Need Advise on Switch

[rohitmc]

Hello everyone, we have T1 connection at work and T1 connected to netgear router. The netgear router is very old and all of our workstation are running slow. So we decided to upgrade the router to Switch..i am looking for either layer 2 or layer 3 switch...i would like to have good one with plug and play. Please help..thanks in advance.

 

[DelJo63]

FIRST; ensure you know where the DHCP service originates. If it is in the existing
router, you will need another router, not a switch.

The 2/3 layer features are nice to have and very useful for protecting back-end system,
eg; a infrastructure webserver for only known customers. The two and three layer capabilities
can protect the applications from maligned inputs deep within the data flow of the application(s).

Q? What are you attempting to do other than replace the old router?

 

[rohitmc]

thanks for reply...let me give you overview of our network setting....

T1 Connection connected to Netgear router ..from there it's connected to Cisco firewall..firewall one wire is connected to cisco 1841..firewall its connected to dell powerconnect 6248 ...from there wires are connected to wall panel(that goes to each room on floor...from they are connected to workstations. Now we are experiencing connection problem sometimes some workstation connection goes out...like it show connected but only able to browse some sites...always random sites...

Out netgear router is very old and may not handle the traffic... i browed somone 3COM layer 2 switch to check and we did see the difference....that's why we wanted to put something better there...pls advise.....

P.S: Also isn't layer 3 switch's act like router

 

[DelJo63]

Also isn't layer 3 switch's act like router

no. A router has services that a switch does not;

• NAT: network address translation
  the process of taking the WAN side inputs and translating into LAN side addresses
  (a switch does not do that)
• SPI: statefull packet inspection
  basically discards all packets that are not following the TCP protocol and attempting to
  get access to a port as if the connection came from the client when it did not

Some switches have other features

• 2-layer functions
• 3-layer functions

see 2-3 layer function descriptions

You need

• A router CAN provide the DHCP assignments for the lan,
• but so can a service on one of your servers -- but somewhere within your control DHCP must be active,
• or all systems must have static ip addresses (not a good choice).

If none of these occurs, you can not use a switch

 

[rohitmc]

I am sorry..i just read the full nam of the Netgear...it's not router...sorry again..

it's a switch full name : Netgear fast ethernet switch model fs108

We have T1 that 1gbps...and this switch is only fast ethernet.....

Can recommened any good switch to replace this...