Cisco 3550 VLAN vs Protected Ports

[johnlobee]

I was hoping someone can help me with this setup:

Linksys VPN Router (IP:192.168.0.1 Subnet:255.255.255.0) connected to FastEthernet0/1 (VLAN1) on Cisco 3550 48 port (192.168.0.2/255.255.255.0)

This setup is for a 45 unit building sharing an internet line, and each port gets assigned to each unit, so tenants wont see each others networks.

Will using protected ports do the job or do I need to resort to VLANs?

And what advantage do VLANs give me over using protected ports to segregate networks?

[ahmednaas]

Yes protected ports will do the job you want. Put all the clients in a single VLAN other than VLAN 1 and make all the ports protected. In addition, use "switchport block unicast" and "switchport block multicast" for added certainty.

[johnlobee]

Offtopic question: Can anyone give me pros and cons of VLAN vs protected ports?

[johnlobee]

Can I enable protected ports while all the clients are in VLAN 1 or do I have to split them up into VLAN 2?