Need guidelines for choosing a network box

[rasczak]

Hay,
I'm planning on building a home network with a dedicated gateway computer for managing bandwith, firewall etc. The server should share the distribute the bandwith, so I'm assuming that I need a switch.
I've never bought a switch before, so I'm not that familiar with the specs, and all my routers has been crap so far.
The switch should handle high loads of traffic. I'm quite into P2P, so it has to handle multiple computers running BT with lots of connections. I've had problems using BT together with other activity in my network. Even with low upload rate, the network would simply crash and I'd have to reset the damn thing several times per day, so handling a high number of connections is vital. Also, a dedicated server will be used to stream media from several of the computers in the house, almost continously, so I will need something that can handle high local traffic without limiting the external traffic and vice versa.

So, what I'm intersted in knowing, is what kinda specs should I look for in a switch, and how can I separate a bad switch from a good one, without looking at the price tag?
Eight ports would be enough, so I guess 16 ports is the next logical step.

Thanks to anyone with constructive replies :!:

 

[mycouchstinks]

a very good brand to go with would be blackbox. you can request all of the catalougues totally free. they have everything in networking avalable. they have a sale on cat5e 1100feet for 80 bucks. also, if you need really need a fast connection they have 10 gigabit connections, or you can get a 1 gigabit, with the transfer loads you say, i think you should at least get a 1 gigabit switch. You can also get a small server cabinet to keep your server cool and organized. If you don't already use cat5e cabling, it runs 3 times faster, normal cable runs at 100mhz cat5e runs at 350mhz. I would definently go with blackbox, they are very reliable, and mainly everything they sell comes with a lifetime garentee, here is the link to get all of the catalouges completely FREE. http://www.blackbox.co.uk/request/information.asp?cs=dvh&id=5

 

[calyn]

I'm not going to advocate a certain brand here, but what you need to look for in a switch is port density (8/16/24/48 ports) and type (ethernet, fastethernet, gig, tengig) first. Waht do you want? That gives you your first selection.

Within that selection look at the switch fabric and internal transfer rate. If you pick for exaple a 16 port gigbit switch, that switch won't utilize the ports fully unless the switch fabric transfer rate is 16Gbps, and you also need to look at packets per second (pps) throughput.

 

[kent12er]

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