Maybe we should look to our old routers in cold storage (I have three) as decent, but cheap managed switches?
Here's what happened to me. Sometimes my Internet radio stream would cut out when I copied large files to my fileserver. That got me thinking. I'm all wired ethernet, so the bandwith is there, but I do slam my switches sometimes. I also have a television server that streams HD video to various clients in the house.
So I pulled out my main distribution switch (a very reliable Trendnet 8-port) and replaced it with a new Cisco SG 200 8-port that really doesn't cost too much for a managed switch ($110). I played around with the QoS settings for about an hour and figured out a good configuration.
Then I realized my second, unmanaged switch didn't support QoS, which would cause problems. I remembered my old RT-N16 switching beast of a router was lying around unused. Best of all, it had Tomato USB firmware installed, which I knew supported QoS so there it was..a pretty decent managed switch supporting QoS just lying around unused. It probably uses more power and has less ports, but that's the only downside I see?
I pulled out the second switch and replaced it with the RT-N16 configured for switch only and QoS enabled.
Needless to say my Internet radio no longer cuts out when I upload files to the server, but more subjectively the whole LAN seems more responsive.
My old E3000 and even my old WRT54G (both running custom firmware) would have made a very good managed switch as well.
Here's what happened to me. Sometimes my Internet radio stream would cut out when I copied large files to my fileserver. That got me thinking. I'm all wired ethernet, so the bandwith is there, but I do slam my switches sometimes. I also have a television server that streams HD video to various clients in the house.
So I pulled out my main distribution switch (a very reliable Trendnet 8-port) and replaced it with a new Cisco SG 200 8-port that really doesn't cost too much for a managed switch ($110). I played around with the QoS settings for about an hour and figured out a good configuration.
Then I realized my second, unmanaged switch didn't support QoS, which would cause problems. I remembered my old RT-N16 switching beast of a router was lying around unused. Best of all, it had Tomato USB firmware installed, which I knew supported QoS so there it was..a pretty decent managed switch supporting QoS just lying around unused. It probably uses more power and has less ports, but that's the only downside I see?
I pulled out the second switch and replaced it with the RT-N16 configured for switch only and QoS enabled.
Needless to say my Internet radio no longer cuts out when I upload files to the server, but more subjectively the whole LAN seems more responsive.
My old E3000 and even my old WRT54G (both running custom firmware) would have made a very good managed switch as well.
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