Gigabit rackmount switch

[Fuganater]

I am looking for a Gigabit rackmountable switch for my home with at least 16 ports. I use Cisco equipment at work but I doubt I could afford to use something like that for home use. (I also think you have to have a license) I think I need a managed switch so I can make use of the dual nic on the Supermico boards. I'd like to know what others are using. Looking online there are just WAY too many to pick from.

 

[danb35]

How are you intending to make use of the dual NIC? It's a pretty rare home use case that would benefit from LAGG. If you really do need a managed switch, the Dell 5524 fits the bill and gives you a couple of 10G ports as well.

 

[joeschmuck]

It would be good to understand what you hope to achieve with the use of the two LAN ports on the motherboard. It sounds like you are wanting LAGG as @danb35 mentioned above. Please explain your thought process and maybe we could save you some headache and money.

 

[Fuganater]

I guess I don't know then... I *thought* you needed a managed switch to be able to use two LAN ports on the same device. Again, I only know Cisco switches, mainly Cat's so buying consumer stuff is beyond me. I want to have 2 things, redundant paths and faster output to my devices. Its common in my house for 2-3 devices to be streaming media and currently I am getting lag using my ASUS router and a simple Netgear gigabit hub. I constantly have backups running from 5 PCs to my main server then the main server to my FreeNAS box. I am switching my FreeNAS box and server to a rack and I am making a pfsense box. I just want something that won't slow me down.

I saw a few places people talked about this TP Link Switch was good for the money. I don't really know what you can do with an "unmanaged" switch. I wouldn't mind being able to play with VLANS and such at home but it is not a deal breaker currently. Would the TP Link be a good option?

 

[joeschmuck]

When you setup a hardwired Ethernet system you always want all of your devices to connect to a good Gbit switch. So all your computers and TVs would connect to this switch. Also your Asus router would only connect to one of the Gbit switch ports. This allows the switch to handle all the direct traffic and removed the router from the path between your devices. WiFi is not so great but for streaming video like NetFlix, that may be your only option. WiFi for streaming a true HD video from FreeNAS is likely to be a poor idea but it can be done if you got great signal levels.

So, you say you have a gigabit hub? Is it a hub or a switch? There is a difference and a hub is very slow compared to a switch. If you have backups running while doing all kinds of streaming, well you should manage your backup to automatically run during times where everyone is sleeping or just conduct one backup at a time.

What are your system specs, maybe if you have only 8GB RAM, if you double it that may solve some of your issues, but it won't fix a poorly laid out network.

If you are in fact hitting a throughput bottleneck due to your 1Gbit ethernet port you could also upgrade to a 10Gb Ethernet and connect to a new switch which also contains a 10Gb port and then that would solve it, but before spending all that money you should know for certain you cannot solve it an easier way, and cheaper way.

 

[Fuganater]

My network is very complicated and I use tons of devices. Backups start at 10 pm and increment every hour for each device. All of my wireless devices connect via 5-Ghz N connections.

Hardwire Layout
|
|
Asus Wireless Router
|- Test Bench
|- FreeNAS
|
|- Netgear Hub/Switch
|- PS3
|- Wii U
|- "Server" Win 7 box
|- Apple TV

Wireless Layout
|
|
Asus Wireless Router
|- WD TV
|- Gaming PC
|- 2 iPads
|- 2 Samsung Tablets
|- Wireless Repeater

So currently I'm using PS3 media server on a Windows 7 "server" to dish out my media. I am building a new FreeNAS box to host a Plex Media Server.

I guess I really just need something expandable for the rack. I'm not sure I will need a 10Gb connection.

I should also mention that I live in China so I deal with all their bullshit. I am making a pfsense box to see if it helps.

 

[Pheran]

I am looking for a Gigabit rackmountable switch for my home with at least 16 ports. I use Cisco equipment at work but I doubt I could afford to use something like that for home use. (I also think you have to have a license) I think I need a managed switch so I can make use of the dual nic on the Supermico boards. I'd like to know what others are using. Looking online there are just WAY too many to pick from.

If you are already familiar with Cisco IOS, consider picking up an older switch off Ebay, such as a 2970G or 2960G (the 2960G is newer, so will be more expensive). I'm seeing them for as low as $65 right now.

joeschmuck - there's no such thing as a gigabit hub, so you can safely assume he means switch. Gigabit is full-duplex only.

 

[Fuganater]

I say hub because it is a little 5 port rinky-dink thing. I will have to go look what it is.

 

[Pheran]

I say hub because it is a little 5 port rinky-dink thing. I will have to go look what it is.

In that case it's an unmanaged switch as long as it's gigabit. There are no gigabit hubs. I didn't know you lived in China when I posted about Ebay; I don't know how that affects your ability to get used Cisco gear.

 

[Fuganater]

I still get my US mail here.

 

[joeschmuck]

joeschmuck - there's no such thing as a gigabit hub, so you can safely assume he means switch.

