[PLUG] Advice on switches for home network

[Steve Bonds]

For unmanaged switches/hubs the two big low-cost brands are Linksys and
NetGear.  I've used both quite a bit and have been very happy with NetGear
(formerly Bay Networks).

I have seen a number of strange failures on the Linksys (hubs that weren't
really hubs-- not all traffic was echoed to all ports, intermittent
failures, poor 100BaseT-to-10BaseT buffering, etc.)  The NetGear has been
much more consistent for some fairly heavy use.

I have heard good things on the Linksys from people I trust, so my
experiences might be somewhat unusual.

A good place to get and share opinions on hardware like this is
http://www.epinions.com.

  -- Steve Bonds

On Sat, 8 Jun 2002, Stuart Mathews smathews at pcez.com wrote:

> I'm hoping to avoid unnecessary pitfalls of setting up a small
> network.
> 
> I have a DSL connection with a 2 Linux PCs, and will soon add a
> Thinkpad and a printer. I'll need some kind of switch to link
> everything up. Any ideas as to what they cost, what features I
> need to keep an eye out for, as well as advices on who makes good
> (bad!) switches? I'm guessing I'll probably see the best
> selection at Fry's??