Debate: managed switches or good old dumb switches for a small office?

I had to pick between a $200 managed switch and a $60 dumb switch for our 12 person office last month, went with the managed one for VLAN setup. Ended up spending 3 hours configuring it, but now our VoIP traffic never stutters during peak usage. Anyone else run into this choice and regret going cheap or overkill?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_mason12d ago

Changed my mind after fighting with broadcast storms for a week...

quinn_nguyen12d ago

Heard a network guy on a podcast say flat networks are basically party lines where everyone just screams over each other. Broadcast storms sound like that but with packets literally drowning everything out. Makes you wonder how anyone thought putting hundreds of devices on one flat VLAN was a good idea without any storm control. Seems like basic segmentation with a few managed switches would've saved that whole week.