[Discuss] network switch

[Daniel Feenberg]

On Tue, 15 Jul 2014, Bill Bogstad wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 11:51 AM, Stephen Adler <adler at stephenadler.com> wrote:
>> Guys,
>>
>>
>> anyway, any suggestions on which model switch I should be looking at? I
>> want to mount it in a standard 19" rack.
>
> I don't have any specific recomendations (haven't bought any recently), but
> I have noticed that managed gigabit switches have really come down in price.
> The premium over unmanaged switches seems much lower then it used to be.
> For example this random HP 8 port managed switch:
>
> http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/HP-1810-8G-v2-switch-8-ports-managed-desktop-wall-mountable-Smar/3262306.aspx
>

>From the description on the HP website:

   http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c04164471

I think that is probably a "smart switch" rather than a "managed switch". 
As far as I can tell, the difference is mostly whether the switch can
be controlled from the command line or not so it probably won't
affect you. I expect almost any "smart switch" would support vlans
nowadays, at least the Netgear and Dlink smart switches I have purchased
over the last few years have.

I believe he least expensive actual managed switch is probably the
Cisco Small Business 200 series which is less than $200 but if finicky 
about matching duplex settings with non-Cisco switches, so it is
not a good buy.

Daniel Feenberg