Connecting Switches

Hi,

I know this isn't strictly a SBS question but I'm hoping someone can answer
me a simple (I hope) question.

My SBS network has outgrown it's current office and we need to get a couple
of PC's, telephones and a printer put in another office about 40 meters away.

To get a bit of breathing space I want 10 data points in this new office (we
will only need 5). My local voice / data installers are wanting to run 10
cat5e cables to this new office so will require around 500 meters of cabling
and "x" amount of time for wages.

I have a Dell PowerConnect 2816 in my main office. Instead of running 10 new
cables, could I get another PowerConnect 2816 and put it in the new office
and run 1 cable connecting the switches?

These new pc's won't be heavy network users so hopefully there won't be
bottleneck issues...

Thoughts? Is this possible with powerconnect 2816's? I've looked at the
specs on the dell website but I'm not certain.

Regards,

Chris

On 11/08/2010 12:59, Brian Cryer wrote:

> Forget the second server. SBS doesn't like seeing another SBS server on
> the network, and (unless you want a member server for other reasons)
> you'll find it a whole lot easier to administer if you stick with a
> single server.
>
> HTH.

I think the Powerconnect 2816 is in fact a switch Bryan, not another server.

FWIW, we do the same... no issues at all with 5 PCs on Cat5e at 100mpbs...

thanks for the replies guys.

You are correct James, it is a switch and I'm glad to hear you are running a
similar scenario without problem.

I'll go for that route then and it should save some money :-)

"James Hurrell" <"j_a_hurrell at hotmail" wrote:

> On 11/08/2010 12:59, Brian Cryer wrote:
>
> > Forget the second server. SBS doesn't like seeing another SBS server on
> > the network, and (unless you want a member server for other reasons)
> > you'll find it a whole lot easier to administer if you stick with a
> > single server.
> >
> > HTH.
>
> I think the Powerconnect 2816 is in fact a switch Bryan, not another server.
>
> FWIW, we do the same... no issues at all with 5 PCs on Cat5e at 100mpbs...
>
> .
>

In article <3CCC3204-166E-4062-9612->,
says...
>
> Hi,
>
> I know this isn't strictly a SBS question but I'm hoping someone can answer
> me a simple (I hope) question.
>
> My SBS network has outgrown it's current office and we need to get a couple
> of PC's, telephones and a printer put in another office about 40 meters away.
>
> To get a bit of breathing space I want 10 data points in this new office (we
> will only need 5). My local voice / data installers are wanting to run 10
> cat5e cables to this new office so will require around 500 meters of cabling
> and "x" amount of time for wages.
>
> I have a Dell PowerConnect 2816 in my main office. Instead of running 10 new
> cables, could I get another PowerConnect 2816 and put it in the new office
> and run 1 cable connecting the switches?
>
> These new pc's won't be heavy network users so hopefully there won't be
> bottleneck issues...
>
> Thoughts? Is this possible with powerconnect 2816's? I've looked at the
> specs on the dell website but I'm not certain.

Using switches to bridge between areas on a building is common - we
normally install switches on each floor of a building and run a fiber
cable between them (because of distance), but on shorter runs we often
trunk several ports on each switch to get more bandwidth between them.

In a small office setting, your 100mbps switch would be fine for most
uses, but, you may want to consider 8/12/16/24 port GB switches with
some form of management interface that permits you to see errors on each
port, as a diagnostic tool. A typical non-CISCO 24 port GB switch runs
about $280 and provides diagnostic features not found in unmanaged
switches.

I would strongly encourage you to install at least 2 cables between each
location, one as a spare - if something happens and you don't have that
spare you're going to pay for it anyway.

Of all the things I read in your post, the idea that you're using RAID-0
bothers me more than anything - the massive increase possible failure
for using RAID-0 vs RAID-1 makes it impractical for most applications.


--
You can't trust your best friends, your five senses, only the little
voice inside you that most civilians don't even hear -- Listen to that.
Trust yourself.
(remove 999 for proper email address)

ChrisUK wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> I know this isn't strictly a SBS question but I'm hoping someone can
> answer me a simple (I hope) question.
>
> My SBS network has outgrown it's current office and we need to get a
> couple of PC's, telephones and a printer put in another office about
> 40 meters away.
>
> To get a bit of breathing space I want 10 data points in this new
> office (we will only need 5). My local voice / data installers are
> wanting to run 10 cat5e cables to this new office so will require
> around 500 meters of cabling and "x" amount of time for wages.
>
> I have a Dell PowerConnect 2816 in my main office. Instead of running
> 10 new cables, could I get another PowerConnect 2816 and put it in
> the new office and run 1 cable connecting the switches?
>
> These new pc's won't be heavy network users so hopefully there won't
> be bottleneck issues...
>
> Thoughts? Is this possible with powerconnect 2816's? I've looked at
> the specs on the dell website but I'm not certain.

