I recently got a Dell N3048 network switch. It has 46x 1G RJ45, 2x 1G RJ45 / SFP (combo), 2x 10G SFP+, 1x 1G RJ45 RS232 console, and 1x 1G RJ45 out-of-band management port. I am no expert at networking and homelabbing, but I figured I should be able to configure the switch without much trouble. I thought it would be the same as configuring a router, which I had done multiple times before.

When I got it, I cleaned out the inside, powered it on, and pressed the reset button. Then, I connected my PCs second ethernet port to the switch’s out of band management port (the only other things connected to the switch are 2x 120V power cables for the dual 200W power supplies). I log into Windows on my PC, open up a command prompt, and enter arp -a.

It lists seven IPv4 addresses for the network controller connected to the switch (zero for the other network controller, it isn’t connected to anything). I did not expect that. I enter each and every one into my browser (169.254.255.255, 224.0.0.2, 224.0.0.22, 224.0.0.251, 224.0.0.252, 239.255.255.250, 255.255.255.255), but the browser always immediately says that the site cannot be reached.

How can I configure my switch? Any ideas? I would like to avoid having to buy an RJ45 RS232 to USB adapter if at all possible. To clarify, the switch doesn’t actually function properly right now. I tried connecting my PC to my router with it, and the link lights lit up but I didn’t get an internet connection. I am assuming it might work properly once I configure it, if I can.

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Edit: In the official Dell manual, it states that there are 3 ways to manage the switch:

Any of the following methods can be used to manage the switch:

• Use a web browser to access the Dell OpenManage Switch Administrator interface. The switch contains an embedded Web server that serves HTML pages. Dell Networking N-Series switches support HTTP and HTTPS over IPv4 or IPv6.

• Use a Telnet client, SSH client, or a direct console connection to access the CLI. The CLI syntax and semantics conform as much as possible to common industry practice. Dell Networking N-Series switches support Telnet and SSH access over IPv4 or IPv6.

• Use a network management system (NMS), like the Dell OpenManage Network Manager, to manage and monitor the system through SNMP. The switch supports SNMP v1/v2c/v3 over the UDP/IP transport protocol.