multiple unmanaged netgear switches into router

[hellocomputerpeople]

Hi folks, I am new to this forum so I hope this is the correct place to post this.

We have small office of about ten people and use ip phone service (Vonage), which requires us to have POE Ethernet ports around the office. I need to increase the number of POE Ethernet ports, and my current Ethernet switch (Netgear FS116) has only 8 POE ports (and 8 non-POE ports).

Can I simply plug in a second identical Netgear FS116 into the router?

My tech/networking knowledge is limited, but after doing some research I am worried that having multiple switches in series or daisy-chained can create problems. Since we use these ports for IP phone service, I am afraid that any data traffic glitch may cause dropped calls.

Setting up a professional level, managed switch, is beyond my skill level, and Vonage actually recommends against managed switches for some reason. If there was another consumer-level unmanaged switch with several more POE ports I would just buy that, but as far I as I can tell, 8 ports is the maximum on any model offered by Netgear.

I am aware that I could use power injectors to add POE to the other remaining ports, but that is kind of a messy solution and I would like to avoid that.

My setup is basically:

cable company modem -> Netgear WNR3500L Router -> Netgear FS116 Switch -> Cisco/Vonage Phones

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[greens]

You can plug any switch you'd like into the router. All unmanaged switches are going to be about the same, and your router certainly doesn't know or care about any differences.

 

[hellocomputerpeople]

Greens, thanks for the prompt response!

I guess my question is: will having two unmanaged switched plugged into the router create any issues? I have read that these types of switches are not "stackable."

 

[greens]

Greens, thanks for the prompt response!

I guess my question is: will having two unmanaged switched plugged into the router create any issues? I have read that these types of switches are not "stackable."

It will not create any issues at all.
There is potential latency introduced, and there is risk of loops being created, but in practice these are non issues.

Just plug right into the existing switch and you're good to go.

 

[jsmithepa]

With VOIP, am gonna lean toward getting SMART switches with QOS (VOIP) capability. Google SWITCH VOIP and see what hit.

 

[hellocomputerpeople]

Thanks jmithepa,

When you say that you would lean towards getting smart switches--does that mean that you do in fact see a potential problem by having two unmanaged switches plugged directly into the route? and that it could create some conflict or interruption to the phone service?

So I looked up smart switches/QOS like you said, and I may be wrong, but it appears that these require some know-how like setting up a managed switch would. Is this correct?

Thanks!

 

[bill001g]

First almost all switches can run all ports at maximum speed both up and down all at the same time. You will not see any form of bottleneck within the switch.

Now if you have 2 switches cabled together via 1g cable that limits you total traffic between those switches to 1g. So if your has a condition that their was more traffic attempting to use the 1g connection you would get packet loss. In this case it can cause issue for voice..even though voice is pretty tolerate of some packet loss especially if you use codecs like g711.

So QoS would help to a point to avoid voice packets being dropped.

Now if you do not have an overloaded ports QoS will have no effect because there is never a question of which packet to discard.

More the questions is do you actually expect traffic to overload a port. It is poor design to use QoS to solve that problem you want to find another design to avoid the issue in the first place.

 

[hellocomputerpeople]

Thanks bill001g,

I really appreciate your thorough response, however much of it went over my head.

If 1g cable means standard ethernet cable, then I believe what you are saying is that linking the two switches together (daisy-chain), might create a bottleneck?

As far as traffic overloading a port--the ports of these switches will be used only for our IP phones and no other devices.

 

[jsmithepa]

but it appears that these require some know-how like setting up a managed switch would. Is this correct?

That is correct. At some point the problem get complicated enough you have no choice but to bring in the plumber, the electrician, the IT guy, if your business can't take a hit.

 

[bill001g]

If you only use it for phones the switches will laugh at passing that tiny amount of traffic.

Yes the problem is only when you daisy chain them.