You can extend networks by daisy-chaining switches almost to infinity
with *any* switches (as long as they _are_ switches, and not hubs).

Of greater concern should be bandwidth - if you're aggregating traffic
from multiple devices to then pass that traffic from switch to switch,
you really want the inter-switch connections (commonly referred to as
trunks) to have higher capacity than the switch-device connections.
This usually translates to a gigabit connection between switches if the
clients connect at 100Mbps.

--
Steve Foster
For SSL Certificates, Domains, etc, visit.:
https://netshop.virtual-isp.net

Leythos wrote:

> Of all the things I read in your post, the idea that you're using
> RAID-0 bothers me more than anything - the massive increase possible
> failure for using RAID-0 vs RAID-1 makes it impractical for most
> applications.

Odd, I don't see any mention of RAID in the OP at all (nor mention of
second servers, either!).

--
Steve Foster
For SSL Certificates, Domains, etc, visit.:
https://netshop.virtual-isp.net

In article <>,
d says...
>
> Leythos wrote:
>
> > Of all the things I read in your post, the idea that you're using
> > RAID-0 bothers me more than anything - the massive increase possible
> > failure for using RAID-0 vs RAID-1 makes it impractical for most
> > applications.
>
> Odd, I don't see any mention of RAID in the OP at all (nor mention of
> second servers, either!).

I'm getting old, confused part of this thread with another I was
thinking of responding to.

--
You can't trust your best friends, your five senses, only the little
voice inside you that most civilians don't even hear -- Listen to that.
Trust yourself.
(remove 999 for proper email address)

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the information, as always it was very helpful.

I will definitely get a spare cable ran just in case.

Bandwidth shouldn't be a problem, it's just going to be 2 "light" users.

out of interest I do have RAID-1 on my OS drive and RAID-5 on my data :-)

"Steve Foster" wrote:

> ChrisUK wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I know this isn't strictly a SBS question but I'm hoping someone can
> > answer me a simple (I hope) question.
> >
> > My SBS network has outgrown it's current office and we need to get a
> > couple of PC's, telephones and a printer put in another office about
> > 40 meters away.
> >
> > To get a bit of breathing space I want 10 data points in this new
> > office (we will only need 5). My local voice / data installers are
> > wanting to run 10 cat5e cables to this new office so will require
> > around 500 meters of cabling and "x" amount of time for wages.
> >
> > I have a Dell PowerConnect 2816 in my main office. Instead of running
> > 10 new cables, could I get another PowerConnect 2816 and put it in
> > the new office and run 1 cable connecting the switches?
> >
> > These new pc's won't be heavy network users so hopefully there won't
> > be bottleneck issues...
> >
> > Thoughts? Is this possible with powerconnect 2816's? I've looked at
> > the specs on the dell website but I'm not certain.
>
> You can extend networks by daisy-chaining switches almost to infinity
> with *any* switches (as long as they _are_ switches, and not hubs).
>
> Of greater concern should be bandwidth - if you're aggregating traffic
> from multiple devices to then pass that traffic from switch to switch,
> you really want the inter-switch connections (commonly referred to as
> trunks) to have higher capacity than the switch-device connections.
> This usually translates to a gigabit connection between switches if the
> clients connect at 100Mbps.
>
> --
> Steve Foster
> For SSL Certificates, Domains, etc, visit.:
> https://netshop.virtual-isp.net
> .
>

Leythos wrote:

> In article <>,
> d says...
> >
> > Leythos wrote:
> >
> > > Of all the things I read in your post, the idea that you're using
> > > RAID-0 bothers me more than anything - the massive increase
> > > possible failure for using RAID-0 vs RAID-1 makes it impractical
> > > for most applications.
> >
> > Odd, I don't see any mention of RAID in the OP at all (nor mention
> > of second servers, either!).
>
> I'm getting old, confused part of this thread with another I was
> thinking of responding to.

I know how you feel.

--
Steve Foster
For SSL Certificates, Domains, etc, visit.:
https://netshop.virtual-isp.net