Difference between isolated port and protected port

[steve_mils]

Hi,

Can anybody explain to me the difference between an isolated port (think Private VLAN) and a protected port (switchport protected). I'm struggling to find resources that adequately explain it!

Thanks!

[Edison Ortiz · Accepted solution]

There are very similar.

The protected port does not communicate with other protected ports but it communicates with other non-protected ports. In order for a protected port to communicate to another protected port is by using a default gateway (Layer3).

Isolated port can only communicate with Promiscuous ports. It can't communicate with other Isolated ports or community ports.

As I stated, both offer about the same feature but the reason both are available is due to not all hardware support Private Vlan. If I recall correctly, Private Vlan was implemented starting with 3560 switches. 3550 do not support Private Vlans.

HTH,

__

Edison.