Good 5-16 port Gigabit switch?

[JackOfHearts]

That topic says it all. As gigabitt over copper tech has come down in price, I see it is time to upgrade my home network again.

 

[azev]

good gigabit switch ?? none other than CI$CO

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Gigabit stuff is still kinda' expensive, other than the NIC's that are pretty cheap now. I picked up an Edimax 5 port gigabit switch for $92, it's the only gigabit switch I could find for less than $300 or so. As for it being "good", the jury it still out on that, but it appear to function OK. It sure runs hot, I guess switching stuff that speed takes a bit of power.

 

[SaigonK]

Originally posted by: azev
good gigabit switch ?? none other than CI$CO

Ummm Nortel makes some SWEET gIG gear. And it is allot cheaper and runs the same as any Cisco out there.

 

[JackOfHearts]

There are several manufacturers the currently offer Gigabit switches: Netgear, Trendware, EDIMAX, and D-link. I think there may even be more. All of these are 120 dollars or less. Is the current rule of thumb just buy the cheapest and see, or buy a company that you know. Like in my case I would be inclined to purchase a Netgear. Does anyone know anything good or bad about any of the aforementioned companies.
Thanks

-JoH

EDIT: I would like to add Zonet to the of the list of companies to be pondered as a gigabit option.

 

[StraightPipe]

be careful, some of those gig switches have only one gig port and several 100 ports.

BTW isnt it weird that "gigafast" doesnt make any gigabit hardware?

 

[JackOfHearts]

be careful, some of those gig switches have only one gig port and several 100 ports. BTW isnt it weird that "gigafast" doesnt make any gigabit hardware?

I have check in the specs and they list all the ports as being all 10/100/1000.

BTW, LOL on the gigafast thing

-JoH

 

[TypeM]

Try this, it is a linksys... and it is a 5 port switch. It can run gigabit on all five ports.


Linksys Page about the switch


Switch at Buy.com


-Mack

 

[gaidin123]

I have the 8 port Linksys EG008W switch and so far, it's been working fine. It does have an internal fan though you wouldn't know it from any of the pictures or documentation as far as I could tell. It also runs warm. I have 2 machines hooked up to the gigabit switch at the moment and large data transfers (one of them has the DVD burner ) are noticeably faster than when I had them on 100Mbit. It was by far the cheapst gigabit switch out there when I bought it 4 months or so ago.

Gaidin

 

[cmetz]

JackOfHearts, for SOHO use, you're probably best off getting a 10/100 switch for most ports and a 4, 5, or 8 port SOHO 10/100/1000 switch for just the gig ports and connecting the two together (this is what I personally do - a 4-port gig switch and a 16-port 10/100/1000 switch). There is still a pretty big price jump from 8 gig ports to 12. Can you get away with only having seven ports that are really gigabit? The other thing you could try is getting two 8 port SOHO 10/100/1000 switches and connecting them together; this would be oversubscribed pretty badly but in a SOHO environment it might be okay.

That said, if you really want an inexpensive reasonable gig switch, take a look at the Dell PowerConnect 5000 series. I don't have any particular inside info but my gut feeling is that those switches are due for a refresh, so you might want to hold off for ones based on the newer firmware (the current firmware has this awful menu based CLI, the PC 3324/48s replaced that with a vaguely Cisco like interface that's a step in the right direction as well as adding several useful features).

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I have my 5 port gigabit switch plugged into one port on my router, and an 8 port 10/100 switch plugged into the other port. Everything seems just peachy.

 

[BG4533]

Are you using normal Cat5 cable on your Gigabit networks or have you upgraded to something else? I need a switch and have been thinking about just buying a gigabit one.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

CAT5 cable will work, though I have CAT5 and CAT5e intermixed on my network. Obviously, any new cable is CAT5e, but I have lots of CAT5 still in use.

 

[trikster2]

I'll bump this instead of starting a new thread.

Any more Atech experience with the slew of new cheap 4, 5 and 8 port ethernet switches.

The cheapest seems to be hawking ($75 for a 5 port at newegg, $130 for an 8 port ) closely followed by dlink./trendnet/zonet followed by linksys and then netgear before hitting the high end stuff.

Other than warm fuzies from brand names (hawking makes me nervous) the only differences between the products seem to be fan noise, mac database size (linksys is the smallest at 4k, most are 8k not a problem for home users, and finally buffers size. The hawking lists a 256K buffer while Dlink lists 256K per port I forget what the others list.

Any good links to reviews?

 

[mcveigh]

I have a linksys 5 port gig model.. it runs hot and has a noisy fan. I hear the netgears are fanless though.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

My Edimax 5 port gigabit switch is fanless, and it's nice and quiet. Warms your hands when you need it in the winter too!