Looking for a 24-port gigabit router/gateway

[Dari]

Does such a device exist? I want to consolidate the modem, router, and switch into 2 devices instead of the aforementioned 3. I'm assuming that a 24-port router/switch combo would be the best bet. I would like something unmanaged and less than $500. I want something that's very well made (no dead ports as is usual with low end 24-port gigabit switches) and won't slow the entire network to a crawl if you're transferring files between two computers.

If such a device does not exist then could someone please recommend a 24-port switch with the aforementioned qualities?

 

[Mushkins]

I've never even heard of a router with 24 ports, there's just no reason outside of maybe a highly specialized datacenter environment. Even if it did exist, there's no way it's less than $500, most business class *routers* arent under $500.

Simply put, putting all your eggs in one basket at that level of hardware is a "Bad Idea." You wouldn't want to have to replace the whole router if a single switch port went bad, you'd just want to swap out the switch and let the router keep on trucking.

Is this for a business or for home use? It's really hard to make a recommendation without knowing which, but the Cisco SG200-26 is a solid mix of reliability and price in a 24 port 10/100/1000. It's not *completely* unmanaged, it has a web interface. However the default configuration is pretty much "plug stuff in and it works." They run about $350-400.

For home use, a Netgear JGS524 would do you just fine for only $200.

 

[jaydee]

That Cisco SG200-26 looks really nice for $310 at newegg right now. Just looked up specs, my company could have saved a lot of money by primarily going with those instead of the 2960-S across the board for our lab.

 

[Dari]

It's for home. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[imagoon]

That Cisco SG200-26 looks really nice for $310 at newegg right now. Just looked up specs, my company could have saved a lot of money by primarily going with those instead of the 2960-S across the board for our lab.

2960S and the SG200 are in completely different classes. Without knowing the exact environment, the SG200 may have cost more money since the cost of the hardware is not the TCO.

 

[kevnich2]

If you have a need for a 24 port switch, you should know even wanting to consolidate these is a very very bad idea. But no, such a device does not exist. The more separate you keep your devices, the more reliability you're going to have, generally speaking. Also helps when something does break that it doesn't take the entire network down with it.

 

[imagoon]

If you have a need for a 24 port switch, you should know even wanting to consolidate these is a very very bad idea. But no, such a device does not exist. The more separate you keep your devices, the more reliability you're going to have, generally speaking. Also helps when something does break that it doesn't take the entire network down with it.

Actually they do, just not at the $500 range. Cisco 3750G-24 could do it since it is a true layer 3 switch but it would be bordering on ludicrous to use in a home environment. I think those are still nearly 13k

 

[Lifted]

You can pick up an EX2200 for about $700. Here's a list of the EX series Layer 3 features.

No need to spend the money on 3750 for a home switch/router/firewall. imagoon must be a Cisco marketing rep.

This isn't unmanaged, but I don't see how you're going to find an unmanaged layer 3 switch. How would you configure routing and firewall policies if it's unmanaged? When you get down to it, a layer 3 switch is more like a 24 port router with layer 2 functionality (vlans, stp, lacp, etc) than a layer 2 switch with routing abilities.

 

[Dari]

You can pick up an EX2200 for about $700. Here's a list of the EX series Layer 3 features.

No need to spend the money on 3750 for a home switch/router/firewall. imagoon must be a Cisco marketing rep.

This isn't unmanaged, but I don't see how you're going to find an unmanaged layer 3 switch. How would you configure routing and firewall policies if it's unmanaged? When you get down to it, a layer 3 switch is more like a 24 port router with layer 2 functionality (vlans, stp, lacp, etc) than a layer 2 switch with routing abilities.

All this is above my pay-grade but I'll look into it. Thanks.

EDIT: You said the EX2200 supports routing capability but, in that link, it's the lowest end device and many features are not supported. So, what exactly am I looking for, feature-wise? Or is L3 the only thing I should be concerned with wrt a switch that routes?

