Have been doing weeks of research but difficult to get a handle on this as I'm not very technical. Maybe the sifus here can help?

Basically I need to distribute 100Mbps of broadband to a variety of devices at home including a wifi AP (or two), 2 laptops, 2 desktops, 2 smart TVs, Apple TV, and PS. Maybe a couple of other devices in future. Also to perform backups to a NAS (or two) from the computers. All via Cat 6 cabling. Would like very fast, reliable throughput and hassle-free (no management).

Please tolong?

This post has been edited by zulzul: Nov 30 2018, 07:53 PM

Park, am interested also.

I wonder tho, is all 16 Port switch the same or is there like better and faster version 16p switch out there..

They are not all the same.. and it's confusing

from ur requirement.. what u need is a gigabit switch with a high switch capabilities.
if u want hassle free... then go for Unmanaged Switch..

the best option for u should be this.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-24-Port-Ethe...8d9e783bf0e9ec1

48GB switch capacity is a lot.. if not wrong, you should able to move that mentioned amount of data within ur network at one time..

of course u will need a good powerful router to help out as well..

Thanks for this. Any reason you picked the 24-port vs the 16-port? Would they be the same, just diffrerent number of ports?

Also, by router you mean the WIFI router? Any difference between a wifi router and a wifi AP?

For house use any consumer brand will do, can go for tp-link as suggested by others.

TP-Link Smart Switch, it is not expensive. You should able to afford that price.
https://www.lelong.com.my/tp-link-switch-gi...7-01-Sale-I.htm

D-Link Smart Switch, also within acceptable price
https://www.lelong.com.my/d-link-16-port-gi...8-12-Sale-P.htm

If you thought that too expensive, then go for cheaper switches. Unmanaged gigabit switches

TP-Link
https://www.lelong.com.my/tp-link-16-port-g...9-01-Sale-P.htm

D-Link
https://www.lelong.com.my/d-link-switch-gig...7-01-Sale-I.htm

For me will choose Smart Switch because you can manage the LAN port QoS, firewall etc. Usually unmanaged 16-port gigabit switches are selling within RM300 and 16-port gigabit smart switches are selling around RM500. So you can decide to add up RM200 more to upgrade to smart switch.

This post has been edited by junclj: Dec 1 2018, 12:09 AM

cuz the tp link dont have 16 port with such high switch capacity.

the router im referring is for ur internet.. u do want to access the NAS remotely?
u are using Unifi or the setup u want to make is just pure local, like only access from ur own home?

i'll give you some expert advice, go for smart or semi managed.
2 kinds of switches to consider, POE or just normal.
I usually recommend the netgear prosafe line as they're usually decent and some have POE. Ubiquiti also has high performance switches with high wattage POE for bigger setups. For non POE, tp link is fine, but avoid dlink. Cisco has a very good affordable line of semi managed switches.

If you want to do any kind of bonding like combining multiple ports with NAS or servers, you will at least need semi managed for that, and there are different types of bonding as well. However irregardless of bandwidth, if all devices use gigabit ethernet, than a single central switch is cheaper, otherwise if bandwidth is important to you, your central switch is going to be a lot more expensive if you need to distribute bandwidth to other switches.

When looking at specs, switching capacity should be at least half of port capacity in non blocking config. Traffic goes in and out so thats why switching capacity needs to be at least half. The features a switch has can make a difference but most of it is just for configuring LAN, things like VLAN, LAN based QoS (if expecting another device to do L3 for segmentation), and other things. Layer 3 switches are only needed if you do layer 3 segmentation.

Thanks very much!

Ah I see. OK.
No, I don't intend the NAS to be accessible via Internet. Specifically the NAS is for LAN use only.

Hi... it took me a while to understand your comments. Hahaha! But I really appreciate you taking the time to advise.

I don't foresee wanting to (or having the expertise) split the network into subnets or knowing how to tweak QoS or enterprise-type control. I'm sure it will be beneficial... I'm just not sure I have the ability to do it properly. Nanti worse pulak haha! And I don't need POE coz all the device's power needs are already addressed. Central switch also is what I think is sufficient for my level of hands-on knowledge. I also don't know how to do Layer 3 segmentation and so probably I won't do it. I hope I wont regret this

I want to clarify on your advice re: port capacity and switching capacity.... If all my cabling is Cat 6, and I'm buying one of these modern gigabit ethernet switches, what will each port capacity be? How do I determine that?
If I understand you correctly... once I have determined that, if let's say each port capacity is 100 gigabit... I should make sure the switching capacity is about 50 gigabit and have non-blocking switching? Is that right?
Is something like a 10kb jumbo frame also useful for big file transfers?

the port capacity of a 16 port gigabit switch is 32Gb/s (16Gb/s full duplex), the switching capacity need only be 16Gb/s non blocking. Additionally avoid the store and forward switches.

Park for learning and knowledge. Thanks TS.

Just get a normal gigabit switch like TP-Link or D-link. You don't need the complications of PoE or VLAN or QoS and so on unless you know you really need those.

For QoS, this can be done at the router level.

It is overkill to use VLAN at home.

For PoE, you will only need it if you have PoE CCTV devices.

For a typical user, just get a decent brand gigabit switch will do. No need to be managed cause you want it hassle free. I have been using 5 port unmanaged gigabit for my home for almost 10 years now and I have never needed all the complications because I want to keep things simple. Eventhough I have just got upgraded to 500mbps, my WiFi router is still limited to 100mpbs only which is totally enough. No need to be kiasu to go for max speed when most of the time you only use 30mbps.

Yes indeed. From 30Mbps to 50Mbps to 100Mbps or to 500Mbps actually no much difference in user experience unless one is doing heavy download 24x7.

Are all 16-port gigabit switches operating with 32gb/s port capacity?

Thanks for that advice!

port capacity has nothing to do with operation, its just the sum of all port bandwidths. This number is only important when you are checking other specs like forwarding/switching capacity (routing capacity for a router).

However for routers, routing capacity is a useless number to home users, you'd want NAT capacity instead (usually not listed).