Some of the reasons we need to implement VLANs include;

• to reduce broadcast traffic going to all hosts
• to segregate types of hosts or traffic for easier management
• to be able to support more that 254 hosts (/24 class C IP network)
• Segregation as a security piece
• easier overall management of the LAN (VLANs)

Every switched network starts our with the default VLAN 1. If you never do anything with VLANS you may never notice this, not does it matter. All additional VLANS you create/configure at each switch.

A VLAN is a logical virtual network with its own address space and VLAN 2. They are configured at the managed switches, which have to all have the same basic configuration.

An unmanaged switch does not understand VLANs so they can only support the one VLAN configured for the upstream switch port that assigns a VLAN to that lob. I still call the lines that connect switches (even unmanaged) Trunk lines even though only 1 VLAN is supported on that Trunk line.

At this time (2Q24) we are using Cisco SG-300 and SG-350 switches which are the most commonly used with Dante. They have been superseded with the Business line of switches with reportedly support Dante, but I'll play with that later when/if needed.

Over the past ~6 months the availability of switches we would be interested in has tightened up, and the prices have skyrocketed. The Cisco switches we currently use are only available as refurbished. And oddly (probably due to demand), those with more ports tend to cost less than those with fewer ports. I have purchased several "extra" on the assumption they will become even harder to find, and mixing switch brands could become dicey.

There are now also Netgear switches that specifically support audio/Dante traffic. These are some of the highend switches for 1.5-2.0k which is too much for me.

I have been here about 3.5 years and still not finished identifying all of the devices on the LAN. So I have been devoting extra time to hunt down the location of devices (especially switches to begin with) and the switch/port they are connected to. You need that info when setting up VLANs.

Ben, format those below into links like above.

https://www.practicalnetworking.net/stand-alone/vlans/

https://www.mustbegeek.com/understanding-vlans-in-switching-world/

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/222183968-Intro-to-Networking-
Introduction-to-Virtual-LANs-VLANs-and-Tagging

https://www.inteltech.com/blog/how-do-vlans-work/

https://www.megajason.com/2016/03/03/how-to-set-up-vlans-when-you-dont-understand-vlans/