[geeks] Gigabit upgrade

[Phil Stracchino]

Alois Hammer wrote:
> Now that my network has a fair number of gigabit-capable PCs, with a
> couple more rebuilds on the way, I'm looking seriously at gigabit
> switching.  I'm upgrading from an Intel 510T and 520T (24x and
> 12x10/100Mbps, respectively) with backplane interconnect.  I've been
> kind of spoiled by having managed switches, and I'm wondering if there's
> any way to acquire 16-port-or-bigger managed gig copper switches without
> either paying ~USD$700 or buying not-made-by-Dell (of which I have heard
> many horror stories).  Used would be fine, so long as eBay is not
> involved.
> 
> If not, I'm eyeing the NetGear GS116 and JGS524 switches.
> 
> Does anyone know where to get new or used managed gig switches for
> significantly less than MSRP, or whether the NetGear units would be best
> avoided for some reason that's not clear in the NewEgg reviews?

I'll admit I've been pondering replacing my two 10/100 16-port switches
(one Netgear, one Bay Networks on which I'm not actually using any ports
yet and don't anticipate using more than about four) with a single
24-port gigabit switch, now that I have more than one machine with GigE
(and one of those my new server).

I haven't actually gone looking at switches yet, but so far an unmanaged
switch has met my needs perfectly well, and the only problem I've ever
had with my Netgear FS516 is that the cooling fans failed at something
like eight years of age.  (Which I consider pretty understandable.)


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
         Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.