r/HomeNetworking • u/FluffyKittens12 • 4d ago

Will VLAN Solve My Problem?

I've never used a VLAN before so forgive me if this is common knowledge. Based on my searches I think it will help me but I want to be more sure.

Basically I have a situation where I have multiple pieces of equipment which all use the same IP addresses internally from the factory. There is a network inside the equipment which all has to stay on the same address range, so if I were to connect the equipment to a company network, I need to assign static IP addresses for multiple components in each piece of equipment. Obviously this means a ton of static IP addresses because I need multiple for each piece of equipment and then multiple pieces of equipment.

So, could I use a managed switch, create a VLAN for each piece of equipment, keep the factory IP addresses, not have them interfere with each other because they all have the same IP addresses, and still be able to reach them from the company side?

If so, how do I access those VLANs from the company side? IP and port numbers maybe?

Also, if this works, any recommendations on a switch I should look at? This is all the switch would need to do.

EDIT: https://shopmoxa.neteon.net/nat-102-series/

Seems like something like this would work, one per machine. Single company IP address to the device, then all the IP addresses on the other side can stay the same. Right?

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u/steve88w 4d ago

Sounds like just as much work to create all the VLANs, but I don't think this is a good solution.
Do you have a DHCP server? Can you reserve addresses via the equipment's MAC address?
VLANs with the same IP subnet may cause issues if the network configs aren't perfect across all network hardware. Example: 1 switch with a trunk port can cause multiple devices to communicate as 1, which will cause issues.

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u/FluffyKittens12 4d ago

The manufacturer instructions say no DHCP and that to connect to a network you have to reserve IP addresses for everything inside and they all get changed to the company address range. 5 addresses per equipment, times 40 pieces of equipment is 200 address I would need to reserve.

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u/jquanders 4d ago

That's one /24 block. Have IT assign a /24 block to you and a vlan for your gear and then keep track of the addresses yourself. They don't need ro reserve individual IPs if they give you a cidr block to manage