Hard Wiring Home - Router and Switch

[frodoz737]

Hi All,

Have followed this site and finally decided to post.

About to provision my house before installing FIOS Ethernet (not TV) and will be using http://www.swhowto.com/ as a "guide". This is to be a wired network of 16 work stations (2 per room).

Where I need help is with Router and Switch choice. Will NOT be using a Verizon Router. Need Commercial quality with future thinking throughput, though will initially start with 15/25 speeds.

Have looked at most of the "Consummer" units and not been impressed. I would not use these at work. One suggestion was to look at a refurbished Cisco 3800 Series Router with a Cisco 2900 Series Switch.

All friendly advice is welcome.

Thanks.

 

[claykin]

Hi All,

Have followed this site and finally decided to post.

About to provision my house before installing FIOS Ethernet (not TV) and will be using http://www.swhowto.com/ as a "guide". This is to be a wired network of 16 work stations (2 per room).

Where I need help is with Router and Switch choice. Will NOT be using a Verizon Router. Need Commercial quality with future thinking throughput, though will initially start with 15/25 speeds.

Have looked at most of the "Consummer" units and not been impressed. I would not use these at work. One suggestion was to look at a refurbished Cisco 3800 Series Router with a Cisco 2900 Series Switch.

All friendly advice is welcome.

Thanks.

No need to spend that kinda coin for a home. Also, are you experienced with Cisco router/switch config? If not, stay away.

What are your objectives for the router/switch? Do you need VPN? UTM? Multi WAN for redundancy (if you get a backup service to FIOS)? VLAN? Or are you just looking for a simple NAT router than can handle the throughput of FIOS and give you room to grow?

 

[frodoz737]

Very good questions.

I work for an Airline and have secure CITRIX access at home Computer using a random password card. The Wife works for a major Insurance Co. and uses a provided secure laptop (Aircard) when not at office. Son in second year high school (bit torrets...streaming). VPN? UTM? VPN? You tell me.
Multi WAN, possible. Keeping hard line phone and may use DSL as backup.
Less than a year ago we had a 12 year old Dell on Dial-up. Since then I have built two high end "Workstations", but STILL on Dial-up. I barely knew what RAM was before, but learn very fast.

"Or are you just looking for a simple NAT router than can handle the throughput of FIOS and give you room to grow?" Don't know, but I would prefer the quality and reliability offered in Commercial grade equipment if feasible.

I hope that helps to qualify my needs and desires?
Thanks.

 

[frodoz737]

Yes Sir/Mam...Thank You...Please...

Would hate to depend on a sales person at Micro, Comp or Fryz. The experience needed for this decision is not there. Newegg reviews are nice, but only as factor in the overall decision.

Flying blind here. Any guidance will be appreciated.

 

[claykin]

Your needs are basic. I still feel strongly that you should purchase good consumer/prosumer equipment and call it a day. Purchasing commercial equipment does not guarantee less problems. One would like to think so, but most commercial equipment is what keeps IT people busy and employed. Also, with most commercial equipment you are not going to get support or firmware updates without shelling out $ for support contracts. Way overkill for your application IMO.

Sounds like your wife won't even be using her laptop much on the FIOS LAN? You mentioned Secure laptop with Aircard? Must she use the cellular card or can she use LAN/Wifi from that laptop as well? Confirm, because some corps places admin restrictions on network use.

Are you looking for hard wired and Wifi or just hard wired?

A couple suggestions to start off, look at the Netgear business class products. The UTM 10 and UTM 25 are new and look good. They are untested but Tim from SNB will be testing the UTM10 soon. Also the Zyxel Zywall USG100 is a great product that can handle the bandwidth of your FIOS connection. All of these are UTM routers so at your choice you can subscribe to the antivirus, antispam, content filtering, to help protect your network from your high school son who will likely be a risky Internet user. Just bear in mind that enabling the AV, etc. on all these devices has a negative impact on throughput. Read the specs carefully.

 

[frodoz737]

With regards to the before mentioned Cisco equipment, the comment was made by a rather "unique" individual I met while talking to a Tech at Micro. It Is possible that my needs may not warrant the purchase of Commercial units and thier Services.

Wife could use the Home computer, were it not for the Dial-up connection, and I seldom use it for my work for the same reason.

