Training Lab Connectivity

I am administering (trying to) a training lab in my office. I have a Cisco Catalyst 3560 connected to a Netgear GS724T which is connected to the gateway which is actually just a laptop with a cell card in it.

The netgear has full connectivity utilizing the 192.168.10.0 Network. The VLAN I have setup on the Cisco is under the IP's 192.168.100.0.

I am not to familiar with layer 3 switching so in my mind I'm not entirely certain that I can even get connectivity to my Cisco through my Netgear unless I change the IP's on the clients off of the Cisco to match those of the Netgear's Network. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if a running config would help this any.

I'm assuming that the Netgear switch is layer 2 only. In this case, you'll need to create a VLAN interface on the Cisco 3560 on the 192.168.10.0 network (192.168.10.1). Then you'll need to set the default gateway on the PC and Netgear switch to 192.168.10.1. Finally, on the Cisco, you have to enable ip routing and choose your method of routing, and configure the port that the Netgear switch plugs into for the VLAN that is on the 192.168.10.0 network.

The VLAN address doesn't seem to have an affect on what goes on in this switch. I've made the VLAN IP address on the switch some pretty random things and it has no affect on the connectivity. I have made my VLAN network address 192.168.100.0 off of the Cisco 3560 and 192.168.10.0 off of the Netgear.

If I follow your advice and set the IP's in the 192.168.10.0 range off of the Cisco, then there would be no need for routing in the first place. They'd already be a part of the network. I have done that already though, just to see if the two will talk, and I get perfect connectivity through both. That is how I know the VLAN IP address on the Cisco doesn't make a difference, because when I had hosts of both swithces assign their IP addressed to the 192.168.10.0 network, I would make the VLAN IP something completely different and it didn't affect anything.

I am trying to utilize the Layer 3 switching aspect of this Cisco and have my VLAN as a different network that routes to the Netgear.

Any ideas?

My response assumes you have another network connected to the Cisco. To route to a network, you need an interface. If you make no interface for 192.168.10.0 network on the Cisco, it will have no idea how to route to it from 192.168.100.0. What I described in my last post is layer 3 switching. So what you need in the Cisco is two VLANs. Let's say VLAN 1 and 2. VLAN 1's interface will be for 192.168.10.0 network and VLAN 2's interface will be for 192.168.100.0. To route (layer 3 switch) between these networks, you need either a static route or to use a routing protocol like RIP, etc.

Hmm, maybe I was just a little unclear in my first post.

I'll start from the outside again and move in towards the net gateway. I've got a Cisco 3560 Catalyst Switch plugged into a Netgear Switch and the Netgear plugged into the Internet Gateway. I have computers off of both switches. The Hosts off of the Netgear obviously have connectivity because they are the first hop to the net. They are utilyzing 192.168.10.0 network. The computers off of the Cisco are utilyzing 192.168.100.0 network. I am trying to get those computers to talk to the computers on the Netgear as well as connect to the internet. Is this possible utilyzing the layer 3 switching capabilities of the Cisco? I might have to switch the position of the two switches as well and make the Cisco the middle switch. Lets forget about the VLAN aspect for now.

It would be best to connect the Cisco to the internet gateway, and have the Netgear cascade from the Cisco. Once again, the easiest thing to do is to create the two interfaces on the Cisco for your two networks: 192.168.100.0 and 192.168.10.0, and have it route between them. Utilizing VLANs will simplify management greatly. You don't need to use VLANs to have the two networks talk to each other but you do need their respective interfaces on the Cisco. That is a must.