Recommend Cheap 24Port Switch , And Q About wiring job

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Ruffy

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 31, 2001
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First off some info.
A Company I do bussiness with is upgrading. Currently they're on 6 machines + Server all on a 16port switch. Now they're moving to new offices and adding 6 more machines. On top of that every office is going to have 3 cat5e jacks(2 data, 1 voice)

All these connections are going to one patch panel(Cept the voice, thatll prob be branched off into the PBX patch)

Now this is a VERY small company. They just cant afford to spend money on a high density switch. Since I haven't delt with Cheap switches before Im asking for your help. My idea was to buy two cheaper 24port switches and cascade them. Would I like a cluster of 2950's or better? yes. but thats not an option here.

We Dont need any sort of vlans or management. Again small network and beyond the machines we're adding theres very little need for future expansion anytimesoon.

Here are my initial Choices. Cheaper is better here in the end. Anyone know anything about these? The linksys obviously has more features listed. All are store and foward. The Cnet and 3net ones both have 2.5mb Buffer The 3Net also seems to have a seperate back port for cascading(I'm guessing)

Is there anything special I need to look for when hooking two cheap switches together? I'm really only familiar with Cisco Equip

CNet CSH-2400 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet Switch - Retail - $74
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833171205

3Net ALW-3024T-V1 10/100Mbps Switch - Retail - $66
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833163003

LINKSYS EF3124 10/100Mbps Switch - Retail - $118
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124043

Last Question is Kindof a biggie.
Now we paid to have the new offices wired half way. The other half of the building was still being decided but at the time the server room was already planned and the jacks all ran into the corner where the server room was to be built...... Now a few weeks ago the genius bosses decided they didnt want the server room there. So they moved it 10ft to the left. Our problem is. What do we do if the cable run isnt long enough? We left alot of slack but it might just not be enough for this change.

How would we extend the cable without getting transmission problems. Would a 66/110 Punch block work? Should we use Couplers? or what. I'm really at a loss of what to do here.

I tell you management decisions really piss me off.
Please help.
 
I like the relatively newer line of Linksys/Cisco switches...the SR series. Link towards bottom of this page...
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...622279&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper

The basic SR224 switch is just 10/100, about 105 bucks, I like them better than the older EF series such as you linked. Also...food for thought, depending upon what type of traffic your network has...what kind of applications you run...you might want to consider uplinking the two switches using gigabit. SR224G...has 1x gigaport...you could get two of them and uplink to each other using the gigabit port on each. About 155 bucks each.

If your servers run gigabit NICs...SRW224G...each switch has 2x gigabit ports...you could use one for each to uplink, and the remaining one on each for 2 of your servers to feed the switches via their giga-NICs. About 195 bucks each.

Now for your data wiring problem....hard to tell based on the description...but it sounds like the cables were brought to a location which is now 10' away from where you'd like your server cabinet to go? Have they been terminated to a patch panel yet? Or just coiled up hanging there? Doesn't sound like a biggie...sure it's nice to have your cables and patch panel reside inside of your server cabinet, but have your patch panel mounted wherever it'll work...and to keep things neat...I guess I'd mount the switches there also. Could get a small 1/4 sized wall mounted cabinet for that..or if not in the budget...just a small wall mounted rack to have your patch panel, and switches on, and can snag a 1U APC battery backup unit for them. Then if your servers will be located 10' away...just plug them into the switches with 25' cables or something. Whatever your internet feed is.....locate router and uplink where you can.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
I like the relatively newer line of Linksys/Cisco switches...the SR series. Link towards bottom of this page...
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...622279&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper

The basic SR224 switch is just 10/100, about 105 bucks, I like them better than the older EF series such as you linked. Also...food for thought, depending upon what type of traffic your network has...what kind of applications you run...you might want to consider uplinking the two switches using gigabit. SR224G...has 1x gigaport...you could get two of them and uplink to each other using the gigabit port on each. About 155 bucks each.

If your servers run gigabit NICs...SRW224G...each switch has 2x gigabit ports...you could use one for each to uplink, and the remaining one on each for 2 of your servers to feed the switches via their giga-NICs. About 195 bucks each.

