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NETWORKING · SWITCHING

What Is a Managed Switch?

A managed switch is an Ethernet switch you can configure, through a web interface, command line or SNMP, to set up VLANs, quality of service, redundancy and monitoring. An unmanaged switch, by contrast, is plug-and-play with no configuration.

01

The Short Answer

A managed switch does everything an unmanaged switch does, and adds a configuration layer. Through that layer you set up traffic segmentation (VLANs), prioritisation (QoS), redundancy (RSTP/MSTP) and monitoring (SNMP, port statistics). It gives you control over how the network behaves, at the cost of having to configure it.

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    VLANs Segment traffic into separate logical networks.
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    QoS Prioritise time-critical traffic under load.
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    Redundancy RSTP/MSTP and rings for controlled failover.
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    Diagnostics Remote monitoring and port-level statistics.
02

When You Need One

Choose managed when traffic types share the network, when uptime needs failover, when you will monitor or grow the network, or when any traffic is time-critical.

For the full picture, see our guide to managed vs unmanaged industrial Ethernet switches, or browse our range.