I'm doing some LAN upgrades here, so I recently purchased a new D-Link DGS-1250-28X Ethernet switch and DSR-250N router. They're from D-Link's "business class" product line rather than typical consumer junk. I found it amusing (but not surprising) that they showed up in plain brown boxes rather than the flashy retail packaging of consumer-grade stuff.
(First one is the router, the second is the switch box.)
The DSR-250N router has 1 (Gigabit) WAN port, 7 Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, and 1 port that can be configured as either a secondary WAN port or an internal LAN port. It also supports wireless-N connectivity. That's more ports than I need on a router. My favourite feature -- and the main reason I bought this one -- is the serial port for out-of-band management. I could have gotten faster wireless for the same money, but I would have had to give up the serial port. I don't use wireless much, and I feel more secure turning off network-based management and relying solely on the out-of-band connection. (Maybe I'm just being paranoid.) It's not exactly easy to configure, but it supports lots of features and configuration options that just aren't there on the consumer models. It's clearly made for network professionals rather than home users. I really like that it doesn't dumb down stuff and limit configuration options, even if that does mean I have to learn a bit more to properly use it.
The DGS-1250-28X switch has 24 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, 4 SFP+ plus ports for 1/10 Gigabit connectivity, and (again) a serial management port. I haven't tried out the 10 Gigabit stuff yet. That's a (near) future upgrade. Like the router, it's not exactly user friendly but that's just because it has so many features and configuration options. I'm still working to configure it best for my little home LAN.
It's a big upgrade from the 8 port switch it replaces which was totally unmanaged, didn't support jumbo frames, or have any noteworthy features. The old switch was bought mainly because it was the most affordable 8 port switch I could find at the time. It turned out to be a good investment. The old switch was also a D-Link (DGS-1008t). The main reason I went with D-Link again is because the old switch has run 24/7 for almost 18 years (since May of 2003)! The only problem it ever gave me was that its fan died about 10 years ago; it's run flawlessly without one ever since. Over the years I also had Dell and Linksys 10/100 switches for when I needed more than 8 ports but they each died after a few years. A used HP ProCurve that I bought off E-Bay to replace everything was nothing but trouble. (Probably why its previous owner sold it!) I hope the new D-Links are at least half as reliable as the old one!
Here are the new ones together before being put into service:
I should have taken a family photo of all three, but that would require taking down the whole LAN. It's overkill for my needs, but a good combination of features and (hopefully) reliability that should serve me well into the future.
