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Thanks mwecomputers. &nbsp;That's actually the rabbit hole that I'd ventured down since my post. &nbsp;So, if I'm understanding VLANs correctly, I need 3 untagged, private VLANs?
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Thanks mwecomputers.  That's actually the rabbit hole that I'd ventured down since my post.  So, if I'm understanding VLANs correctly, I need 3 untagged, private VLANs?

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yes, VLAN will seprate uses by group 
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So, currently I have three physical ports behind my firewall: 1 for LAN and 2 for DMZ. &nbsp;The reason that I have 2 DMZs is that I'm using traffic shaping on one of them to limit the bandwidth of internally used systems (like email and defect tracking). &nbsp;In order to run these three networks, I bought three Dell PowerConnect 2808's, and was planning on just running them in unmanaged mode. &nbsp;However, I didn't realize how big these things were until they arrived today. &nbsp;I thought that I could put all three of them on a shelf that only took up 1U, but they're going to wind up taking 1U each.<br />
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So, my question is this: instead of using 3 separate 2808's in unmanaged mode, can I get one 2824, and somehow separate the 24 ports into 3 physical networks? &nbsp;If so, what is this called, and will I take a noticable performance hit in doing it this way? &nbsp;I've dug through the web console for the 2808, and nothing is jumping out at me as this kind of feature.<br />
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Thanks in advance.
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So, currently I have three physical ports behind my firewall: 1 for LAN and 2 for DMZ.  The reason that I have 2 DMZs is that I'm using traffic shaping on one of them to limit the bandwidth of internally used systems (like email and defect tracking).  In order to run these three networks, I bought three Dell PowerConnect 2808's, and was planning on just running them in unmanaged mode.  However, I didn't realize how big these things were until they arrived today.  I thought that I could put all three of them on a shelf that only took up 1U, but they're going to wind up taking 1U each.

So, my question is this: instead of using 3 separate 2808's in unmanaged mode, can I get one 2824, and somehow separate the 24 ports into 3 physical networks?  If so, what is this called, and will I take a noticable performance hit in doing it this way?  I've dug through the web console for the 2808, and nothing is jumping out at me as this kind of feature.

Thanks in advance.

Branch 3 separate networks with one switch

A switch is a device that filters and forwards packets of data between LAN segments. Switches operate at the data link layer or the network layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model and therefore support any packet protocol. LANs that use switches to join segments are called switched LANs or, in the case of Ethernet networks, switched Ethernet LANs. A hub is a connection point for devices in a network. Hubs are commonly used to connect segments of a LAN. A hub contains multiple ports; when a packet arrives at one port, it is copied to the other ports so that all segments of the LAN can see all packets.

Switches / Hubs

A router is a networking device that forwards data packets between computer networks. Routers perform the "traffic directing" functions on the Internet. The most familiar type of routers are home and small office cable or DSL routers that simply pass data, such as web pages, email, IM, and videos between computers and the Internet. More sophisticated routers, such as enterprise routers, connect large business or ISP networks up to the powerful core routers that forward data at high speed along the optical fiber lines of the Internet backbone. Though routers are typically dedicated hardware devices, use of software-based routers has grown increasingly common.