Just a bit of terminology for you. Lets assume the case of an Ethernet switch that supports VLANs (virtual LANS).
Lets assume that it supports 20 ports and you wish to run 5 completely separate networks. In that case you could/would configure 5 VLANs and each VLAN has 4 ports (just an example, the number of ports could be different for each VLAN). In effect you actually now have 5 ethernet switches!
To keep things clean the devices on each of these would have IP addresses assigned to them with differing subnets. If the device NEVER need to communicate across VLANs you don’t have to do this, but if they do it is necessary.. SO in that case you also have 5 separate IP networks, each on its own virtual switch.
But what if you want some or all devices to be able to talk to each other? IN that case you need a router and that gets intimidating quickly.
If the switch has “Layer3” capabilities that means it has a router built in. So in that case you can can use the router to route traffic across networks, just like on the Internet proper.
If you want to keep this simple, and avoid learning about the details of routing (or even VLANs) you buy a pcWRT router! You will notice that your pcWRT router is assigning completely different IP addresses on the different VLANs (LAN, Guest, X1, X2,a and X3). So you don’t need to do that. A bit mysterious if you don’t have this background info.
Then the routing is configured using those check boxes. All very simple. I understand the 1000 foot view, but don’t have the time or interest to learn about routing. I am very pleased to have it all with an EZ button like here!
It would be even simpler if there were a user manual, but with the search function on the forums here you can general find the answer. Or ask the question and generally get a prompt answer.
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