Switches

[Xprotocol]

Sorry if this is a repeat post, if so, plz point me to an accurate thread. Anyways... Basically, what is the difference between a managed and unmanaged switch? Does the difference have a huge change in overall performance of the network?

[cowanrl]

Originally posted by Xprotocol
Sorry if this is a repeat post, if so, plz point me to an accurate thread. Anyways... Basically, what is the difference between a managed and unmanaged switch? Does the difference have a huge change in overall performance of the network?

You can think of an unmanaged switch as basically plug and play. Just plug it in, turn it on and it starts switching. There is no user configuration to do.

A managed switch will let you do things like configure each individual port, turn ports on and off, create VLANS. You can usually assign an IP address to them and possibly monitor the switch via SNMP or a Web browser interface.

The managed switches are always more expensive. Your low priced switches are almost always unmanaged.
Many switches come in both a managed and unmanaged version. They are exactly the same switch, the one just runs some software on it. There should be no difference in the performance of the network for an identical switch.

If you dont' think you'll ever need your switch to do anything but just pass packets from one port to another, you don't need a managed switch.

[Xprotocol]

Great, thanx a bunch.