Question

Help choosing a switch for a small business

Asked by: rdoving

I recently started working for the family business and am looking to slowly bring our network into the 21st century.  We have 6 PCs on a wireless network using a D-Link DI-524 wireless router.  We don't have a server, all the machines are configured in a peer-to-peer network.  We don't share much data between the computers, just 5MB CAD files and spreadsheets.  I was a Computer Science major in college and a software developer for a few years so I can handle wiring and pretty basic setup, but I'm not very experienced on the hardware side.

Things move slowly around here, so until I can convince the boss to buy a server and develop a full-blown solution, I'd like to start out by buying a switch and wiring all of the PCs to it.  In researching switches it looks like they range from a $25 cheapo 16 port switch to a Cisco Catalyst costing thousands of dollars.  What do I need to look for in a switch?  Any recommended brands/models?  Do you know of any sites to help guide small businesses develop a server/network setup?  Or will I need to hire a consultant to come in here and design everything?  I would think our situation is pretty basic and generic.

Thanks for the help!

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Asked On
2008-01-15 at 07:05:16ID23084047
Topic

Network Switches & Hubs

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
2

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Answers

 

by: newborn1281Posted on 2008-01-15 at 07:33:45ID: 20663442

For your environment you may use any of the switches stay with up to 24 port if you don't anticipate any growth. We are Dell standardized and let me tell you we use their 2724 series i think you can get it for like 250 they work solid and don't crash. And then if you ever need Layer 3 switch they will integrate nicely. The 2724 series is 1Gb switch.

 

by: samccarthyPosted on 2008-01-16 at 11:49:21ID: 20675361

You have some pretty light switch requirements.  Much depends on your budget and projected growth.  Whatever switch I would buy would be Gigabit.  I have an attorney's office with 5 Users and a Server.  They run off of a cheap Netgear GS-108 Switch.  It has been rock solid.  If you project more ports needed or additional growth, go with an unmanaged Gigabit Switch of 16 or 24 ports.  If you are running off of wireless now with this small network, any one of the cheaper units will work.  Stick with a Netgear, Dell, Linksys, Dlink, etc.  They will give you great performance for the buck.  I configured an entire city hall to run off of unmanaged Dell 2624 Gigabit switches that were a little over $300 each when they wanted Gigabit but had limited Budget.

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