What is the difference between a managed and unmanaged switch?
Unmanaged switches have no user interface and therefore no settings that can be changed. Managed switches have a user interface that allow control of numerous switch functions. Control functions include the ability to enable / disable individual ports, port “mirroring” (copies all data on one port to another port for test / monitoring purposes) and port traffic statistics. Other features include the ability to assign ports to virtual LANs (VLANs), Quality of Service tagging and traffic prioritization and, in some cases, bandwidth control. Note that managed switches sometimes are called “smart” or “intelligent” switches for marketing purposes.
