Recommendations for a

[cotswoldcs]

My current switch/hub has died quite surprisingly, having worked fine for 6 years. Yesterday it just stopped working and has left me searching for a replacement.

I'd like to upgrade to either an 8 or 16 port unmanaged Gigabit switch but need some advice. Which manufacturers are best? If I opt for a cheaper 8 port switch can I add another later and if so will this use one of the current ports (ie adding another will result in 2 x 7 ports)??

Price wise I guess under £50 for 8 port and £120 for 16 port.

Many thanks

[killie99]

Netgear GS108, fantastic piece of kit in an indestructable metal box, non of your plastic rubbish!

[cotswoldcs]

I'm tempted to go straight for a 16 port switch. The Netgear GS116 was one of my choices until I read this.

What do you think?

I have mainly Cat5e cables and have just had electricians put Cat5e cables through the house. They didn't want to use Cat 6 for some reason, but was told that Cat5e can do Gigabit speeds with the right hardware. Is this correct?

[03peacheym]

Netgear GS108, fantastic piece of kit in an indestructable metal box, non of your plastic rubbish!

same they are really good

[cotswoldcs]

Having read that review I'm going to steer clear of the Netgear unless I can be sure that I can use it with Cat5e (ie: faster than 100mbps).

Scan have a D-Link DGS-1216 on Todayonly for £150. It sounds tempting but I don't know anything about it. Does anyone have one or experience of using one. It's more expensive but this review suggests that it is possible to get a faster speed out of existing Cat5e cabling.

[LWA]

Have you had a look at the one in the Bargain thread:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...bsd&cs=ukbsdt1 ?

[Mossy]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=172371

FYI guys

I have never used these but my collegue uses them at his workplace all the time(I sell them to him)
he has no problems with them.

[cotswoldcs]

Have you had a look at the one in the Bargain thread:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...bsd&cs=ukbsdt1 ?

That Dell Switch is quite a bargain - £77.55 inc VAT & Shipping for a 16 port switch. Sounds great but has anyone tried a Dell switch? Are they any good?

[LWA]

According to the Hexus bargain thread (here) , it has had fairly decent reviews.

[Agent]

Plus you have a decent warranty with Dell

Stay away from Netgear IMO. Always had issues with their equipment, its very hit and miss IMO.

[burble]

Having read that review I'm going to steer clear of the Netgear unless I can be sure that I can use it with Cat5e (ie: faster than 100mbps).

Cat 5E will run at gigabit without a problem.

[killie99]

I'm tempted to go straight for a 16 port switch. The Netgear GS116 was one of my choices until I read this.

What do you think?

I have mainly Cat5e cables and have just had electricians put Cat5e cables through the house. They didn't want to use Cat 6 for some reason, but was told that Cat5e can do Gigabit speeds with the right hardware. Is this correct?

My whole house is wired with cat5e and I have absolutely no issues getting gigabit connections to all the systems with giga ethernet cards (I have 6 gigbit devices hanging off my gs108). I get around 3-400Mb/s sustained transfers when moving large amounts of data (100-200Gb worth of data)

[cotswoldcs]

Thanks for your help everyone.

I've just placed an order for the Dell PowerConnect 2716. I'll let you know how I get on with it.