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16 port or more switch

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Shelnutt2

Shelnutt2

Overclockers Team Content Editor
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Joined
Jun 17, 2005
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At the private school where I maintain their computers they just got 12 new emachines (I didn't have a say in that;)). Anyway these are going to be all networked together, and possible networked onto the internet. Now do I need a switch do network them together? afaik they are not going to have me build/setup a server so will a switch work fine?

We need 16 or more ports because you have 12 computers, printer server, and then a little room for expansion.

What brand/model do you recommened? I'm looking at newegg and there are a bit to many choices.


Thanks.
 
Adragontattoo said:
depends on how much you are willing to spend on the switch, does it need to be managed or can it be an unmanaged switch that resides in a rack?
Click to expand...

I can spend up to $100. It can be managed? unmanaged? I guess either or. What ever is cheeper. Once I set it up, I don't plan to touch it again unless something happens.
 
I would recommend a 24 port managed switch. You might not need/care about the extra features a managed switch offers, but in the future it will make things so much better/easier on you. Just as a very simple example using one of the best features a managed switch can offer, VLANs. Say you ultimately decide you want to have some PCs for staff that connect to the internet, but keep the ones for students off. Just create 2 VLANs, but students on one and staff on another. No need for multiple hardware or all sorts of hacked together stuff, all the traffic will stay seperated. The student VLAN will not be able to reach the internet, it will not be able to contact any routers or modems to get there no matter how many tricks the students have.

Finding one for $100 might be tuff though. I recently installed a Linksys model that I was pretty pleased with, pretty easy GUI setup too for those who are not network engineers.
 
Anyone care to explain a bit more about managed switches?

They are going to have a server, that will run smoothwall and more.

One other question I have is what operating system? XP Pro, or 2k? Whats the best server OS, from microsucks? I'd use a linux distro but the problem is no one at the school knows even what lniux is...hardly know what you mean when you say windows.
 
Last edited:
Shelnutt2 said:
Well my limit for the server box is ~$600. So unless you know where I can find a cheap (legal) version of 2k3, I don't think we can afford that.
Click to expand...
isnt windows 2k server still 900bucks? and is that 600$ for the software or the whole box(hardware/software)? If so thats going to be a very skimpy server (even for 15+ people)

Btw a managed switch is far overkill for a small network like that. Yes the features are nice but for such a small network (and budget) your average 24 port 10/100 switch is perfect.
 
pik4chu said:
isnt windows 2k server still 900bucks? and is that 600$ for the software or the whole box(hardware/software)? If so thats going to be a very skimpy server (even for 15+ people)

Btw a managed switch is far overkill for a small network like that. Yes the features are nice but for such a small network (and budget) your average 24 port 10/100 switch is perfect.
Click to expand...

$600 is skimpping for a server? I was planning on that being for both software/hardware. I really don't know, I've never setup a network this large before. The server will be smoothwall box, run accelerated reader, and be a printer server. As of yet there are no other programs that I know they are going to use that will be run through the server. As for the OS, I though XP, or 2K pro, would be adequate...again I've never setup a network this large before. I don't want to give/build then to much of an over kill network.
 
I only recommend going for managed now becuase it makes growing easier. For a home network no real need for manged equipment, unless of course you just like it. Even in small school/work networks starting out with managed equipment just makes growth that much easier, and they always grow.

As far as what manged really is, well it is just that. Basically an unmanaged switch is just plug it in, no configurations possible. Managed gives you some different options to configure for different uses, exactly what will depend on the model.

Best server would be W2K3. The only problem is there is price. Not only will you need a box to run it on, the server license itself, but also Client Access Licenses (CALs). You could try contacting MS they do have some pretty good discounts for educational institutions. I know when I was in college I got XP through school for $10 or so. Linux works, but is awkward and really would require a onsite administrator who knows how to use it.
 
Shelnutt2 said:
$600 is skimpping for a server? I was planning on that being for both software/hardware. I really don't know, I've never setup a network this large before. The server will be smoothwall box, run accelerated reader, and be a printer server. As of yet there are no other programs that I know they are going to use that will be run through the server. As for the OS, I though XP, or 2K pro, would be adequate...again I've never setup a network this large before. I don't want to give/build then to much of an over kill network.
Click to expand...

