I've finally got around to the VLANs

For ages now I have been putting off the setup of the VLANs on my switches for the implementation of my Bluesocket wireless network. With only a skeleton staff in School at the moment, the time has finally come and with the installation of some new switches imminent, now seemed like as good a time as any.

I decided that to configure the switches I would use my shiny iBook G4 which I got a while ago with the idea that some of the network managlement tasks would be easier using the BSD-based OS X. Before I could begin, I downloaded and installed the drivers for my 'Prolific' USB-serial adapter. I then found out how to communicate with the switches... you simply open a terminal window and type:

screen tty.usbserial 9600

The tty.usbserial is my iBook's device name for the serial adapter. IMHO this is a lot less hassle than using HyperTerminal in Windows.

Anyway... starting at the outer-most switches in the areas of the School that are currently not being used, I have been reconfiguring the switches (remembering to give my 'data' VLAN an IP address for later configuration) and labeling the up. At the same time I have also been tidying some of the cabs, using different coloured patch leads for uplinks, wireless links, telephony links and 'regular' ports. I've even got some new cable management bars to help things along!

Once all this is done I will move the Bluesocket controller into the server room (I'm pretty happy with most of the config now) and start mounting the APs and, if all goes to plan, they will all connect to the controller automagically.