Reliable Gigabit Switch and Wireless Router

#1

[i]Im looking for a reliable gigabit switch for the Cat6A network I just put in. The cable and connectors I used can support up to 10G but those switches are much more expensive and none of my hardware has 10G ports anyways so it would be redundant + the infrastructure is there once 10G switches become cheaper.

So if anyone knows of a reliable gigabit switch with 16 ports that would be great, if anybody works with networking any advice would be helpful.[/i]

EDIT: I also need a new wireless router, something reliable from $50-$170

#2

Newegg has this on sale, but it’s Rosewill so who knows how good it will be.
I’ve heard good stuff about TRENDnet switches. I’m still not sure about quality/etc, though.

You might be able to find some decent used Cisco switches, most of which definitely meet your requirements. Cisco seems to have a good reputation around their hardware.

mepholic would probably be able to help out with this if he stumbles across it.

#3

trendnet are good

#4

need anything special or just a basic unmanaged switch?

#5

Just a basic unmanaged, will be “behind” a router

And thanks guys, I saw positive reviews on amazon but for some reason I always though TrendNET’s where cheap crap but I was wrong.

I think I am going to go with this one:

It seems maybe one or two people have had issues with this but they were both pushing large amounts of data through this.

Basically whats going to be connected is, 2 Samsung Smart TVs, Pioneer Network Audio Reciever, 1 Computer and 1 Computer/Server, and 3-4 network IP cameras. I could probably get away with a 8 port switch but I want the expand-ability.

I am not two worried about this going bad as amazon has good return policy, it has a 3 year limited warranty, and I will probably upgrade to 10G switch and 10G NICs in 4-5 years when they are more reasonable in price and SSD’s are cheaper.

#6

I’ve been using a Gigabit TrendNet ‘Green’ switch for about a year and a half now, with a mix of cat6 and cat5e cables and have had no problems whatsoever, my transfer speeds max out at about 115ish Mega-Bytes(not bits) per second, which is right at the theoretical speed limit given TCP overhead and other such things. I got it on sale for $15 when I bought it.

As to a wireless router, you want pretty much anything that will run DD-WRT, it’s a great firmware. Generally you should stay away from Belkins, but anything Linksys/Cisco or netgear will do a good job.

#7

[quote=“Moparisthebest, post:6, topic:432101”]I’ve been using a Gigabit TrendNet ‘Green’ switch for about a year and a half now, with a mix of cat6 and cat5e cables and have had no problems whatsoever, my transfer speeds max out at about 115ish Mega-Bytes(not bits) per second, which is right at the theoretical speed limit given TCP overhead and other such things. I got it on sale for $15 when I bought it.

As to a wireless router, you want pretty much anything that will run DD-WRT, it’s a great firmware. Generally you should stay away from Belkins, but anything Linksys/Cisco or netgear will do a good job.[/quote]

Yeah thanks for the advice guys went ahead and ordered the one I said. And I agree with what you say about DD-WRT but the problem I think today is manufactures try to pack so much extra shit like usb port for a network share that they end up making a shitty router. They need to focus on just making a high quality reliable wireless router that performs the basics well.

I think I might head to the ddwrt forums to see what they would recommend

#8

very few routers perform well even when they didn’t have to worry about having usb bollocks and a load of gimmicks on top, some companies just aren’t cut out for making networking hardware

#9

very few routers perform well even when they didn’t have to worry about having usb bollocks and a load of gimmicks on top, some companies just aren’t cut out for making networking hardware[/quote]

Well I dont see many other options than modem to router to switch

I could do modem to switch to router, but then I loose DHCP on the switch because the router was providing that…I dont mind doing static IP’s I guess

Am I right or do I not know what I think I know?

#10

You have to go modem to router to switch, you don’t have to use a cheapy or bad router though. My router is a 1U Q6600 6gb server running Linux.

But really, if the router doesn’t give you problems it doesn’t matter. Even a 100mbit router is far faster than any residential internet you can get.

#11

Thinking of a low cost build and running pfsense

Already have an old Celeron Dual Core 1.6GHz and a Pentium D Dual Core 2.8Ghz and 4GB Ram plus and old socket 775 board. All I need is 2 Gigabit NICs, a case, and a 16GB SSD

#12

That would be more than enough for a router. And I’m sure that’s good software to run on it, but so is Linux and if you run something like Debian or Ubuntu Server you may have more options when it comes to packages. A few things I run include Transmission-daemon (bittorrent), Squid (transparent proxy), apt-cacher-ng (debian package proxy), SabNZBD (binary usenet downloader), lighttpd (web server as reverse proxy in front of all this stuff), and a Jenkins instance to automatically build a few projects. Oh and dnsmasq for DHCP/DNS.

#13

all of those things run on bsd, except maybe aptcacher

#14

I have a 5 port Gigabit TRENDnet switch and it’s great.

#15

[quote=“Moparisthebest, post:10, topic:432101”]But really, if the router doesn’t give you problems it doesn’t matter. Even a 100mbit router is far faster than any residential internet you can get.[/quote]Surely that depends where you live :slight_smile:

#16

Im going to try pfsense out. The problem is my media cabinet isnt very big and I already have to run all this cat6a into it, I might redesign the cabinet first.

Also if I used a computer as a router with two gigabit switches and I also used it as a media server would the internet speeds decrease when I am streaming to and from the computer or when I am transferring to and from the computer? My connection is only (15mbps or 1.8 mbs)

#17

[quote=“mwiebelhaus, post:16, topic:432101”]Im going to try pfsense out. The problem is my media cabinet isnt very big and I already have to run all this cat6a into it, I might redesign the cabinet first.

Also if I used a computer as a router with two gigabit switches and I also used it as a media server would the internet speeds decrease when I am streaming to and from the computer or when I am transferring to and from the computer? My connection is only (15mbps or 1.8 mbs)[/quote]It shouldnt decrease.

#18

Provided your switch has enough throughput (which yes, it has plenty), it will not be an issue whatsoever.

#19

Can anyone give me hints on how to set this up under ubuntu using 2 gigabit nics.

The computer will be connected to the TV to playback video it will also needs to be used as a NAS and it needs to route the connections for the switch.

It looks like mopar says dnsmasq for that any other options that require little configuration and provide some kind of web interface like a dedicated router?

Ill also be using sabnzb for usenet and some type of media player for playback to tv, probably XBMC

#20

I’d put dnsmasq, iptables, torrentflux/transmission/rtorrent, sabnzbd++, samba and I used ushare for upnp media sharing. Probably missed something.