2 switches vs 1 16 port switch

[drbones]

Hello,

We've run out of room to add devices on our gigabit router and 8 port switch. The router has 4 ports being used by a local switch, a switch about 120 feet away and two linkstation pros. The local switch connects our 2 voip units, 1 networked printer and four computers. The switch 120 feet away is in an outbuilding where it connects to three machines and a printer. I need to add more room at the existing switch.

My options are to: add a 5 port swith I already have or to get rid of the current 8 port switch and buy a 16 port switch for about$ 200.

Adding a second switch would require I unplug a server to make room on the router and thus slow down conections to that machine or go to a larger switch and replace the existing 8 port switch.

Can any one offer advice on how to proceed?

Thanks,

Drbones

 

[antic]

Unless you have a budgetary reason not to replace the switch with a 16 port one (i.e. very limited funds and your users need something else(like a printer or another computer) more, I would replace it. $200 isn’t a lot of money for most organizations and that free switch isn’t really free (It will cost users of that sever time).

There are more cons to using the 5 port switch than pros. You will slow down access to that server. You have added one more thing that can go wrong to the network (the five port switch) and you haven’t added that much capacity to the network(only three ports open on the five port switch when you install it). Which if you are planning to add additional devices right now they will be used.

If you add the 16 port switch you will have an 8 port switch and the 5 port switch to use as backups should the 16 port switch break. You can use them elsewhere if your network grows or if other switches break. With the 16 port switch, you should have 7 ports free to add additional devices.

 

[thiggins]

Adding a second switch would require I unplug a server to make room on the router and thus slow down conections to that machine or go to a larger switch and replace the existing 8 port switch.

Why are the connections to the server going to slow down? Is there that much sustained traffic hitting the server?

If you already have the switch, just connect it in. If you're worried about the single uplink being a bottleneck, just move the lower bandwidth devices over to it (VoIP and printer).

 

[drbones]

2 switches vs 16 port switch

Hi Tim,

I don't know if it will slow the connections to the server down by moving it to a switch vs having it plugged in to the router directly.

I guess my real question is: if a gigabit switch is plugged into a gigabit router, is it realistic that all ports on a 8 port switch will run at gigabit speed, is the single connection from the switch to the router a potential bottle neck?

I haven't specfically tested it, but I know that I can only connect to my two linkstation pros at about 70 mbit even though all the connections are gigabit (nas, switch, router, nics). If I connect from computer to computer on my network, I can get upwards of 300 mbit over a combined distance of about 220 feet with two switches between machines.

DrBones

 

[futonpimp]

how much traffic are we talking about here? How many users?


Can you attach a drawing (visuals rock)!

 

[thiggins]

I don't know if it will slow the connections to the server down by moving it to a switch vs having it plugged in to the router directly.

The switch can simultaneously support 1000 Mbps of traffic in each direction between all eight ports. But any one port supports only 1000 Mbps in each direction.

A single port will be a bottleneck only if the total traffic through it is > 1000 Mbps.

The only way to know for sure would be to measure the traffic. But it sounds like a single uplink isn't going to be a problem. Again, an easy approach is to just put the slower devices on the smaller switch.

 

[drbones]

2 8-port switch vs 1 16 port switch

Hi Tim,

Attached is a Network Diagram. Since I hadn't done this before I didn't realize how much stuff we have!

Server Traffic isn't an issue as we no more than 5 users at any given time (4 individuals and 1 machine doing our local and remote backups)

I think we are going to have to get a 16 port switch for 3 reasons:

1. I only have 1 extra 5 port switch and I need 6 ports
2. I need a larger switch in our outbuilding to accommodate for another networked printer.
3. The cost of buying 2 additional 7 port switches is only slightly less than 1 16 port switch.

But: All that being said, I "could" move all the non-gigabit items in the house (1 printer, 1 directtv network connection, 2 vonage devices) to a megabit switch off of a gigabit switch which I already have.

That would allow me to use the 5 port gigabit switch I already have.

Your thoughts?

DrBones

 

[thiggins]

You have a lot of stuff to connect. Get the larger switch.