70CHAPTER 9: USING AUTOMATIC IP CONFIGURATION

How Your Switch

You can use one of the following methods to allocate IP information to

Obtains IP

your Switch (essential if you wish to manage your Switch across the

Information

network):

 

Automatic IP Configuration (default) — the Switch tries to

 

configure itself with IP information. It uses the following 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 standalone mode, and/or no

 

other Switches on the network have this IP address. 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 tries 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 gateway).

 

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 respond to SNMP requests.

 

 

How Automatic IP

When your Switch is powered up for the first time the IP configuration

Configuration

setting is set to automatic — this is the default setting.

Works

If your Switch has been powered up before, whichever 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.

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3Com 3 manual How Your Switch, Obtains IP, Information, How Automatic IP, Works