 

[Mushkins]

All this is above my pay-grade but I'll look into it. Thanks.

EDIT: You said the EX2200 supports routing capability but, in that link, it's the lowest end device and many features are not supported. So, what exactly am I looking for, feature-wise? Or is L3 the only thing I should be concerned with wrt a switch that routes?

If you don't know what features such as BGP and OSPF are, you should seriously not be thinking of purchasing those devices. This is high level network engineer hardware, not home stuff. It's also nowhere near plug and play functionality, you need to know how to configure it properly for your environment.

A Layer 3 switch also has no full-featured firewall, meaning you're going to need a separate device anyway. A Layer 3 switch *can* route, it's nowhere near as capable as an actual dedicated router/gateway device.

For a home setup, buy one of the top three recommended SOHO routers in the sticky, buy your typical netgear/dlink/whatever 24 port switch, and call it a day. There is absolutely no reason to be buying $1000 switches or $4000 routers for a home setup unless you're an enthusiast network engineer building a home lab.

 

[Dari]

If you don't know what features such as BGP and OSPF are, you should seriously not be thinking of purchasing those devices. This is high level network engineer hardware, not home stuff. It's also nowhere near plug and play functionality, you need to know how to configure it properly for your environment.

A Layer 3 switch also has no full-featured firewall, meaning you're going to need a separate device anyway. A Layer 3 switch *can* route, it's nowhere near as capable as an actual dedicated router/gateway device.

For a home setup, buy one of the top three recommended SOHO routers in the sticky, buy your typical netgear/dlink/whatever 24 port switch, and call it a day. There is absolutely no reason to be buying $1000 switches or $4000 routers for a home setup unless you're an enthusiast network engineer building a home lab.

Perhaps you're right. But, in addition to consolidating, I did not want to have to deal with buying 24-port switches only to find out a couple of ports do not work. That would piss me off and it's what I read about on Newegg wrt inexpensive switches. I will still consolidate (going to get a Motorola modem/router) but I want a good switch, not a cheap product that may come defective and have to deal with CS that does not care. I also wanted something that won't clog up the entire network when a lot of data is being transferred between two devices.

 

[drebo]

All SOHO switches are cheap, as in terrible. That's why they're so cheap.

You don't really expect for a $200 24-port switch to be as fast or as reliable as a $3000 24-port switch, based solely on the fact that it's unmanaged, do you?

You get what you pay for.

That said, a Cisco 2911 and a SM-ES3G-24-P will get you a great router/firewall/switch. You're not going to like the price, though.

Also, most fixed-configuration L3 switches (such as a 3750 or an EX2200) do not support NAT and thus are not useful in this instance.

 

[Mushkins]

Perhaps you're right. But, in addition to consolidating, I did not want to have to deal with buying 24-port switches only to find out a couple of ports do not work. That would piss me off and it's what I read about on Newegg wrt inexpensive switches. I will still consolidate (going to get a Motorola modem/router) but I want a good switch, not a cheap product that may come defective and have to deal with CS that does not care. I also wanted something that won't clog up the entire network when a lot of data is being transferred between two devices.

Newegg reviews should be taken with a very large grain of salt. The vast majority of the people writing those reviews have an axe to grind because of defective product (or in many cases improperly used product: i.e. have a bad cable or a bad NIC or a misconfiguration and blame the switch) and they want to bitch to the world. Unless there's a serious flaw with the product, upwards of 90% of people who have a positive experience with the product do not go back and leave a positive review. They use their product and move on with their lives.

Out of over 15 years using various classes of network hardware, I have had *one* cheapo 4 port netgear switch fail on me, and that was due to a power surge.

If you buy a 24 Port SOHO switch and you find a bad port within the first few days of testing, you just send it back as defective and they send you a new one or give you store credit or whatever. A $700 switch has the possibility of having a dead port too, it happens, thats specifically *why* you dont want to consolidate already expensive devices into a more expensive and more failure prone device. As for clogging up the whole network, thats... not how a switch works at all. Anyone claiming that was either trying to run enterprise webservers off a $200 Netgear switch, or was running two dozen torrents on their desktop and wondering why their connection slowed to a crawl. You're not going to saturate a modern SOHO switch unless, again, you're an enthusiast network engineer building a home lab and specifically *trying* to saturate that switch.

