Switch advise for Structured Wiring Enclosure

TheGardenTool

2[H]4U
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Mar 12, 2006
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Okay I updated an older thread I made awhile back but basically I had a custom house built with 8 CAT6 drops and a 3 CAT5E for phone that I won't use. Looking like I'll use AT&T U-Verse as an ISP because I don't like Cox Cable nor their overpriced shared P.O.S. New neighborhood and I've been told it's FTTH. I have a Fiber box in my back yard just haven't gotten confirmation they run it to the house (not every yard in my block has these boxes but I am a corner lot and have most of the easement connections). Highest tier package isn't available to order online, 24/3 I believe, which I've read is an indication that it is FTTH. For some reason FTTN is eligible for that package but I don't know.

Anyway I've got 1 CAT6 and 1 CAT5E (suppose to be for phone) ran into my study nook under the stairs to a bonus room. It's probably 6' by 8' nook, and thinking about using the CAT5E to hook up to the RG and then DMZ Plus to my DIR-655 router (already own) and then connection the CAT6 to the WAN back to the structured wiring enclosure inside the coat closest. Of course this all depends on how AT&T decides to install but also there is an RG-6 to the study nook.

I'm primarily looking for suggestions on what switch to install to support the other 7 CAT6 drops throughout the home...1 in master bed, 1 in each of the 2 spare beds, 2 in living room and 2 in bonus room. Attic is really accessible so the possibility to add more drops to each room is pretty high.

I've seen On-Q, maker of my enclosure, offers a simple gigabit unmanaged switch 8 port switch. Any better, larger options in case I decide to add more drops?
 
It depends on the amount of control that you want. Are you planning on using VLANs to separate the traffic within your house? Do you want to do any QOS for VOIPs? Or do you just want a dumb switch that can handle gigabit? If the last is the case then any Dlink, Netgear, etc will do.

How much are you willing to spend? Gigabit managed switches can get pricey.
 
Is this a standard 19 inch enclosure or is it something smaller and propietry?
Do you care about mounting the switch to the enclosure or is having it sitting loose in there fine?
Do you care about "managed switch" features like vlans or is a dumb unmanged switch fine?
Do you care about gigabit or is 10/100 fine?
What is your budget?
 
Looked around at some of the Cisco small business switches. I may have to buy a couple to play around with. A gigabit, managed switch for $300-$400 isn't bad. Look into the 300 series.
 
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