VLANs, trunks and tagging are all related. As you probably know a VLAN defines a broadcast domain, trunks allows vlans to travel from switch to switch and taggings either use the InterSwitch Link (ISL) which is Cisco proprietary or the open standard 802.1q. So to put it a bit more simply a trunk permits different vlans which are tagged to traverse over the link. A good article describing this is <a href="http://archive.networknewz.com/networknewz-10-20030725IntroductiontoVLANs.html"> If you are dealing with Cisco switches understanding knowledge of VTP is also necessary <a href="http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk689/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094c52.shtml"> To create a VLAN enter global configuration mode config t vlan 10 name Sales exit Creates vlan 10 with the name Sales To assign a port to this VLAN you would create an access port e.g. config t int fa0/1 switchport access vlan 10 switchport mode access exit to assign a range of ports (0 to 5) to vlan 10 int range fa 0/1 - 5 switchport access vlan 10 switchport mode access exit To create a trunk link between two switches requires you set up a trunk port on the interface switchport mode trunk You will need a layer 3 device such as a router or L3 switch (3750) to perform intervlan communications. The propagation of VLANS from a master switch (VTP server) to client switches requires setting up a VTP domain if you do not want to create VLANS on each individual switch.

VLANs, trunks and tagging are all related. As you probably know a VLAN defines a broadcast domain, trunks allows vlans to travel from switch to switch and taggings either use the InterSwitch Link (ISL) which is Cisco proprietary or the open standard 802.1q. So to put it a bit more simply a trunk permits different vlans which are tagged to traverse over the link. A good article describing this is <a href="http://archive.networknewz.com/networknewz-10-20030725IntroductiontoVLANs.html"> If you are dealing with Cisco switches understanding knowledge of VTP is also necessary <a href="http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk689/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094c52.shtml"> To create a VLAN enter global configuration mode config t vlan 10 name Sales exit Creates vlan 10 with the name Sales To assign a port to this VLAN you would create an access port e.g. config t int fa0/1 switchport access vlan 10 switchport mode access exit to assign a range of ports (0 to 5) to vlan 10 int range fa 0/1 - 5 switchport access vlan 10 switchport mode access exit To create a trunk link between two switches requires you set up a trunk port on the interface switchport mode trunk You will need a layer 3 device such as a router or L3 switch (3750) to perform intervlan communications. The propagation of VLANS from a master switch (VTP server) to client switches requires setting up a VTP domain if you do not want to create VLANS on each individual switch.