MikroTik

I would like to setup an RB532 just as a switch for the time being, with traffic from ether 2 ONLY going to ether 1 and also, ether 3 ONLY going to ether 1. I am wanting to keep broadcast traffic from being broadcast from ether 2 to ether 3 and vice versa. I think that just bridging the ports will not be enough. Do I setup VLAN's between the ports or is there a different (better) way?

you could just put each port on a different subnet / network .

and then block the traffic as you want throught firewall and mangle rules

that will only work and direct IP traffic..not other protocols.

im sure there are other prehaps better ways to do this as well.

Just add bridge interface, put all ethers on bridge.

Then use bridge firewall to prohibit traffic from ether2 <=> ether3.

I would like to setup an RB532 just as a switch for the time being, with traffic from ether 2 ONLY going to ether 1 and also, ether 3 ONLY going to ether 1. I am wanting to keep broadcast traffic from being broadcast from ether 2 to ether 3 and vice versa. I think that just bridging the ports will not be enough. Do I setup VLAN's between the ports or is there a different (better) way?

Depends on whether the users on the different ports are on different subnets.
If you bridge the three ports then you can add a bridge "forward" filter rule at the very top that says;

action=drop in-interface=!ether1 out-interface=!ether1

This will do what you ask in just 1 rule. If you need more help you can contact me offlist at; netslists (at) gmail (.) com
I'm in Florida and could use some extra income