Primarily looking for Wired for security and consistant connectons, plus it's just time to upgrade the home. Based on what little I think I've learned, I could just hang a wireless router off the wired network and power up as needed.

Your reccommended units appear to be more to a commercial Std.

Work nights and need sleep now. Will talk later,

Thanks.

 

[RAJOD]

The guys are giving you true words of wisdom. You don't need commercial grade. Save your money and get your wife something nice with the savings.

I have a 10 cpu peer to peer with pseudo server at the office with 6mbit DSL.

Its all been running non stop 24/7 for four years. Never had to reboot my router or switch. They have been super reliable (knock on wood)

Did I use commercial grade? Nope. I used el cheapo parts

- A consumer netgear 100mbit router hooked to a SBC dsl modem.
- A 8 port 10/100 Netgear switch, all ports maxed out.

This is the router. I have the non WAN version D-Link EBR-2310
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=478

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...etwork+-+Wireless+Routers-_-D-Link-_-33127073

This is the switch
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=563

I almost hate to upgrade it but I want giga for transferring large digital photos across the network.

For that I'm getting a 16 port Netgear DGS-1016D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...etwork+-+Wireless+Routers-_-D-Link-_-33127073

And keeping the DSL and old netgear router. I just won't use the 4 ports on the router since they are 100Mbit.

Maybe I got lucky but 100 percent uptime over 4 years is about as good as it gets. Stay away from Lyksys, I have had like 10 units and they always fail eventually. Junk.

You really don't need much more than that for a home setup.

I might change my router/firewall only for more advanced firewall features. It has more to do with restricting bandwidth from employees doing things they should not be doing in the first place. Other than that I don't see any compelling reason to wast a bunch of money on a new one.

 

[RAJOD]

Netgear ProSecure UTM10

Nice piece of equipment. I can see using that for its firewall, av etc., might be one I would consider for the business.

I would not want it for home. They even admit its SLOW. But its all done in the name of security.

I don't allow explorer to be run on my home lan. Never had a malware or virus issue that could not be easily handled. Just do some image backs ups and don't let fear of getting a virus ruin your day.

 

[frodoz737]

As I know little on this subject, I wish to state that I will question all advice, because I don't know. Please, just don't take it the wrong way.
Perhaps Commercial grade may not be needed, however 100% reliability is. I will not buy a refrigerator that is not. That said...will use Uniprise 5E55 cable because I have 2400 FT of it, and this will be a "wired network". I only mention it to keep equipment talk to this standard.

Thanks for saving me some "coin" claykin. The 3800 Series IS overkill and even refurb is just not practical.
RAJOD you seem to have the reliability, but if you were to buy today?
I will look at the UTM10 though this may also be overkill as well.

The charts here are also very helpful. No hurry deciding on router/switch now as wiring the house is taking more time than my days usually allow.

Please keep the expert advice comming for this ignorant bastard. I need it.

Thanks.

 

[MadKing]

I agree cisco switch or router at home is an overkill for home. You have to know the command to configure them. Also, 3800 Series Router and a Cisco 2900 are making NOISE ... and aren't really eco friendly. You will waste a lot of energy using them at home. Most unmanaged switch use like 4W and are fanless.

Any unmanaged switch for big vendor should do the job. A good compromise between unmanaged switch and cisco would be "smart" or managed switch for a big vendor. At home fanless equipement are priceless.

Also 100 % reliability doesn't exist even with commercial grade.

I would put the money on the router instead of the switch. Thiggins did a good job with is review and router chart. Choose the one that is for you. My good old Dlink DGL 4300 is really solid for 4 years. I don't remember having to reset him for freezing. Same thing for My 2 gigabits switch D-Link DGS-1008D and D-Link DGS-1005D, I didn't remember having to reset them.

Right now, I would probably buy a Dlink 655 or trying the Netgear WND3700 ( but it's new and firmware are early release and probably not full mature).

 

[frodoz737]

Beginning to see that a "wireless" router used on my "wired" network may be the wiser solution as the manufactures on concentrating the energies into this market demand. Must have ability to turn off wireless function and have it secure (as much as can be) when used.

Thanks MadKing, the DGL 4300 and DLink 655 are on the short list with a few others. Tim's review of the WNDR3700 (Thank you) and thread that followed is also interesting, especially post #63. Will watch this product to see if it pans out.