And just FYI, modem/router combos are almost universally reviled in the IT world. They pretty much always suck, and they absolutely cut corners to get them within a consumer friendly price point.

"A jack of all trades is a master of none" rings especially true in networking, but its your network and your money, all we can do is reiterate that it's a bad idea

 

[imagoon]

Random example: one of those previously mentioned 3750G-24 (ie that 13k switch) powered on once and never again once mounted in the rack so.... it happens.

Also Juniper makes fantastic firewalls... SSG series is really handy so I am not a Cisco shill or something Lifted D:

 

[Dari]

Newegg reviews should be taken with a very large grain of salt. The vast majority of the people writing those reviews have an axe to grind because of defective product (or in many cases improperly used product: i.e. have a bad cable or a bad NIC or a misconfiguration and blame the switch) and they want to bitch to the world. Unless there's a serious flaw with the product, upwards of 90% of people who have a positive experience with the product do not go back and leave a positive review. They use their product and move on with their lives.

Out of over 15 years using various classes of network hardware, I have had *one* cheapo 4 port netgear switch fail on me, and that was due to a power surge.

If you buy a 24 Port SOHO switch and you find a bad port within the first few days of testing, you just send it back as defective and they send you a new one or give you store credit or whatever. A $700 switch has the possibility of having a dead port too, it happens, thats specifically *why* you dont want to consolidate already expensive devices into a more expensive and more failure prone device. As for clogging up the whole network, thats... not how a switch works at all. Anyone claiming that was either trying to run enterprise webservers off a $200 Netgear switch, or was running two dozen torrents on their desktop and wondering why their connection slowed to a crawl. You're not going to saturate a modern SOHO switch unless, again, you're an enthusiast network engineer building a home lab and specifically *trying* to saturate that switch.

And just FYI, modem/router combos are almost universally reviled in the IT world. They pretty much always suck, and they absolutely cut corners to get them within a consumer friendly price point.

"A jack of all trades is a master of none" rings especially true in networking, but its your network and your money, all we can do is reiterate that it's a bad idea

I understand that modem/router combos are not popular. But that's mainly because of the wireless portion, which I have no intention of enabling. I just want the modem and router to be in one box. I can get an access point for the wireless stuff.

Anyway, you guys know more than me so I guess I'll settle for an inexpensive router and see what happens. Thanks for all your help.

 

[Mushkins]

But that's mainly because of the wireless portion

From my experience it's mainly because they're unreliable junk Either way, I hope whatever you go with works out for your needs.

 

[Zargon]

I've never even heard of a router with 24 ports, there's just no reason outside of maybe a highly specialized datacenter environment. Even if it did exist, there's no way it's less than $500, most business class *routers* arent under $500.

oh gosh I have about 50 of that type of router in my stock room

but yeah, not for 500 bucks

good luck finding an enterprise class device with less than 24 ports.....

but there is nothing he wants no, if he bought something old that fit the bill it would eat 20+ a month in power bills

I could ship him a 7206 VXR to be mean


24 port gig switches for 1-200 are all over ebay, Dell?SMC's, old ciscos, etc

 

[Dari]

From my experience it's mainly because they're unreliable junk Either way, I hope whatever you go with works out for your needs.

I want to get the SB6580. What makes it junk if you're just getting a wireless router combined with a SB6141 cable modem?

 

[Lifted]

All this is above my pay-grade but I'll look into it. Thanks.

EDIT: You said the EX2200 supports routing capability but, in that link, it's the lowest end device and many features are not supported. So, what exactly am I looking for, feature-wise? Or is L3 the only thing I should be concerned with wrt a switch that routes?

