@Gooner357 wrote:
Thanks for everyone's help it really is much appreciated.
I've got my switches now so will go the VLAN route, failing that if it impacts speed too much I'll leave it in the cupboard and run an extension just for the phone.
It shouldn't impact speeds too much if the links are operating full duplex.
The two VLAN links are used in opposing directions over the single cable.
What is the WAN speed you have purchased?
For your 802.1Q VLAN configuration the link between the two switches will have VLAN tagged frames and all other switch ports will be untagged (i.e. standard Ethernet frames)..
Don't forget to set the PVID for the untagged ports to the required VLAN. By definition, the untagged frames entering the switch on these ports are not associated with any VLAN and it's the PVID that defines this.
An interesting point is the configuration of the two switches at each end of the link will be identical.
e.g.
Lets say you define VLAN 2 for WAN and VLAN 3 for LAN traffic.
Port 1 on the switch is the uplink port, port 2 is for WAN and all others for LAN.
Associate Port 1 (tagged) and Port 2 (untagged) to VLAN 2 (WAN).
Associate Port 1 (tagged) and Port 3, 4 & 5 (untagged) to VLAN 3 (LAN).
Set the PVID for port 2 to VLAN 2
Set the PVID for ports 3,4 & 5 to VLAN 3
(Note port 1 does not have a PVID setting since the VLAN is provided by the tagged frame)
