[Valides Davis]

I'm building a small network for my friend's Factory. I'm using 10 encoders for the security cameras he has in the factory. All the encoders are connected to a 24 ports swtich (cisco 3560).
We are using the encoders because the server is a half mile away from the station, and we found out that it's better to convert the signals (A/D). On the other side we are using another switch with a decoder, a server, and a workstation.
I got the design from pelco, but i don't know how to do the switch configuration.
Does anybody know how to do the switch configuration?

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by encoders do you mean fiber trancievers? that change ethernet traffic to fiber traffic (i.e. light)? are these tranceivers built into the switch? or are there ports to place the tranceivers in?

[dsenette]

by encoders do you mean fiber trancievers? that change ethernet traffic to fiber traffic (i.e. light)? are these tranceivers built into the switch? or are there ports to place the tranceivers in?

[Valides Davis]

I meant by encoder an analog to digital converter. We want to convert the analog signal coming from the cameras to digital before running it on the fiber through the ethernet switch.

[dsenette]

AH...so..(bear with me)...you've got a seperate device that converts the signal from the camera to ethernet traffic? which in turn will be pushed over your network however it needs to go correct?

this shouldn't require anything configured per say on the switch...unless you're wanting to set up vlans to segregate the traffic

[Valides Davis]

I'm thinking of segregating the traffic in case i need to add other applications to the network such as public address (speakers) or IP Phones.

So what's your opinion?

[dsenette]

yeah...then you're going to want to do VLANS...which...well...suck hehehe..not really...but they're entertaining to say the least...VLANS USED to be something that i could do but i've fallen out of practice....cisco has A LOT of good documentation on configuring their switches/routers/etc...

basically a VLAN will assign certain IP ranges to ports on the switch (i.e. ports 1 through 12 are on 192.168.1.1 and ports 13 through 24 are on 192.168.0.1) no traffic (unless specified) will travers the VLAN...so if you plug in a 192.168.1.1 device into port 24...it won't work...etc... very good for multiple DHCP scopes that aren't related and general traffic segregation (such as a production network mixed in with the IP cameras...the IP cameras will probably be putting out alot of traffic which would slow down your PCs...if you segregate...then the traffic wont interfere)

[Valides Davis]

I'm reading about VLAN right now and it's really entertaining. I have one more question and hopefully the last.
Let's say one of the cameras is connected to port 1 of Switch A. On the other side a video server is connected to port 1 and an audio server to port 2 of Switch B. If i need to route the signal of this camera all the way to the video server, ho can i implement the network? i do understand the theory of this, and how destination and source IPs work, but i don't know how things work on the practical switch.

valides,

[dsenette]

as in how to get traffic across long distances (which i think is what you're doing right?)

let's say switch A is out in the warehouse and switch B is in the office (more than 300 feet away)....you would need a switch that either h as fibre capabilities...or you'd need a fiber to ethernet tranciever (i call them cannaries...why? no freaking clue) then you would run fiber from switch A's location to switch B's location and connect that to the tracievers..then connect the trancievers to the switches....after that...standard networking takes over....if you plug an IP device into switch A (forget about VLANS for now) then anything plugged into switch B will see it the same way it would if the device were plugged in at switch B...does that make sense?