What do I need to know about switches? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Brannigans Law · 07-11-2013, 02:47 PM

I'm needing to purchase a switch for a home network in the house I'm building and one part of it that's got me a little confused is the switch. The area I'm building in has free Telus for a year and I'll be on their fibre. So my house will be kinda like this:

Basement
Fibre > Telus modem > Switch >

Then in the upper floors each room will have cat5e cables hard wired that will go to the switch... including my wireless router which I'll put somewhere on the main floor. Nothing fancy or extravagent.

So what do I need to know when buying a switch? There's huge price differences but I just want something plug and play, reliable, and with at least 12 ports. Probably more when I develop the basement.

Rathji · 07-11-2013, 03:43 PM

I wrote up a big response and then close my browser. Here are the coles notes:

1) Make sure you have extra ports for NAS/Media Server/Wireless Access points 16 or 24 are good numbers to aim for. Don't get way too many though, as you will likely need to replace the switch before they come into play.

2) Get Gigabit. You might not need it much now, but that need will only grow over time.

3) Passive vs fan cooling. Fans are really noisy, so unless it is in a closed room, you won't want one buzzing. There are a lot less options for passive cooled switches, especially when you consider #4 below.

4) Rack mount or not? If you have a patch panel and a place to mount your switch, then you should get a rack mountable switch. You can get by with a shelf and a desktop switch, but it is going to be a lot messier.

Bottom line is, you are not running a business and unless you fear tearing your gonads off if the switch dies mid wank, you are fine to pick something up at memory express that is consumer grade. Get the IPR Plan and you are good to go.

Brannigans Law · 07-11-2013, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

I wrote up a big response and then close my browser. Here are the coles notes:

1) Make sure you have extra ports, 16 or 24 are good numbers to aim for. Don't get way too many though, as you will likely need to replace the switch before they come into play.

2) Get Gigabit. You might not need it much now, but that need will only grow over time.

3) Passive vs fan cooling. Fans are really noisy, so unless it is in a closed room, you won't want one buzzing. There are a lot less options for passive cooled switches, especially when you consider #4 below.

4) Rack mount or not? If you have a patch panel and a place to mount your switch, then you should get a rack mountable switch. You can get by with a shelf and a desktop switch, but it is going to be a lot messier.

Bottom line is, you are not running a business and unless you fear tearing your gonads off if the switch dies mid wank, you are fine to pick something up at memory express that is consumer grade. Get the IPR Plan and you are good to go.

I almost choked on my snack reading that. lol.

Thanks for the input. The switch will be in my basement in what will eventually be a utility room with washer dryer and water heater and all that good stuff. Closed off at all times... I assume a fan cooled unit will have a longer life span at the expense of the noise?

Rathji · 07-11-2013, 04:10 PM

Check the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) to give you that kind of information.

I suspect that a non-passively cooled switch might be more tolerant to situations where there is more heat, but I really can't say for sure.

Rathji · 07-12-2013, 08:51 AM

Stumbled across this 24 port Gigabit switch on Monoprice that is extremely cheap ($89) compared t what I would expect.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

Reviews say it is loud, but I suspect that it is nothing more than you would normally expect from a fan cooled switch.

sclitheroe · 07-12-2013, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

Thanks for the input. The switch will be in my basement in what will eventually be a utility room with washer dryer and water heater and all that good stuff. Closed off at all times... I assume a fan cooled unit will have a longer life span at the expense of the noise?

That's also the kind of location that is going to choke up a fan cooled unit with dust and lint, which is another way of looking at the decision. For home use, I'd be looking for passive cooled gear wherever possible. I'd probably even go with two smaller 8 port switches, and you can probably find two 8 port switches for less than a 16 port switch.

GoinAllTheWay · 07-12-2013, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

Bottom line is, you are not running a business and unless you fear tearing your gonads off if the switch dies mid wank, you are fine to pick something up at memory express that is consumer grade. Get the IPR Plan and you are good to go.