Now for your data wiring problem....hard to tell based on the description...but it sounds like the cables were brought to a location which is now 10' away from where you'd like your server cabinet to go? Have they been terminated to a patch panel yet? Or just coiled up hanging there? Doesn't sound like a biggie...sure it's nice to have your cables and patch panel reside inside of your server cabinet, but have your patch panel mounted wherever it'll work...and to keep things neat...I guess I'd mount the switches there also. Could get a small 1/4 sized wall mounted cabinet for that..or if not in the budget...just a small wall mounted rack to have your patch panel, and switches on, and can snag a 1U APC battery backup unit for them. Then if your servers will be located 10' away...just plug them into the switches with 25' cables or something. Whatever your internet feed is.....locate router and uplink where you can.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the response. Now to address some things.

Traffic wont be much. Besides mydocuments redirection and a Quickbooks database being used from multiple locations. There will be no real need for a high speed network.

We're talking a user load at a max of 10. Users save word and excel documents to the server. And the 36mb Quickbooks database is opened from 3 machines.

Second. I plan on dumping the Secondary Data ports all onto the second switch. They're more for backup/future expansion. I don't expect any other then 1 or 2 to be enabled anytime soon.

Speed is not an issue. Gigabit would be nice but its not going to happen anytime soon. If It were id only get 1 of those dual gig up switches and one standard. Doubt the server has gigabit its a dual AMD MP tyan board.



The wiring one is a pretty big one. Letme try and lay it down better.

The wire was run from point A at to point B. It all comes through a hole high up in the wall, hits the floor. Then has about 3 feet worth of slack.

Now in its old location It would have given us the ability to move the rack anywhere in the 8x10 Proposed Server Room. But Now the entire Room is gone. It's been moved 10 feet+ away from the hole. Right now its just hanging in coils above the drop ceiling. It does reach the new room. But only about a foot worth of cable actually goes into the room. Because we want to air condition it we want to seal the room up properly, so putting the patch panel up there would be a pain.

Above the room there is nothing but a drop ceiling. Mounting and putting any real hardware up there would be difficult.

What im asking is if I Could use a punchdown block to effectly extend the cable. It would go something like this.
Original Cable -> 110 Block -> New Cable -> Patch Panel -> Patch Cable -> Switches
 
OK, no need for high speed...so look at those SR224 switches.

Hmmm...if the cable only comes into this room with about a foot to spare from the ceiling...then yeah, setting up on a patchpanel doesn't seem like an option. Even if going up into the ceiling and backtracking quite a bit....can any slack be added? To get like 5 feet to hang into the new room?

If not...what will be located where the wiring is currently hanging? Another office? A hallway? Closet? Bathroom? I'm still at the point of trying to picture the layout..and cosmetics as well as maintaining functionality. I try to stay away from doing extensions, or having more points of connections than necessary. Still leaning towards "Why not leave the patch panel and switches where the wiring currently hangs..and simply uplinking your servers to that."
 
For the switch, I'd prefer to have a bigger name for my (albeit only) core switch. If you can't do cisco, how about 3com.

As far as the wiring, you might just have to bite the bullet and re-pull the cable. Yeah, I know it sucks and it won't be fun, but it shouldn't take too long as you've already got a bunch of pull cables in the ceiling. Just tape to the existing wires and pull it back through.

 
you can get fairly cheap cisco switches from www.ciscokits.com . I think a catalyst 1924 is like $100 shipped, granted its only 10 megabit but i think the 2924 is around $200 and its 10/100.
 
Dell Powerconnect 2224 24 Port Unmanaged switch $74 @ dell small business
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
OK, no need for high speed...so look at those SR224 switches.

Hmmm...if the cable only comes into this room with about a foot to spare from the ceiling...then yeah, setting up on a patchpanel doesn't seem like an option. Even if going up into the ceiling and backtracking quite a bit....can any slack be added? To get like 5 feet to hang into the new room?

If not...what will be located where the wiring is currently hanging? Another office? A hallway? Closet? Bathroom? I'm still at the point of trying to picture the layout..and cosmetics as well as maintaining functionality. I try to stay away from doing extensions, or having more points of connections than necessary. Still leaning towards "Why not leave the patch panel and switches where the wiring currently hangs..and simply uplinking your servers to that."
Click to expand...

The cable is currently hanging on top of ceiling tiles. Above that there is nothing, Literally Nothing. Its a big metal building with a 25foot ceiling. Below the tiles there will be a hallway. Nothing else. There are no real support beams anywhere. Building anything capable of supporting a patch panel/switch 14 feet up in the air would not be easy.



