How many switches do i need to connect 50 computers with 8 ports on each switch

dena123

Honorable
Feb 17, 2013
1
0
10,510
I have a total of 82 networking devices, there are two areas where clusters of computers will outnumber the wall jacks in close physical proximity, I need to use economical, desktop switches, I need to know how many, what kind, and at what price, thank you so much
 

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
You lose one port on each for its network connection, so if you use 8 port you have 7 available -- to connect 50 devices you would need 8.

Look at bigger switches, the 16 or 24 port are pretty reasonable. You could get by with 2 24 port and an 8 port.

If you want consumer grade unmanaged switches look at TPLINK and Trendnet, they work as well as other inexpensive brands.

Do you need gigabit or just Fast Ethernet (100Mpbs)? Personally, I would lean toward spending the extra and getting gigabit -- the inexpensive 24 port Fast Ethernet are around $50-60, while the gigabit are around $120 each.