=============================================================== From: Aaron Welch ------------------------------------------------------ I have a ton of reliable 8 ports if you need some. -AW t=20 ne=20
=============================================================== From: John Aldrich ------------------------------------------------------ Nifty, any of 'em Gigabit-capable? The user's computer has a gig-e nic and it would be nice for him (Accounting Manager) to be able to have the maximum bandwidth available. :-)
=============================================================== From: "Alex Smith (K4RNT)" ------------------------------------------------------ Netgear FTW :) d
=============================================================== From: Nick Smith ------------------------------------------------------ Is the rest of your network gig-E? if not, its not going to matter if he gets a gig-E switch.....
=============================================================== From: Dave Brockman ------------------------------------------------------ You do realize the chances of him actually seeing any speed increase from that is that dirty fingernail mark right above nil, right? Regards, dtb
=============================================================== From: Dave Brockman ------------------------------------------------------ Netgear DIAF! First time you see their NICs start spitting out an *8* bit MAC address you'll burn everything with Netgear's name on it too. Regards, dtb
=============================================================== From: "Alex Smith (K4RNT)" ------------------------------------------------------ NICs I don't know much about anymore, best luck I've had (with discrete NICs) is with Realtek and Intel-based NICs, and for 10/100, I swear by 3C905{B,C}s. :) 8*
=============================================================== From: Dave Brockman ------------------------------------------------------ I've had some pretty crappy Realtek NICs too :) Current gen GigE stuff is Intel or Broadcom for me. Same with the 3C905[B,C] cards, rock solid, and every OS I know of supports them. Regards, dtb
=============================================================== From: Mike Harrison ------------------------------------------------------ yeah.. and if your internet connection is < Gig-E, the Gig-E won't help him download porn any faster.. Oh.. yeah.. you are running Windows desktop apps. You might need that to play some network MineSweeper. Although, I have to admit, I put a nice Gig-E on our FreeNAS server and backups FLY. It's NICE.
=============================================================== From: Dave Brockman ------------------------------------------------------ For 99.9% of what a typical office user does, a Gbe link won't do squat for them, unless they are actually transferring large files back and forth quite often. I've learned my lesson the hard way, I will never image a PC or P2V another server over a 100Mb link if it has a Gbe interface. But I'll sit in the office and browse/email/work on network documents all day long on a 100Mb link, no difference. The first ISO I need to move, I curse 100Mb :) Regards, dtb
=============================================================== From: Kenneth Ratliff ------------------------------------------------------
=============================================================== From: John Aldrich ------------------------------------------------------ Well, I know when I did Gigabit fiber between buildings (going from 10 Mbit to Gigabit) the bandwidth available to the users of that building went from practically nil to off the charts. Where they had trouble accessing the server before they now have no problems. Granted he may not see significant improvement in his web browsing, but downloading and accessing files off the local servers should be better since the server is on GigE as well.
=============================================================== From: John Aldrich ------------------------------------------------------ To print? No. To access his files on the server? Yes. :D
=============================================================== From: Dave Brockman ------------------------------------------------------ So, how many users sit on the far side of that fiber run? Every one over 1, makes that an improper comparison. Did you by chance upgrade any of your other equipment, or you had a device that used a 10Mb optic that let you swap out optics and nothing else changed except the fiber? Not to mention the orders of magnitudes of difference between 10Mb->GbE vs 100Mb->Gbe? If your desktops are on GbE, your servers should be on 10GbE, or at least multi-port LAGed. Economies of TCP-sliding and all. Regards, dtb
=============================================================== From: Aaron Welch ------------------------------------------------------ Just going full duplex would have made that link seem 100x faster... -AW it=20 om=20 nt=20 he=20
=============================================================== From: Dave Brockman ------------------------------------------------------ Hehe, once upon a time I can remember some *ahem* slightly over-length copper being able to light and pass traffic @ 10Mb/FD. Even including the price of switches (from hubs) it was still a fraction of the cost of upgrading the fiber at the time.... Oh the good old days of remembering the dialer config trick to make the routers keep both of the ISDN channels up all the time, because if it didn't, the time it would take to connect would cause the printer job to time out, because 56k just wasn't quite enough to send that print job..... But John, it's ok, I really do get it. I remember a certain department of a company I used to work with that cried and moaned to upper management that they *had* to have gig connectivity, so we let them buy it, configured it, and dropped the 100Mb fiber uplink to it. The l^wusers saw 1GB!! link on their notification windows, and we all went out and had a drink and laughed. Regards, dtb
=============================================================== From: Cornelius Hemphill ------------------------------------------------------ I'm not sure if this helps any,but at work we use switches call Ntron among others. They are small industrial switches that can do 100/1000. They can also be din rail mounted. They can be somewhat pricey, but that's the industrial realm. They are powered off 24vdc.
=============================================================== From: John Aldrich ------------------------------------------------------ All I did was swap out a media converter (10 Mb) for a Mini-GBic on each side. Same physical fiber, just a different connection speed.
=============================================================== From: Bret McHone ------------------------------------------------------ among others. They are small industrial switches that can do 100/1000.
=============================================================== From: Dave Brockman ------------------------------------------------------ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 And back to your original question, I have only just started testing/playing around with one of their smaller switches, but I picked up an Intellinet Managed 24 port a couple of months back when I needed something in a pinch. The feature set and CLI were very impressive for the price point. I picked up an 8 port Gig (non-managed) to use for a P2V and am carrying it around now for when I need an extra GigE port or two. It's metal, haven't had any nway (auto-detect) issues, and while I'm pretty sure I would be disappointed with a good ipperf test across it, it is much faster than 100Mb. Not that it does you much good, Shields carries them locally. Regards, dtb -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk1NaoQACgkQABP1RO+tr2TVDwCfYMhuE28JDYVqeUmt7s2XzJOo m9AAnjCTkw8/L+Ju4ArpqGaW3R803DhQ =1cC6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----