There are lots of vendors that sell 4-5 port devices for between $15-$50 dollars and call them switches. These cheap devices offer minimal functionality beyond that of a hub, and rarely deliver
even close to the Gigabit speeds promised. Such solutions may work okay for a server with 2-5 users, but quickly scale down in speed and responsiveness as more users are added and more devices are
daisy-chained.
The key to designing an effective network is the planning that goes into it, and the strategic placement of network resources in relation to your users.
At a bare minimum, you need to consider:
- What services is the network providing?
- Where are the users that need the services plugged in?
- Estimate how much traffic your users need, then double it.
- Do you want redundancy for your network and your servers in case a device fails?
- Does it make sense for security and performance purposes to split users up into logical sub-networks?
- Is there an anti-virus strategy in place and is it current? Often, one infected machine can spread to every machine within a network, and bring the entire network down. Lack of an effective
anti-virus strategy also risks that your data can be stolen, and that your network will be used to conduct illegal activities.