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VLAN and subnet are fundamental concepts in networking that play a significant role in connection design & management.
In todays digital world, Networking has become an integral part of almost every organization.
What is a VLAN?
VLAN stands for Virtual Local Area connection.
Its like a parallel universe of networks that exist within the same physical space!
whats the need to use it?
For example, the finance team might need extra security and bandwidth compared to the marketing team.
One of the primary advantages of VLANs is the enhanced security they provide.
It allows for the logical grouping of connection resources based on security requirements.
This segregation of data enhances security by limiting access to resources & isolating data from other VLANs.
Additionally, VLANs help to optimize web link performance by minimizing web link congestion.
By dividing a internet into smaller segments, multicast traffic is reduced, which results in increased internet efficiency.
New VLANs can be added or deleted as per the evolving requirements of the data pipe.
How VLAN works?
The working model is very simple!
VLAN is like a magical unicorn that exists within the physical web link.
This creates a kind of walled garden within the connection.
What is a Subnet?
A subnet, short for subnetwork, is a smaller online grid within a larger online grid.
Subnetting is often used in large organizations or companies with many different departments or locations.
But wait, theres more!
Each subnet has its own range ofIP addresses.
This can help to reduce congestion on the main online grid and improve overall online grid performance.
And here is a list of subnet calculators to create subnets for a given range of IP addresses.
How Does Subnetting Work?
Easy peasy, right?
Now, lets say we want to divide this internet into four smaller subnetworks.
Were getting into some serious technical stuff here!
By borrowing two bits, we get a new subnet mask of 255.255.255.192.
VLAN rules the virtual realm with its power of web link segmentation and traffic isolation.
Security
And lets not forget about security.
Subnets can limit access to web connection resources by placing them in different subnets and restricting access between subnets.
How VLAN and Subnet Can be Used Together?
Till now, you have seen how VLAN and subnet function individually.
what they can do if both are combined?
When VLANs and subnets are used together, each VLAN is assigned to a specific subnet.
Devices in other VLANs would be assigned to different subnets with different IP address ranges & subnet masks.
You may also be interested in learning about how totroubleshoot internet latencywith Wireshark.
