Question : Vlan and unmanaged switch

i got this following prob..

we've got an 3com baseline switch, witch is unmanaged...
to the onther side of our building are 4 utp running from this baseline switch

on the other side are 2 manageble x-net sh9016a switches..
(2 pipes per switch), the idea is to set up a vlan or trunk on both switches..
so i setup the x-net switch to have 2 vlans (port 1-8 and 9-16)
but as soon as i plug in 2 pipes/utp from the main baseline 3com switch,
it all get screwed up, ping time out's or very slow response..
also if i plugin an uplink in 1 of the ports of 1-8 and plugin a laptop in
1 of port 9-16, i still can ping/surf and do all the rest..
so some how, the ports are not sepperated.. ??

so the question is, is it possible to setup a vlan or trunk on the managed switch
and plug it in an unmanaged switch. ??
or do you have to have 2 managed switches to make a vlan or trunk work ??

Greetings,
Collen Blijenberg. (MLHJ)

Answer : Vlan and unmanaged switch

An unmanaged switch can support VLAN tagging to do prioritization but it doesn't support dividing ports on separate VLANs.

Any trunking protocol supposes that switches on both sides are aware of it and run it.