Network Experts, Cisco Catalyst 2940 Managed Switch, necessary for 5 node network?

[PlatinumGold]

can i really justify buying a client a Cisco Managed Switch for over $500.00??

are Netgear Switches that inferior? i know they are inferior, but they don't require 24/7 uptime. it will only be used during business hours.

 

[kylef]

Unless you plan on using the management features, I would have to say "No" here.

Just get a nice 24-port unmanaged switch so you'll have plenty of room to grow. Or, if you foresee gigabit as being necessary in the future, 16-port unmanaged gigabit switches are getting reasonable as well.

 

[DainBrammage]

What are your 5 nodes? Do you plan to allow each of theses nodes access to each other or only access to explicit noded I.e nodes 1and 2 and 3 and 4, 5 or any combination thereof?

 

[spidey07]

yes, if part of a larger managed network.

stand alone and not connected to anything else? No.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: spidey07
yes, if part of a larger managed network.

stand alone and not connected to anything else? No.

Stand Alone with Possible Terminal Services to the Server (which the managed switch would do nothing to help).

as to the question regarding access.

all Workstations will only access the server. i'm looking at a Netgear 24 port switch (unmanaged) 10/100 with 2 gigabit ports.

i figure port into the switch from server with gigabit and all the clients come in on 100 mb/s.

what real advantage would the cisco offer over such a setup?

 

[phatrabt]

Nothing for what you're doing. Now if you wanted to run VLAN's and things such as that I'd go with a managed switch, but for the computers to access the server I'd say you've got what you need.