I need to remotely control the access to technology resources in 14 offices. I’d like to use 1 managed switch (per office)with several unmanaged switches connected to the ports for this control.
For example, all printers would be connected to Unmanaged Switch 1 which would be connected to a single port of the managed switch. Users would be separated into groups connected to Unmanaged Switches 2, 3 and 4. Each of these unmanaged switches would connects to a single port on the managed switch.
This would allow me to shut down a single port on the manages switch to remotely shut down access to the printers for just 1 user group.
Several Managed Switches have been tried and they all allow the assignment of MAC addresses to a port but I need to assign the MAC addresses to a group, which is then assigned to a port on the Manages Switch.
3Com’s interface provided VLANs but any setting changes randomly deleted MAC Addresses and the interface was klunky and not intuitive at all.
Does anyone know what switch will work for this purpose or maybe have a suggestion for a totally different way to control the technology access ??
Gary