Party2go9820 said:
As far as the wiring, you might just have to bite the bullet and re-pull the cable. Yeah, I know it sucks and it won't be fun, but it shouldn't take too long as you've already got a bunch of pull cables in the ceiling. Just tape to the existing wires and pull it back through.
Click to expand...

Not an option. Because of the crazy layout these ppl did pulling cable isnt easy. All walls are sealed up tight. The cabling was done prior to finishing the offices frame. The builders essentially built around it. Whats worse is above all the offices theres alot of hvac equip. Recabling would cost thousands.
 
if you can have like 3 feet of cable in the new location, why not just put a patch panel right where in comes in?
 
BuisyBizz said:
if you can have like 3 feet of cable in the new location, why not just put a patch panel right where in comes in?
Click to expand...

The drop ceiling is 14feet up in the air. There is like No real support for anything up there.
 
Ruffy said:
The cable is currently hanging on top of ceiling tiles. Above that there is nothing, Literally Nothing. Its a big metal building with a 25foot ceiling. Below the tiles there will be a hallway. Nothing else. There are no real support beams anywhere. Building anything capable of supporting a patch panel/switch 14 feet up in the air would not be easy.
Click to expand...

How about mounting one of these for the patch panel(s)?

You could mount two patch panels and simply use short patch cables to "bridge" the two sets of cables together.

You have to have some way of mounting a bracket up there. I find it hard to believe there is no way you can mount a small bracket in the ceiling.
 
SJConsultant said:
How about mounting one of these for the patch panel(s)?

You could mount two patch panels and simply use short patch cables to "bridge" the two sets of cables together.

You have to have some way of mounting a bracket up there. I find it hard to believe there is no way you can mount a small bracket in the ceiling.
Click to expand...

The Real Ceiling is 25 feet up.
The Drop ceiling is 14 feet up.

The drop ceiling is a big metal frame thats supported by the walls
The walls are All Metal.

If we had wood as the support then sure I could mount on a 2x4. But currently I cant.
The Server Room is going to have Air conditionin running into it.Making things alittle more complicated.

It's going to be Drop Ceiling - Heavy Insulation - Some other crap
 
Wood, Metal, whatever, you should still be able to mount the bracket there. At some point your going to have to ask yourself do you want to do this the right way or the lazy way.
 
I would put either a few 110 blocks as splice points for the cables.

Ideally i would mount a patch panel up in the ceiling put rj45 mod plugs on the old cable runs and then run new cables from the back of that patch panel to the new patch panels in the server closet, or, mount a switch up in the ceiling and put a patch panel there and run one cabel from the new location to the switch and boom. done.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
I like the relatively newer line of Linksys/Cisco switches...the SR series. Link towards bottom of this page...
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...622279&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper

The basic SR224 switch is just 10/100, about 105 bucks, I like them better than the older EF series such as you linked. Also...food for thought, depending upon what type of traffic your network has...what kind of applications you run...you might want to consider uplinking the two switches using gigabit. SR224G...has 1x gigaport...you could get two of them and uplink to each other using the gigabit port on each. About 155 bucks each.

If your servers run gigabit NICs...SRW224G...each switch has 2x gigabit ports...you could use one for each to uplink, and the remaining one on each for 2 of your servers to feed the switches via their giga-NICs. About 195 bucks each.

Now for your data wiring problem....hard to tell based on the description...but it sounds like the cables were brought to a location which is now 10' away from where you'd like your server cabinet to go? Have they been terminated to a patch panel yet? Or just coiled up hanging there? Doesn't sound like a biggie...sure it's nice to have your cables and patch panel reside inside of your server cabinet, but have your patch panel mounted wherever it'll work...and to keep things neat...I guess I'd mount the switches there also. Could get a small 1/4 sized wall mounted cabinet for that..or if not in the budget...just a small wall mounted rack to have your patch panel, and switches on, and can snag a 1U APC battery backup unit for them. Then if your servers will be located 10' away...just plug them into the switches with 25' cables or something. Whatever your internet feed is.....locate router and uplink where you can.
Click to expand...

Another vote for the SR244, I use it massivly at home (2 tri nic servers, 6 desktops and some wifi) and it hasn't failed me once, and I move A LOT of data arround
 
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