Creating new SOHO network

[lakefire]

I am building a house and I have just installed cat6 cabling throughout the entire house. I have 9 drops not included a drop for a future telephone connection (incase the future resident prefers phones over internet). I will probably use one of my routers that I currently have both are 10/100 4 port. One is netgear the other linksys. I have had better luck with the linksys and that's what I'm using now.

I will be looking to go gigabit throughout the house so I was coming here to look for suggestions on a 12 or 16 port 10/100/1000 switch. I was probably looking to stay around $300 or less. The connections will either have IP Phones connected or computers. I will probably have one server in the networking closet for internal serving. Thanks in advance.

 

[Wyck]

You can't go wrong with 3com switches. Their 16-port OfficeConnect Gigabit Switch is $172.99 after rebate at CDW. The lowest price on pricregrabber is over $220.

You mentioned IP phones - not the type that require Power over Ethernet, right? If you need PoE you'll need a whole different class of switch that costs quite a bit more.

 

[lakefire]

Ya, I figure that PoE is probably out of my price range. What are things to look for in a switch from a company. They all seem to harp on the same specs.

 

[W00DDUCK]

Really depends on what YOU need. Pretty Much all switches work nice and easy when you plug them right in. But do you want any managment of the switch? 3Com are ok but imo if I want something to talk that much on my network I will go Buy an apple



Dell sells a very simple gig switch that is managable from the front panel ia buttons. If you want to get some other features look at HP switches or Cisco. And if you want more features than a house could possibly use get enterasys.




Personally for a home I would get a HP 2700 series switch with a TZ170 sonicwall.



Put in a nice patch panel and add some nice value to the house.

 

[lakefire]

It appears that the 2700 procurves are unmanaged. One of my IT buddies recommend the HP's as well. What kinda of things would a managed switch allow me to do that an unmanaged can't. It will allow me to set preferences on certain ports and things like that?

 

[InlineFour]

i use a 3com superstack 3300 manage 24 port switch at home. you can find these switches at a very low price on ebay. i bought mine for about $80. you can configure the switch and individual ports with a managed siwtch. unmanaged switches are just plug and play; there won't be any configurations.

current 1Gb managed switches are quite expensive, and i wouldn't recomend buying a managed switch for the first time, especially for a home environment. you can get a very decent dell 16/24 1Gb switch from dell for a reasonable price.

 

[Zbox]

Originally posted by: Wyck
You can't go wrong with 3com switches. Their 16-port OfficeConnect Gigabit Switch is $172.99 after rebate at CDW. The lowest price on pricregrabber is over $220.

You mentioned IP phones - not the type that require Power over Ethernet, right? If you need PoE you'll need a whole different class of switch that costs quite a bit more.

qft.

the 3com is silent also, definite plus for some.