Suggest a managed switch for me

[somebody19]

Hi there,

Am looking for a managed gigabit switch which can be mounted on a rack. Any suggestions? I have a $300-$400 budget for the switch. I also need a router, so if you could suggest both, that would be great!

This is for residential use.

 

[azazel1024]

Rack mount and $300-400 really doesn't tell us anything.

What is the problem you have? What are your requirements? then we can suggest solutions.

Example. I need to connect X devices together. I'd like to have VLANs. Or I need Link Aggregation. Or I want L3 features. Or I need a 16 port rack mount switch that can be managed and I'd like it to cost as little as possible and my limit is $300-400. Or I'd like as many ports as possible and as many features as possible, please tell me what the best solution for that is that is $300-400.

There are litterally over 100 different managed/semi-managed switches for $400 or less that can be rack mounted. They all would serve the needs you've mentioned ($300-400 and rack mount).

I am guessing since you didn't mention any requirements, you just want a managed rack mount switch and don't know/care about features. If that is the case, I'd personally suggest the TP-Link SG2216 or SG2224 (16 and 24 port varieties respectively). I have the SG2216 and it is a very nice, relatively low cost, semi-managed L2 switch (the differences between semi-managed and full managed L2 switches are generally minimal). It ran me $105 on sale and can often be found around $120-130. Been solid as a rock and has nice features.

 

[somebody19]

Apologies, hope this clarifies:

1. I've got 16 data points across the whole house, all the lan cables are "centralized" in a room which I plan to install the switch. Assume I will need a 24 port switch for this to work.

2. It will purely be for residential purposes - what actually are the benefits of getting a managed over unmanaged switch?

 

[somebody19]

Also, for cable management purposes, this is what I have in mind - appreciate if you could let me know if there is a better/correct way to do it.

So in that room I mentioned, there are 16 lan cables from the respective data points. If I want to connect all 16 to a switch, and I have a rack, would I have to:

1. Connect all 16 dangling cables to a patch panel, which I will mount on a rack.

2. From each port on the patch panel, I will connect a lan cable to a port on the switch. This would mean I need 16 shorter cables.

Is this right?

 

[Cloud200]

Correct.
You terminate all your cables into a patch panel.
Make sure you have both sides following the same wiring code (TIA568B usually)

then patch from your patch panel into your switch with patch cables.

Personally I like to use short (6" or so) patch cables and go from the panels into my switches.

This is a job I did recently. You should be able to see what I mean.
Your other option is to get longer patch cables, and use a cable manager to pull everything out to the side and then down again into your switch.

 

[azazel1024]

Can alternately slap RJ-45's on each cable and connect it straight to the switch, but this is not the recommended way (this is the way I have it until I have the time/chance to get a patch panel and switch it up to the "proper way").

As for switch size, if you'll never connect anything else at the switch point, a 16 port will work fine (or if you know one or more of the LAN drops through the house is never going to be connected to anything. Personally I prefer to leave everything connected all the time instead of ever having to worry about swapping out a connection at the patch/switch).

As for advantages of unmanaged versus managed, if you don't need any managed switch features an unmanaged switch is cheaper and uses slightly less power (maybe 10-12w instead of 13-15w if all 16 ports are connected to a live network device).

As for what can a managed switch do, in large part, if you don't know, you probably don't need the features. However, highlights (typical features).

VLANs
LAG/LACP
QoS
Bandwidth limiting
Cable diagnostics
Spanning tree
ACLs
Selectively shut down a port(s)
Bandwidth monitoring
SNMP (and sometimes email) logs

My recommendation is look them up and see if any sound like something you might ever need/want.

My suggestion, since it sounds like you aren't sure of what you want/need, do a bit of research on those features real quick and if any/all of them sound like they are of interest, consider the TP-Link SG2424 for a good semi-managed L2 24-port rack mount switch. If it sounds like you might never need/want those features, just get "any ole" 24 port non-managed/dumb gigabit switch (one brand is about as good as another here).

 

[somebody19]

Thanks for this mate, appreciate it. I am looking at the CISCO SG200 for the switch and the CISCO RV-320 for the router.

Any thoughts about these? I should mention that I have an Asus RT-AC68U which I plan to convert to just a wireless access point. Thought a dedicated router would serve better instead.

 

[azazel1024]

I personally stay away from Cisco stuff. I am generally not a huge fan of their interfaces and, though they tend to work well, they also tend to be a lot more expensive than "equivelent" performance/functional devices from some of the other guys. That doesn't make them crappy, just good and expensive, but I'd rather save a few bucks in general.

TP-Link has treated me well so far (with the exception of one really entry level router, which does NOT seem to like operating on Channels 1 and 2 for some bizzare reason).

 

[astroroxy]

I recommend the new linksys stuff.

I have the lgs528, but for what you need the LGS318 should be fine.