I need recommendations for a good 24 or 26 port layer 3 switch.
My situation is this:
Just a few weeks ago, I hosted a LAN Party with about 20 computers using a SMC 16port switch uplinked to a Ovislink NWAY 16port switch(old devices).
From the start, I was hoping that this setup would hold up to the bandwidth necessary for a smooth 2 days of gaming.
But as it turned out, with about 16 players playing unreal tournament, the whole network began to lag horribly. Funny thing was that every comp was lagging not just the computers on the other side of the server switch.
Later on, when I told some people to disconnect from the game, and left about
9 comps connected, the lag would then gradually disappear.
It couldn't have been the network cables as I got 25 of 25feet CAT5e cables from Newegg just before, and I had tested each of them out and there were no problems.
During the LAN party, I even had a dedicated server setup consisting of a 2.4GHz CPU,
1GB DDR400, and integrated 100Mbps NIC, so it wasn't my servers lag.
Most comps were using winxp and were 1GHz CPU or above, and all had 100Mbps LAN NIC's, so lag wasnt from the computers.
So after much online reading, Ive determine that the source of the lag are the switches, and so here I am, ready to shell out big bucks for a new layer 3 switch. Hopefully all of you will give me some good suggestions on this important purchase.
The one Im currently looking at is the Linksys EF1324.
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=35&prid=500
It has 24 100Mbps ports plus 2 Gigabit ports, layer 3 of course. I figured one of the Gigabit ports will serve as my future server port and the second gigabit port can serve as an uplink port when my LAN parties get bigger. By the way, my budget is around $900.
Any recommendations for another product or advice would be much appreciated, thank you.
My situation is this:
Just a few weeks ago, I hosted a LAN Party with about 20 computers using a SMC 16port switch uplinked to a Ovislink NWAY 16port switch(old devices).
From the start, I was hoping that this setup would hold up to the bandwidth necessary for a smooth 2 days of gaming.
But as it turned out, with about 16 players playing unreal tournament, the whole network began to lag horribly. Funny thing was that every comp was lagging not just the computers on the other side of the server switch.
Later on, when I told some people to disconnect from the game, and left about
9 comps connected, the lag would then gradually disappear.
It couldn't have been the network cables as I got 25 of 25feet CAT5e cables from Newegg just before, and I had tested each of them out and there were no problems.
During the LAN party, I even had a dedicated server setup consisting of a 2.4GHz CPU,
1GB DDR400, and integrated 100Mbps NIC, so it wasn't my servers lag.
Most comps were using winxp and were 1GHz CPU or above, and all had 100Mbps LAN NIC's, so lag wasnt from the computers.
So after much online reading, Ive determine that the source of the lag are the switches, and so here I am, ready to shell out big bucks for a new layer 3 switch. Hopefully all of you will give me some good suggestions on this important purchase.
The one Im currently looking at is the Linksys EF1324.
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=35&prid=500
It has 24 100Mbps ports plus 2 Gigabit ports, layer 3 of course. I figured one of the Gigabit ports will serve as my future server port and the second gigabit port can serve as an uplink port when my LAN parties get bigger. By the way, my budget is around $900.
Any recommendations for another product or advice would be much appreciated, thank you.