Finding a Decent Unmanaged Switched, Confusion

Shog · July 18, 2017

All,

I apologize for my lack of knowledge in this area, I'm not really privy to all the ins and outs of networking. I'm not going to do anything fancy, just plug a bunch of shit in between some servers, the router/modem, other devices. I was going to buy a newegg switch

I was going to buy a new TP-LINK TL-SG1024 for $60.

Dell PowerConnect 5324 and other models for $30 or so.
Then there's this "switching module" on ebay saying a Cisco WS-X4424-GB-RJ45 for $20.

Now I"m just confused, I tried to find some information on the Cisco, visually it doesn't have a full case but I can't find anything else, I'm leaning to just go for the TP link because of some of the features they're pushing. It'll be using it for awhile and I might as well pay a little more now and let it be a subsystem if I ever expand the system.

Any comments on what to look for? I don't think I can really go wrong with my use case, especially with the TP link, just want to know if there's something major I'm missing and might want or be expecting.

brwainer · July 18, 2017

That switching module has to go into a Catalyst 4506 or similar chassis switch. It is useless without a big, power hungry, and loud chassis to go into. And it is very much the opposite of an unmanaged switch - that has all the typical features you would expect of a Cisco switch, once it is installed into the chassis (to be clear, that on its own isn't a switch. The chassis is a switch, but one that has no ports on its own, and you install the modules in order to choose what types of ports you want)

The TPlink will be fine if you are running a completely flat (no VLANs) network. If you might ever use VLANs in the future though, it may make sense to get at least a "Smart" or "Web Managed" switch so that it isn't useless when that day comes.