Wanted: Managed Switch Recommendation

[travisco_nabisco]

I will be moving into a larger house next month. One of the reasons for the new house is that it has a suite that I can rent out. I plan on offering internet as part of the suite rental but want to find a decent and affordable managed switch that I can segment the network with.

My requirements in order of importance are:
1. Ability to segment my network so that the suite LAN is independent of the house LAN.
2. Gigabit Ethernet
3. Silent operation.
4. 8 ports are sufficient (would leave 1 free) but 16 would be ideal.

Thanks

 

[theonlyski]

Might be easier to just get two switches. You'll have to have a firewall that has multiple inside interfaces (you can build one from an old PC and a few NIC's, free operating systems are available on the internet to do this). I have one and it works amazingly well, even as a virtual machine for providing my entire network connectivity.

That might be your cheapest route that gives you great performance and best bang for your buck.

 

[travisco_nabisco]

Two switches isn't a bad idea. I will already have a provided gateway device/router from the ISP, in theory this provides some separation of the two networks, but I really would like to have two VLANs to completely isolate them.

 

[Dreamslacker]

The Netgear GS108T/ GS110T should do well for an 8-port. Scaling up, I'd rather you get the HP Procurve 24 port switches (1800-24G or 1810-24G) instead for a small increase in price. These are all fanless units so there's no noise issue.
16 ports are hardly worth the price increment these days especially since there is a significant starting price for an 8-port web managed unit.

2 separate dumb switches may actually be cheaper and would work as well for your requirements. That said, a little tinkering with tagging/ stripping on ports allows you to configure a managed switch to emulate 2 or more dumb switches and may find more use in future.

If you're issued an ISR or equivalent unit, a managed switch is most definitely a nice route to go (pun not intended).

 

[stevech]

I have a GS108 - works well. I use it to mirror port A to port B so I can use wireshark to eavesdrop on traffic between a non-PC LAN device and an internet host. It also has VLANs but I don't use that.

They've stopped making the GS108 but I see them at low prices. I got mine in like-new condition/packaging, via eBay.

 

[travisco_nabisco]

Thanks for the recommended models.

I will probably defer my purchase decision until I know if the wife will allow any IT budget, or if all the money will go towards things that actually matter in a house

 

[clintb]

I can second either the Netgear GS108 or the HP Procure switches. Both are really nice for managed and pretty darned cheap. More importantly, silent!

 

[onnoossendrijver]

I am using a Netgear GS108Tv2 powered by a Netgear GS110TP switch. Both switches work great.
2 minor complaints... the webinterface is very slow and VLAN configuration is not very straightforward.
If you need to configure several vlans and different vlan configurations per port.. please take some time. The slow webinterface makes it even more horrible to configure.
Maybe this is why I like Cisco and Juniper so much

Update: with the latest firmware installed the webinterface is MUCH faster.