100 or so meters away. I plan to use the other 4
> interfaces to attach hosts to my network. I would prefer all of my
> hosts to be on the same subnet if possible, otherwise I would just
> configure routing between the appropriate interfaces. My question
> then is: Can the interfaces be configured to function as a switch
> would, allowing the connected hosts to recieve DHCP and other
> traffic "routing" from the fiber optic interface via the FreeBSD
> box. I know that in a basic configuration, 2 interfaces on the
> same subnet are not a best practice and would required special
> routing information. I assume that somewhere this can be
> configured. A good shove in the right direction would be most
> appreciated.
> You can configure the interfaces together as a bridge and FreeBSD
> will act as
> a "smart switch"-- see the bridge(4) manpage or the Handbook for
> more info.
>
> Note that this configuration might make sense if you wanted to
> impose firewall
> rules to limit cross-segment traffic while still letting the
> client machines
> all be on one subnet. Or you might divert all WWW traffic seen
> going by to a
> transparent proxy server.
>
> But unless you plan to do something with this traffic like that--
> if all you
> want to do is have a switch-- you'd otherwise be better off
> getting a 4-port
> gigabit Cu or Fibre switch then setting up a dedicated server for
> the task.
>
> --
> -Chuck
>
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