Assigning an IP address to switches

Hi, i'm new to networking... I'm just getting confused. Why is there a need to assign an ip address and default gateway to a switch? I just thought that when you connect the hosts to the switch, everything would already be ok and no more additional configuration is needed. Please help me out.

The IP is used mainly for management. Syslog, SNMP, remote management, etc.

You don't have to assign an address to it if you don't want, but it will make your job a lot harder if you need to move a port from one vlan to another or you need to find which mac address is plugged into which port.

The whole point of managed switches is configurability.

For now, just give it an address on the primary network you are connecting to. Once you realize what all you can do, you will be glad you did it.

Welcome to Firewall.cx mike_mad
You're right really - a switch is basically a layer 2 device that acts at at a packet level based on source and destination MAC address. So for it basically to work and switch packets between things it doesn't need either an IP address or a default gateway.
However, with that said, most switches are manageable and for you to manage the thing remotely you need both an IP address for the switch and a default gateway so you can access the management facilty from remote networks.
Also with VLAN-aware switches you might find that setting up the management in this way also sets up an IP network for the default VLAN whether you need this or not

wow... thanks a lot... it helped me a lot in finishing a program in network simulation...

Glad to see the kind of activity we have here these days at firewall.cx...

Awesome community...I am loving it

yes ... i joined the community few days before and what i feel it's a good place to polish ur knowledge and get the right kind of answers that are required