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Gigabit Switch Advice

richard4339

richard4339

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 6, 2006
907
139
Illinois
I've been using a Dlink DIR-655 as a gigabit switch for the last year, due to it barely working as a wireless router... It died last night, not sure if its the router itself or the AC adapter, but no power.

Anyway, I'm going to replace it with a gigabit switch, but while I know a bit about routers, I'm not knowledgeable at all regarding switches. I do think I'd like an 8-port, and would like to avoid another Dlink.

Anybody have any recommendations?
 
Keep in mind that you need a router, not a switch as the center of your network. You can use a switch to connect more wired devices to a router though. Yes, there are such things as wired routers.

Linksys is king of networking IMO.
 
got a dlink dir 655 wireless router and love it. the best gb switch i have used is a dlink. just plug it in and it works not config. works great have two running with router. no problems. i have the 8 port gb switch by dlink. the best part is the auto switch port feature in them, no more worry about cross over cables. it does it for you. sorry but i have had no problems with any of my dlink gear. in fact in draft n they are the leader i believe.
 
BlueLAser said:
got a dlink dir 655 wireless router and love it. the best gb switch i have used is a dlink. just plug it in and it works not config. works great have two running with router. no problems. i have the 8 port gb switch by dlink. the best part is the auto switch port feature in them, no more worry about cross over cables. it does it for you. sorry but i have had no problems with any of my dlink gear. in fact in draft n they are the leader i believe.
Click to expand...

I've loved my DLink, it just never worked well when I used it for a WAP. If two devices connected to it wirelessly at the same speed (IE: N), it would bump the other off, or simply lock up altogether forcing me to need to power cycle it. If I turned the WAP feature off, though, it would work for months at a time without a hickup. Best networking device in this respect I've had.

geoffreak said:
Keep in mind that you need a router, not a switch as the center of your network. You can use a switch to connect more wired devices to a router though. Yes, there are such things as wired routers.

Linksys is king of networking IMO.
Click to expand...

I didn't specify this, but I've still got a router running DHCP. I simply had this one daisy-chained in and not running DHCP.

I'll be more specific this time, because I have two options, and I'm not sure which to try anyway.

Right now, I've got a WRT54G acting as my router (its running DD-WRT simply for IPV6 capabilities). I've got a WRT110 daisy-chained in simply for wireless (acting as a WAP, not a router. DHCP is off here too). The 54G is really old, and the wireless on it is shoddy at best, which is why I have that run that way (I got the 110 for cheap anyway).

I have cable running through my wall to my second floor, where I had the Dlink daisy-chained in as well, running with DHCP off. It ran cabling to 2 machines, and provided gigabit, which I mostly used for file transfers. Since my other routers are all 10/100, I never saw speeds there, and my modem is also 10/100, so no advantage there either.

My Dlink went dead to the world last night. We have ONE of these at the office, but its locked in someone's office who's out. I'm going to try to find him next week and at least test the Dlink to see if its the router or the AC adapter.

But, in the meantime, I'm trying to figure out if I should put a new gigabit switch in to replace the dlink. And if so, what to get...

(I'm also debating if I should buy a new gigabit N router to replace both downstairs, I don't care if it runs DD-WRT, though I'd like it to. What I do want is support for an IPV6 tunnel)
 
I am pretty happy with the Netgear prosafe one. I have the 5 port version (think its GS105 from memory). It runs cool as does the small plug power supply.
 
Linksys makes gigabit switches. ;)

Anything should be able to replace the DLink as long as you are only attempting to be able to connect more devices to the network.
 
I love my Netgear GS108T smart switch, has a web interface and you can do all kinds of cool stuff with it, 802.3ad trunking, VLANing, and lots of other stuff usually reserved for high dollar managed switches. I have it setup with 802.3ad for a redundant/high speed connection to my NAS, not necessary but why not? At the least this switch makes a good learning tool and you can find it for less than $100. Dell makes a similar one, tho I haven't used it...

Rob
 
At home I use a pair of HP ProCurve 1800-8Gs. These are 8 port devices which are relatively inexpensive (~100$) but still have a really nice featureset. You can define individual port settings, VLANs, port bundling, trunking, monitoring and the like, and they even provide port statistics through SNMP, which is something of a rarity in low end switches. Good ratings on the switching fabric too. And a lifetime warranty with next day advance replacement. In short, easily the best switch I've seen in the more affordable than Cisco category.

Whatever you do, get some manageability. Dumb switches will have you tearing your hair out sooner or later.
 
unless you have gig-e NIC's and the I/O on all your computers is capable of handling gigabit speeds you're wasting your money. and the OS has to be fast as well.

not sure about OS X, but MS rewrote the entire SMB protocol for Windows 7 and it's noticeably faster. i think the new SMB is also in Vista SP 1 and later, but i'm not sure. i noticed my data transfers over wifi at home were almost twice as fast
 
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