You won't be able to run accelerated reader off a smoothwall box. The only way you would be able to use smoothwall and have Xp or 2k is to run it in VMware which you can do as an option. The reason you can't run smoothwall and 2k/XP at the same time is think of smoothwall as a complete OS not just a program so the only way would be to create it's own virtual machine inside of windows and run it from there. Just so you do know.
 
as far as switches go, i reccomend a netgear FS726T for a network like that
they are rock solid and very cheap, you dont need to go cisco or anything like that yet...

$600 for a server? you better buy as cheap a switch as possible and put the cash towards a server... or just stick all the workstations into a workgroup untill you can afford to spend more on a half decent server..

or use linux... if you are in charge of the server then who cares what the users know and dont know.

you can set up SWAT to be a DC for windows machines...
 
one correction here is its $600 + switch.

The $600 is not set it stone, when they first got these twelve computers I said that off the top of my head I though it would be about $600 for a server, but I wasn't sure. I haven't been able to talk to them about it since, but I will soon.

Tell me what are you thinking this will cost for a server and os. See originally the idea was to use this server as a server, and use it for the teacher computer, but if I can save $$$$ by going with a free linux distro and setting it up as the server OS, might talk them into that.

I didn't realise smoothwall was it's own distro. I though it was just a complete program. There goes running that, well unless I can convince them to use linux.


They netgear FS726T is a bit expensive I think. I'll keep it on the list though. Should I be looking for one that has an uplink port? That would allow for easier expansion would it not?
 
best place to start would be to get a quote from someone like dell for a tower server with SBS2k3 + the correct number of licenses

choose the hard drives you want, make sure you have a raid set up (NOT 0, most common for servers is 5)

server cost? including software and licenses, more than one hard drive, 3 to 4gb of ram, scsi hard drives, i would say your looking at over $2000 easily. first server i bought was over £3000 which was dual xeons, 2gb ram, 3X scsi hard drives, sbs2003 with 10 cals
a lot of people on this forum probably don't like dell but their servers are very good quality and very reliable.

most switches have auto uplink these days, every port is essentially an uplink port..

maybe not that exact model but for your price range i would defo go netgear or 3com over belkin / linksys / dynamode / dlink

ive used a lot of switches and most reliable have been netgear and 3com

the Netgear FS116 above is a good deal but i would aim for a rack mount with fans
 
Last edited:
Shelnutt2 said:
I didn't realise smoothwall was it's own distro. I though it was just a complete program. There goes running that, well unless I can convince them to use linux.
Click to expand...

You are thinking about it wrong smoothwall is not a server distro. It is a network routing distro you setup a smoothwall machine to act like a firewall and route traffic. you don't wanna run your server on your smoothwall machine. So if you wanna run smoothwall and a server you want two machines. The good thing is you could use pretty much any machine for smoothwall has super small requirements:

a 486 - Pentium 1 (heck 100 megahurtz is plenty)
32 megs of RAM (although 64 is better)
and just a 512 meg HD.

While you might want slightly beefier machine then that because you are serving 12 workstations it wouldn't need to be powerful at all. Heck 200 mhz 128 megs of RAM would be plenty I would think.

like a $20 machine at a garage sale or a machine you pull outa a dumpster will have enough power for it. Server you are gonna wanna run a seperate distro like gentoo or debian or something like that.
 
i would strongly reccomend before you install this solution for the school that you join up to http://www.smallbizserver.net and read the articles on designing and installing a small business server and set up a small test server at your home or something to get used to it.

being an admin for any ammount of people puts you under a lot of pressure and will land you witha lot of responsibility. Make sure you are pretty comfortable with it all before you go live or you could end up with egg on your face, trust me i speak from experience!
 
gorilly said:
i would strongly reccomend before you install this solution for the school that you join up to http://www.smallbizserver.net and read the articles on designing and installing a small business server and set up a small test server at your home or something to get used to it.
Click to expand...


Thanks, I'll look at that site.


I need to look at edubuntu, last time I checked they offered a free server edition of that linux distro.

Now I'm off to catch my bus...
 
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