It does support IPv4 filtering, which makes it a firewall.

https://www.juniper.net/techpubs//e...irewall-filter-ex-series-overview.html#jd0e39

I was only being half serious about getting it though. This is not the best use of money for a home router/firewall/switch. Unless you have a solid understanding of configuring enterprise network equipment you'd be looking at a serious learning curve to say the least.

Get a < $150 user friendly consumer router w/ firewall and a second hand 24 port gigabit layer 2 switch on ebay if you're dead set against the netgear/dlink quality switches (i've had horrible experiences with the $200 - $500 netgear switches, so I don't blame you). Somebody mentioned Dell switches which are relatively cheap and reliable. HP Procurve's are also a lot cheaper than Cisco gear, and even more so when you pick them up used. I see 2824's (24 Gb ports) on ebay for under $200.

Also Juniper makes fantastic firewalls... SSG series is really handy so I am not a Cisco shill or something Lifted D:

It was a joke.

 

[kevnich2]

Actually they do, just not at the $500 range. Cisco 3750G-24 could do it since it is a true layer 3 switch but it would be bordering on ludicrous to use in a home environment. I think those are still nearly 13k

When I say they don't make a 24 port switch with built in router, I was speaking on a home basis, meaning one with a firewall. If he is wanting to consolidate devices as he says, he will still need a firewall device.

I am definitely what I consider a power user for tech and have yet to have a big need for a L3 enterprise router at home.

 

[kevnich2]

A combo modem router sucks for more than just because the wifi sucks. The capabilities,features and web interface is horrid on combo devices. They are designed for the majority of users, those who once the ISP tech configures it, they just think its magic and go with it, they never login or configure anything. If you have a need for a 24 port switch, sorry but you don't seem to fit that model. I have a lot of tech stuff and my career is IT....I don't have a need for a 24 port switch.

But take it from me, it's better to spend a bit more money, get quality reliable gear and you will be much happier, even if you have multiple devices.

 

[ch33zw1z]

It's for home. Thanks for the suggestions.

How many devices do you have at home?

IMO, consolidating down to 1 device for home use is not cost effective. At best, you can get a router/modem combo, but you will still need a switch.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Does such a device exist?

It's only 22 ports, and it's outside of your budget, but...

http://www.avfirewalls.com/FortiGate-100D.asp

 

[Dari]

How many devices do you have at home?

IMO, consolidating down to 1 device for home use is not cost effective. At best, you can get a router/modem combo, but you will still need a switch.

That's the plan. I have 16 devices that have ethernet ports and I hate wireless since it's unreliable and slower. I figured if I have 16 now I may as well get a 24-port switch since it provides room for more. Also, I can take advantage of these ethernet ports because the apartment is completely wired for gigabit ethernet.

 

[Dari]

A combo modem router sucks for more than just because the wifi sucks. The capabilities,features and web interface is horrid on combo devices. They are designed for the majority of users, those who once the ISP tech configures it, they just think its magic and go with it, they never login or configure anything. If you have a need for a 24 port switch, sorry but you don't seem to fit that model. I have a lot of tech stuff and my career is IT....I don't have a need for a 24 port switch.

But take it from me, it's better to spend a bit more money, get quality reliable gear and you will be much happier, even if you have multiple devices.

Then recommend a quality switch, please, because I plan on getting a modem/router combo. My options are limited when it comes to quality cable modems. Everyone praises the SBG6141 and that is what is in the SBG6580 combo modem/router. Again, I don't care for the wireless component, just the modem/router/4-port switch. The setup is not going to be overly complicated. I feel I can do that because, should the modem/router combo go bad, Staples, Best Buy, B&H Photo Video, and J&R are easily within reach to get a quick replacement. But a quality switch is not so easily available in stores. They are only online, AFAIK. If the switch goes down, I can wait to get another one and put the important devices on the router/modem combo or, worse, go wireless on them until a new switch arrives. But, in the mean time, I just want quality products and want to deal with less stuff.