Hey All! Got what I hope is a simple question about Managed Switches. Our office is currently using Small Business Server 4.5 with 26 client licenses and 2, 24 port 10/100Mbs HUBs. We have a fractional T1 for our Internet connection and I wanted to replace the HUBs with a Switch because the HUBs are really slowing the connection down. I noticed that there are basically 2 types, Managed and Unmanaged and I realize what the differences are which leans me towards the Managed Switch. My question is that if I install the new Managed Switch, is there anything I will need to configure first to make it work or will I be able to just plug it in like the unmanaged? I am not sure if I will ever need the trouble shooting features of the managed switch but I would rather be safe then sorry. Thanks for all your help David D.

Yes, there will ne some config you'll have to do. But that will all depend on your networking needs. For one thing, the switch itself will have its own IP address, you'll probably have to config that. Then there will security settings, etc.

Good intro on this here: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=377839 I just googled "Managed vs Unmanaged switches" and got all kinds of hits. The bottom line seems to be that if you are already using hubs unmanaged switches will do just fine. The difference between a switch and a hub is a hub rebroadcasts data packets to all clients connected to it, switches remember which client is on which port and direct just the relevant data packets to that machine. For medium-large LANs hubs can be a significant source of unnecessary network traffic. What you probably need to do as well is reexamine your network architecture and make sure it's as simple and efficient as possible. Fer example if you have 1 client connected to a hub, why do you need the hub? Do you have sufficient bandwidth at the server to handle the traffic? Are your machines configured properly? And so on. Upgrading older, slower network appliances like hubs is useful but it's only part of the solution.

most managed switches require no configuration out of the box to run. In this way they are simple unmanaged switches. Now if you want to be able to access the switch to look at stats/errors or manually set the port speed you will need to connect a serial cable from your pc to the switch. The manual will tell you the correct hyperterm settings to access the switch thru the console port. Pretty easy goings. Assign a ip address, save the config and reset the switch so the config becomes active. After that you can use telnet [switch ip address]from your pc to access and configure the switch.