Difference between a MANAGED and unmanaged switch?

[Shyatic]

I am curious... I'm trying to get my boss to upgrade the office to use unmanaged switches (since we use hubs and anything is better than that)... but he says we need managed switches, but he doesn't know why (go figure, he isn't too bright).

I'm just trying to come here to solve that problem from happening so we can at least move to switches.

Thanks!

 

[Matthias99]

Managed switches allow you to do all sorts of configuration and monitoring things over any connection on the same network (as opposed to having to plug directly into the switch to program it). Unless you're running some crazily large or complex network, you don't need it.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Managed switches allow you to do all sorts of configuration and monitoring things over any connection on the same network (as opposed to having to plug directly into the switch to program it). Unless you're running some crazily large or complex network, you don't need it.

Correct. How many people in your office? Are you on a domain or a workgroup? What's your backbone look like? 10 or 100MB/s

 

[Shyatic]

I'll say this much about my network at work... my home network is more complex and better laid out.

Hope that's just candy for your imagination.

 

[MichaelD]

How many users at work? You can buy a nice 24-port 10/100 unmanaged switch for about $100.

 

[Shyatic]

There are about 50 people on the network, probably less since multiple people use a single PC... so say 30 connections of PCs plus all the network printers as well...

I was pretty sure an unmanaged switch would be just fine, and this only reinforces that fact. Thanks!

 

[n0cmonkey]

Does your boss have pointy hair?

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Scribe
There are about 50 people on the network, probably less since multiple people use a single PC... so say 30 connections of PCs plus all the network printers as well...

I was pretty sure an unmanaged switch would be just fine, and this only reinforces that fact. Thanks!

Get a a couple of nice, autosensing, 24-port switches and chain them together. It leaves room to grow. Total cost: less than $400 even for decent stuff.

 

[Shyatic]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Does your boss have pointy hair?

He has no hair. Also is >400 lbs.

I have a job interview today... 🙂 Sooner I get out the sooner I leave this frustration.

 

[imported_Phil]

It's not your money, so agree with him and screw him for a raise 🙂

 

[GTiBri]

I would suggest having one managed switch. With unmanaged switches you can't set up a diagnostic port to have all of the network data sent to. It's great for sniffing out virii and hackers, oh my!

Here at my work we have one managed switch and the rest are "dumb" switches. The only reason you would need a managed is if you want to set up virtual lans, or have the diagnostic set up I mentioned above. If you won't be doing that, managed switches would be a waste of money. They don't go any faster (in general.)

 

[Shyatic]

Yea, we have one nice Cisco switch that everything connects into from the hubs... but they are still HUBS 🙁