your switch can operate in its default state, that is, you can install it and it will work straight away (plug-and-play). however, to make full use of the features offered by the switch, and to change and monitor the way it works, you have to access the management software that resides on the switch. this is known as managing the switch.

    managing the switch can help you to improve the efficiency of the switch and therefore the overall performance of your network.

    this chapter explains the initial set up of the switch and the different methods of accessing the management software to manage a switch. it covers the following topics:

    setting up overview

    manually configuring ip information

    viewing automatically configured ip information

    methods of managing a switch

    setting up command line interface management

    setting up web interface management

    setting up snmp management

    default users and passwords