Um, I know that which is why I questioned him to look at it again. The users need to look at what they have and if they investigate it then they are likely to learn something. I may be old but I'm not that damn old.

 

[emptyBox]

I'll take a crack at giving you a few ideas, when I was setting up my home network, I found myself in a similar situation as you looking decent kit, without breaking the bank.

Since your already familiar with IOS, you might take a look at the SG lineup SG{100,200,300} series of cisco switches. Your already familiar with it, so it would be an easy transition to do the things you might want to do with it and it won't break the bank. Like Danb35 said, Dell has a really good lineup too. Also take a look at the HP Procurve lineup. I went with a HP 1900 series switch, which gave me all the layer 2 stuff I wanted, a smattering of layer 3 abilities and several SFP+ ports, and some www management and a serial interface.

To take full advantage of the switch you really need to take a look at the router too, I first went with a Mikrotik, but switched to the Edgerouter by Ubiquiti. It replaced a Netgear Nighthawk wifi router, which now is essentially an AP. This opens up a lot of possibilities that just aren't (and shouldn't) be there on consumer products. Take a look here, and you see a lot of people struggling with OpenVPN on their Freenas box. Some of it is self inflicted, older hardware etc. Personally I like the separation of services model.. Even with hardware accceleration, I prefer to remove OpenVPN from sucking up system resources on my NAS, it is for safely storing data, serving and transcoding content. Even putting it in a jail, thats not foolproof, as I've recently had php-cgi in my jail crash my freenas system resources, to the point of reboot.

Two things make it important enough for me to invest in prosumer grade networking equipment, security and control. I run several different VLANs, like an open access network for the neighbors, a network for houseguests, a network family devices, and one for my workstation and freenas server. What's become immensely more used is that I now have more control over all the "smart" devices. IoT devices love to phone home, some things aren't bad, but you don't have much control over them otherwise. Two smart tv's, a smart printer (which seemingly never works), a couple of Pandora clock radios, a thermostat, htpc, XB1, PS3... It never seemingly ends, and I don't mind what all they download, but I like the isolation aspect of said devices, and being able to control what they upload.

Don't underestimate your network speed needs for the future. For a lot of folks, they never leave the social media and streaming websites ecosystem; instagram, pintirest, reddit, facebook, netflix, spotify, youtube etc, so something like prosumer grade networking equipment, perhaps even freenas, is probably overkill for users of the aforementioned/similar sites. However, they, and websites in general are becoming very data rich, and if you are actually using freenas, you can run into times where a gigabit lan could run into slow times.

 

[depasseg]

Since your already familiar with IOS, you might take a look at the SG lineup

The Dell Switches that run FTOS are also very, very similar to the IOS CLI. In my experience, the method to perform VLAN configuration is the only difference.

 

[TheDubiousDubber]

I may be wrong, but based on everything I read, there is not really any need for a managed switch. Unless you really want to get into setting up VLANs, etc. Though I often find things like that going out the window as I just don't have the time to do things that aren't really necessary. I would guess a lot of problems could be solved by setting up a pfSense box to handle traffic. Make sure everything that can be wired up is, and although obvious, but sometimes overlooked, make sure your cabling is up to spec. If you're running at any type of length using cat5 instead of cat5e could become a factor.

 

[depasseg]

I may be wrong, but based on everything I read, there is not really any need for a managed switch.

The OP specifically was looking for redundant paths and increased performance (taking advantage of the two nics). I think a managed switch is needed is that case.

 

[TheDubiousDubber]

The OP specifically was looking for redundant paths and increased performance (taking advantage of the two nics). I think a managed switch is needed is that case.

You are right. Must have missed that part. I thought he was only wanting it to setup LAGG, which again I could be wrong, but I'm guessing wouldn't benefit him.

 

[joeschmuck]

I think the OP was trying to prevent the slow network performance he has and thought using both NICs would be the solution. Looking at the network layout listed above, both wired and wireless, reworking the network layout is really needed, not dual NICs (LAGG) and VLANs. But that is just my opinion. WiFi is fine if you have a proper setup and it can handle the bandwidth but it cannot. A few different good quality Access Points could be established if the OP really needs WiFi throughput, or just limit how many devices are on at the same time.

 

[Fuganater]

So to do what I want to do, use both NIC on my board, what do I need to at least accomplish that? An unmanaged switch? A Easy Smart Switch? or a Managed Switch?

 

[pirateghost]

So to do what I want to do, use both NIC on my board, what do I need to at least accomplish that? An unmanaged switch? A Easy Smart Switch? or a Managed Switch?

You would start by NOT using both NICs on your board, because it will gain you NOTHING

 

[mattbbpl]

You would start by NOT using both NICs on your board, because it will gain you NOTHING

I don't mean to muddy the waters, but the default for dual nics is redundant (and that's still a recommended setup), correct? Or should I unplug one of those nic connections entirely?