ZyXEL Communications Dimension GS-3012, User Manual, Page: 70 / 259

GS-3012/GS-3012F User’s Guide
6-6 Basic Setting
6.4 Introduction to VLANs
A VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) allows a physical network to be partitioned into multiple logical
networks. Devices on a logical network belong to one group. A device can belong to more than one group. With
VLAN, a device cannot directly talk to or hear from devices that are not in the same group(s); the traffic must first
go through a router.
In MTU (Multi-Tenant Unit) applications, VLAN is vital in providing isolation and security among the
subscribers. When properly configured, VLAN prevents one subscriber from accessing the network resources of
another on the same LAN, thus a user will not see the printers and hard disks of another user in the same building.
VLAN also increases network performance by limiting broadcasts to a smaller and more manageable logical
broadcast domain. In traditional switched environments, all broadcast packets go to each and every individual
port. With VLAN, all broadcasts are confined to a specific broadcast domain.
Note that VLAN is unidirectional; it only governs outgoing traffic.
See the VLAN chapter for information on port-based and 802.1Q tagged VLANs.
6.5 Switch Setup Screen
Click Basic Setting and then Switch Setup in the navigation panel display the screen as shown. The VLAN setup
screens change depending on whether you choose 802.1Q or Port Based in the VLAN Type field in this
screen. Refer to the chapter on VLANs.
Figure 6-3 Switch Setup