Managed or Unmanaged Switch

[satod001]

I'm planning to upgrade my network at my small business (copying/scanning company), to a gigabit switch. I'm adding a NAS, and changing out all my PCs to gig NICs. Here are my questions.

While I can easily upgrade all my PCs, switch, NAS, and wiring to support gig Ethernet, I don't think I can upgrade my copiers/scanners with gig NICs. I'm leasing my equipment from 4 vendors and I'm currently checking if upgrading their equipment is possible. And even if they can be upgraded, because I'm leasing, it doesn't mean that my vendors will be willing to upgrade their equipment.

Assuming I CAN'T upgrade the copiers/scanners, will I run into any network issues because of this "mixed" network - some gigabit devices and 10/100 devices? Does this create a case where my network will "slow down" to match the slowest devices? Consider that my scanners are only WRITING data to the NAS, and then the PCs are interacting with the NAS.

Lastly, if this "mixed" network will likely effect my network performance, will buying a managed/smart switch help by allowing me to segment my network devices into those supporting 10/100 vs gigabit?

Thanks for helping with the noob questions...I really feel like I have no idea what I'm doing here!!!

 

[satod001]

I think I found the answer to my just posted question in Tim Higgins article: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30212/54/.

Since I may not be able to upgrade the embedded NICs in my copiers/scanners, and since I certainly won't be able to disable the flow control from NICs in these devices, I guess I'm limited to buying a managed switch where I can disable flow control there.

Does anyone have any other insight in this question? I fear 24 port managed switches will start to get fairly expensive. Any good recommendations?

 

[thiggins]

I don't think you need to be concerned about flow control. The problem scenario requires simultaneous transfers from a single gigabit machine to a mix of gigabit and 100 Mbps computers.

You have the opposite case, 100 Mbps machines writing to a Gigabit NAS.

You can always buy smaller switches (16 ports, perhaps) and uplink them to get a larger switch. You might get a better deal with lower port count per switch.