[SOLVED] Managed vs Unmanaged switch?

[luckystrikes]

Hello community,

I just have a question about the topic.
Simply put, I will be connecting 2 gaming PC to it and just another port for Printer and that's it for now.
I just don't want to slow down the internet speed.
I am not sure I should get a smart managed switch or unmanaged would just do it ?
Are there going to be noticeable difference if I get a smart managed one over unmanaged ?

Thank you in advance!
Cheers!

 

[timbroslice]

If you're just using it to connect devices to the network, get an unmanaged switch. There won't be any performance differences either way.

 

[luckystrikes]

If you're just using it to connect devices to the network, get an unmanaged switch. There won't be any performance differences either way.

Thank you for this!

 

[bill001g]

Pretty much if you do not know why you need a managed switch then a unmanaged one is fine. Managed ones have more features but silly to pay for something you don't even know what is.

Modern switches will never delay traffic. Most can run all ports at maximum speed up and down all at the same time.

 

[jsmithepa]

Plus if u ever buy a managed switch, thinking more feature must be better, when u bring that sucker home, you will be asked to configure that thing with complicated parameters when you have no idea what to do with it, then you will know you bit more than can chew.

 

[JamesWad]

Hi all, if I want to connect make use of a fibre connection at a guesthouse and manage / restrict the data use of unique login of various users (each with username and passwords), what equipment would be required to setup a wifi network (perhaps even making use of ethernet)?

 

[bill001g]

Sounds simple but it required lots of parts to make it work.

For wifi it is pretty simple since even consumer routers/AP have support for what is called "enterprise" mode. All that means is you have a radius server that handles all the userid and passwords. Most your problem is going to be how fancy a interface do you want for setting up the userid and passwords. The brute force method is to just edit them into the file.

For ethernet you can do that also but it requires a switch that has support for 802.1x on the ports. This is the same thing being used on the wifi with a radius server to control it.

It is fairly common on larger brand name switches like HP,cisco,dell etc. You have to read the feature list very carefully on other so called "managed" switches. The term "managed" has no clear meaning and can be simple vlan support to full blown layer 3 enterprise level switches.

 

[JamesWad]

Sounds simple but it required lots of parts to make it work.

For wifi it is pretty simple since even consumer routers/AP have support for what is called "enterprise" mode. All that means is you have a radius server that handles all the userid and passwords. Most your problem is going to be how fancy a interface do you want for setting up the userid and passwords. The brute force method is to just edit them into the file.

For ethernet you can do that also but it requires a switch that has support for 802.1x on the ports. This is the same thing being used on the wifi with a radius server to control it.

It is fairly common on larger brand name switches like HP,cisco,dell etc. You have to read the feature list very carefully on other so called "managed" switches. The term "managed" has no clear meaning and can be simple vlan support to full blown layer 3 enterprise level switches.

Many thanks for coming back to me. I will need to read up on radius servers to have a better understanding of how these work. It would appear that the simplest solution is to go the wifi route. Once again many thanks!!!!