Netgear’s M4250 AV Series is a line of Ethernet switches designed for Audio/Video over IP and targeted at the broadcast and sound contracting markets.

While many features used for multicast IP audio are enabled on this switch by default, careful configuration of the switch is still necessary to use it with WheatNet-IP.

Before you begin configuration, download the latest firmware for the switch at netgear.com/support/download and update the switch.

Accessing The Switch

While there is a console port and CLI available, the primary means of configuration is through one of two web interfaces, the AV UI and the Main UI. To access the AV UI, enter the username and password, then click the AV UI Login button. To access the Main UI, click the Main UI Login and then enter the username and password on the main login page.

Most of the work you will do is within the AV UI.

An Out Of Band (Service) network port is provided. We recommend using this for configuration, as you can still get into the switch even if you misconfigure a VLAN. Therefore, throughout this document, we will assume that you are connected to this port.The OOB port is a dedicated Ethernet port for out-of-band management of the switch. Traffic on this port is segregated from operational network traffic on the switch ports and cannot be switched or routed to the operational network.

By default, no IP address is set for the OOB port, but its DHCP client is enabled so that the port can receive an IP address from a DHCP server in your network.

If the OOB port does not receive an IP address from a DHCP server in your network, the IP address for the port is set to 192.168.0.239 with 255.255.255.0 as the subnet mask. The same occurs if you connect the OOB port directly to a computer and reboot the switch.

So, if your laptop is connected directly to the OOB port, set your laptop to an IP address in the 192.168.0.0 subnet with subnet mask 255.255.255.0. For example, set your laptop IP to 192.168.0.10.

Then in the web browser, enter 192.168.0.239 to access the login page.

The first time you log into the switch, you will enter admin into the Login Name field, leave the password field blank, and click AV UI Login. You will then be prompted to set a password for the admin login and then use that to log in again.

Set The Management IP Address

The default management address is 169.254.100.100. You should change this address to one within your WNIP subnet.

When choosing the management IP address, you must consider the following:

·         This IP address needs to be unique; it cannot be used by any other switch or WNIP device

·         The switch with the lowest IP address will be elected the IGMP Querier. The Querier is the switch function that manages the multicast traffic on the WheatNet-IP system. Therefore, of your switch IP addresses, the core switch should be the lowest, and edge switches receiving higher addresses.

Now that we’ve decided what to set it to, go to Configure | Overview and look under Device Details. Click the pencil Icon next to Management IP Address. Select Static, then enter the IP address and gateway. Leave Management VLAN at 1. Click Apply.

Configure The Ports For Wheatnet-IP Audio

The Netgear AV Series uses profiles to simplify setup. By default, all of the switch’s ports are set for the Data profile. We will change this to the Audio AES67 profile in this step.

In the menu on the left side, click Network Profiles.

Under Configured Profiles, click on the highlighted vertical three dots to the right.

Change the Profile Template to Audio AES67. Click Apply.

If this is the only Ethernet switch in the system, or if you are only using Netgear M4250 AV Series switches, at this point, setup is complete, and you can proceed to the section on saving the configuration.

If you are integrating this switch into a WheatNet-IP system with existing Cisco switches, continue to the next step.

Configure the M4250 To Be Part Of A Mixed Networking Environment

As we mentioned in the beginning of this document, Netgear chose to make some proprietary changes to how the switch handles IGMP to simplify setup in an AV environment and turned those features on by default. If you are using Cisco or HP/Aruba switches, it is necessary to turn these features off so the Netgear switch will follow standards and send IGMP commands that other switches will recognize.

Disable “Exclude Mrouter Interface Mode” and “IGMP Plus”

Log into the Main UI.

Navigate to Switching | Multicast |

Then in the sidebar, expand IGMP Snooping and select Configuration.

Click the Disable option for Exclude Mrouter Interface Mode and IGMP Plus Mode.

Ensure that Admin Mode is set to Enable. Make your screen match this screenshot.

Click Apply.

Disable Auto Trunking

Log into the AV UI.

Navigate to Configure | Network Profiles

Turn off the Auto-Trunk switch under the drawing of the switch. Accept the “Are you sure?” message.

 

Manually Configure Trunk and Access Ports

In the AV UI, go to Diagnostics and select Terminal.

A terminal window will open in a new browser tab. Enter your admin username and password.

Elevate your permissions by typing enable at the prompt and hit enter.

Enter the config menu by typing configure then hit enter.

The ports are labeled interface /1 – 0/12. Type either the port or range you wish to modify. Hit enter. Then type switchport mode access. Hit enter. Then type end and hit enter to exit config mode. For example, this will set ports 1-9 to access mode.

Now let’s set ports 10-12 to trunk:

Ensure That All Changes Are Saved

In the Main UI, go to Maintenance | Save Config

Check the box and click apply to save the currently running configuration.

Verify That The IGMP Snooping Querier Is Functional

In the AV GUI, go to Diagnostics | Terminal.

Log in using your admin username and password.

Elevate your privileges by typing enable and hit enter.

Type show igmpsnooping querier detail and hit enter.

In this example, this switch is configured as core. Its operational state is Querier, so it is serving the rest of the network:

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This is a screenshot of a Netgear switch configured as an edge switch, where a Cisco switch at 192.168.87.2 has been elected Querier. Note that the switch is showing the address of the Cisco as the Last Querier Address and that its own operational state is set to disabled (because the Cisco is acting as the querier)