70 CHAPTER 9: USING AUTOMATIC IP CONFIGURATION
How Your Switch Obtains IP Information
You can use one of the following methods to allocate IP information to
your Switch (essential if you wish to ma nage your Switch across the
network):
■Automatic IP Configuration (default) — the Switch tries to
configure itself with IP information. It uses the follow ing industry
standard methods to automatically allocate the Switch IP information:
■Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
■Auto-IP — the Switch will configure itself with its default IP address
169.254.100.100 if it is operating in a standa lone mode, and/or no
other Switches on the network have this IP a ddress. If this default
IP address is already in use on the network then the Switch detects
this and configures itself with an IP address in the range
169.254.1.0 to 169.254.254.255.
■Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP)
For ease of use, you do not have to choose between these three
automatic configuration methods. The Switch t ries each method in a
specified order as described in “Automatic Process” on page 71.
■Manual IP Configuration — you can manually input the IP
information (IP address, subnet mask, and default gate way).
If you select an option for no IP configuration the Switch will not be
accessible from a remote management workstation on the LAN. In
addition, the Switch will not be able to respon d to SNMP requests.
How Automatic IP Configuration Works
When your Switch is powered up for the first time the IP configuration
setting is set to automatic — this is the default setting.
If your Switch has been powered up before, wh ichever of the three
options for IP configuration (manual, automatic, none ) was last
configured is activated when the Switch powers up again.
You can switch to manual IP configuration at any time using a serial port
connection to set up the IP information. For more information see the
Getting Started Guide that accompanies your Switch.