Hello,

I need two responses of at least 150 words each for the below students discussions for this week. Also in the bold below are the questions the students at answering.

Questions:

For this discussion, discuss how and why a network engineer would want to implement Virtual LANs in their network.

Student one:

For this discussion, discuss how and why a network engineer would want to implement Virtual LANs in their network.

To start i will descirbe what a VLAN is. It is a collection of devices that are grouped together to control broadcast, unicast, and multicast traffic in layer 2 devices. There are many beneifts to VLANs as well. Such as, Increased performance and stronger security. VLANs increase network performance by careful monitoring of the network use. By doing this the administrator is able to reduce the number of router hops that are needed, henceforth increasing the bandwidth for the users of that network. Security is a no brainer here. If you separate systems that have sensitive data from the other systems it makes it harder to get into the sensitive system.

Now there are a few reason you should implement them into your network one of the biggest that i have seen is being able to segregate the users of the system. If you set up a VLAN and set up different systems for say legal and another for sales. Then you can make it where those departments are the only one that have access to there data. Doing this can also help the traffic flow in the network, since segregating the companies can actually help those sections that have a heavier traffic flow. This can be done through access lists that provide the network admin control over who sees what network traffic.

– Adam

Itke. (2019, May 21). Benefits of VLANs? Retrieved from https://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswe…

Student two:

This week the professor has asked us how and why a network engineer would want to implement VLANs?

Before we actually getting into VLAN’s I am gonna discuss what a actual VLAN is. VLAN stands for Virtual Local Area Network. A VLAN consist of logically connected computers in a LAN that are geographically in different locations. A VLAN allows a network of computers and users to communicate in a simulated environment as if they exist in a single LAN and are sharing a single broadcast and multicast domain.

So why would a network engineer want to implement a VLAN? A VLAN allows multiple networks to work as virtually one LAN. VLAN’s are created to provide segmentation, and allow for security implementation easier. Another big advantage of VLANS allows the network to be managed from one location thus allowing for expansion and relocation making it easier.

So how do Vlans get implemented? According to Techopedia “

Higher-end switches allow the functionality and implementation of VLANs. The purpose of implementing a VLAN is to improve the performance of a network or apply appropriate security features”. In my experience, Most switches today come with a VLAN options. It is not uncommon for a network to have multiple VLANs. Where I work at now we actually call our VLAN’s after sport teams allowing for a easier way to remember them. One of the biggest threats to a VLAN is a virus, One virus could spread through out the whole Logical network even if the computers are not physically connected together. Overall VLANS can make network management easier and networking expansion faster.

-Larry