LMAO!! I'm so putting that one aside for future use. My dad was asking about what switch to buy last week, wish I had this one in the holster just to see the look on his face.

sclitheroe · 07-13-2013, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

Stumbled across this 24 port Gigabit switch on Monoprice that is extremely cheap ($89) compared t what I would expect.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

Reviews say it is loud, but I suspect that it is nothing more than you would normally expect from a fan cooled switch.

$3.75 a port...what is this world coming to.

TorqueDog · 07-13-2013, 02:00 PM

If you think you need five switch ports, get an eight-port switch, etc.

I always buy more ports than I think I need, because I end up wishing I had more.

photon · 07-14-2013, 10:19 AM

Yeah I just got a 16 port switch for my basement to replace the full 8 and an 8 to replace a 5 in my office that died but was also full.
I'm not using the 8 I have because it doesn't support jumbo frames.

Brannigans Law · 09-12-2013, 12:39 PM

Bump. Is there a difference between managed and managed switches? For a low end user with basic needs I mean

Rathji · 09-12-2013, 01:11 PM

Both would really do what you needed out of the box, so other than price, not really.

TheGrimm · 09-13-2013, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

Bump. Is there a difference between managed and managed switches? For a low end user with basic needs I mean

Yup, if the terms VLANs and spanning-tree loops mean nothing to you, you probably want an unmanaged switch.

Brannigans Law · 09-13-2013, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheGrimm

Yup, if the terms VLANs and spanning-tree loops mean nothing to you, you probably want an unmanaged switch.

So the switch I bought from D link shows the modem > router > switch > devices ... does that mean I have to do it like that? I'd prefer to go to modem > switch > devices? Is that not ok?

TheGrimm · 09-13-2013, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

So the switch I bought from D link shows the modem > router > switch > devices ... does that mean I have to do it like that? I'd prefer to go to modem > switch > devices? Is that not ok?

If by modem, you mean a modem/router which is usually the kind of device you get with Shaw/Telus then your setup should work fine.

Try plugging a computer/laptop into the "modem" and if it gives you an IP address of 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x or 172.16.x.x then you should be fine.

People use terms like router/switch/modem etc, but realistically those are meant as functions and they can all be part of the same device.

Modem = how to encode 1's and 0's onto physical medium
Router = Device that makes forwarding decisions based on IP addresses
Switch = Device that makes forwarding decisions based on MAC/Physical addresses.

Rathji · 09-13-2013, 01:23 PM

You need a device to act as a firewall and perform address translation between your network and the external network. Assuming, like Grimm said, you are using a non-bridged Shaw/Telus modem, that functionality is built in.

If you didn't actually have that device, you could only connect 1 device to the internet at a time per IP address assigned to you (typically 2 maximum). Plus, you would be leaving yourself wide open to attacks.

Brannigans Law · 09-13-2013, 01:29 PM

So I could go like this telus router/modem (but with wireless disabled)> switch > devices (one of which could be my own wireless router?)

Rathji · 09-13-2013, 01:45 PM

What purpose are you trying to achieve that is different than what the suggested network would accomplish?

Brannigans Law · 09-13-2013, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

What purpose are you trying to achieve that is different than what the suggested network would accomplish?

The telus modem/router would otherwise be in the basement. I want to have the wireless router on the main floor to give a better signal and use my own wireless

Rathji · 09-13-2013, 02:10 PM

ok, so the answer is no.

The solution is this Modem > Router (maybe with wifi disabled) > Switch > New Main Floor Wireless Access Point.

Your router is the thing that keeps the bad things out. If you did it like you were suggesting, it would be like moving your front door with the deadbolt and security system to your kid's bedroom door and then throwing their away.

Additionally, you wouldn't be able to put more than 1 device on the non-wifi portion of your network at a time.

edit: If your existing router is really good (dual band, etc) you might also be able to set it up as an access point for your main floor and purchase a cheaper router for the basement.