Allied Telesis at-8700xl series switch manual Introduction, Why Read this User Guide?, Chapter

Chapter 1

Introduction

Welcome to the AT-8700XL Series Advanced Fast Ethernet Switch, combining wire speed Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching with Quality of Service (QoS) features such as traffic classifiers and bandwidth limiting.

This guide introduces the AT-8700XL Series Switch and will guide you through the most common uses and applications of your new switch. Getting started will not take long—many applications are set up in just a few minutes. If you have any questions about the switch, contact your authorised distributor or reseller.

Your AT-8700XL Series Switch is supplied with default settings which allow you to operate the switch immediately, without any configuration. Even if this is all you want to do, you should still gain access to the switch configuration, if only to change the manager password to prevent unauthorised access.

To take advantage of the advanced routing features, you will need to enter detailed configuration. The switch has both a Command Line Interface (CLI) and a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for configuration and management. Before you can use the GUI, you will need to login to the switch and use its CLI to allocate an IP address to at least one interface.

Why Read this User Guide?

Before you use your switch in a live network, please read this guide. The guide tells you how to access and use the Command Line Interface (CLI) to configure the switch software, and how to access and use the switch’s Graphical User Interface (GUI). It then introduces a number of common switch functions and how to configure them using the CLI. For information on configuration using the GUI, see the context-sensitive online GUI help. For more detailed descriptions of all commands, display outputs, and background information, see the AT-8700XL Series Software Reference.

This user guide is organised into the following chapters:

■Chapter 1, Introduction gives an overview of the switch features and of the documentation supplied with your switch.

■Chapter 2, Getting Started with the Command Line Interface (CLI) describes how to gain access to the command line interface.