Need a Little Advice for a BIG Network

[Life36]

Hi people! I'm setting up a fairly huge network for the school that my father works at, and I need a little advice in terms of the network hardware I should be using.

To put things simply, there will be roughly 110 Cat5 drops for the whole install, 25% of which already exist. I am thinking of using 5 24 port Netgear FS726AT switches each with a copper gigabit ethernet backbone connected to a Netgear GS516T gigabit ethernet switch. The structure seems pretty decent to me so far, and I'm pretty confident in the quality of Netgear, but any advice is more than welcome.

Now, my question has to do with what kind of router I should be using for this installation... I'd like to stick with Netgear if at all possible, but if you suggest I use something else, that would be no biggie. Let me start off by saying that before a few weeks ago, I was under the impression that the only thing a router was used for was sharing a broadband internet connection; so your basic Linksys or Netgear 4 port router/switch is the most complex router I've worked with. That's why it was news to me hearing from an acquaintance a few weeks ago, that routers are also used to more efficiently route network traffic than a switch, and existing switches can take advantage of the routers' power by plugging into the router. I thought switches already managed network traffic efficiently enough... So now I'm a little confused, plus I have this dilemma:

We will have a T1 connection coming in to the school and I'm simply not sure if the router I choose will do it justice. About 40 - 60 workstations could be accessing the internet at any given time. Do I need one of those outrageously expensive Cisco routers? Can I go with a basic Netgear FVL328?

Or could I replace the aforementioned gigabit ethernet backbone switch with the Netgear GSM7312? The spec sheet for the GSM7312 says it has routing capabilities...? so if I connected the T1 to this plus all the gigabit backbones, would this be able to share the T1 connection?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[Markoman01027]

Switch is just like a hub except switch is full duplex mode and hub is half duplex mode.
you will need to get a t1 router. Most common routers are for sharing dsl/cable connections. so you will need to search for a router that specifically shares a t1 connection.
the netgear gsm7312 is a good switch that I think you should use.
good luck and let me know how it goes. post back if you have anymore questions.

[mbossman2]

Most of the "common" router manufactures (Dlink, Linksys, SMC etc) all make routers primarily for broadband access that comes out of the modem as ethernet. T1's are terminated with CSU/DSU's which kick out the signal (most of the time) as serial port traffic.

While Cisco is the most common choice for routers, there are several other manufacturers: Netopia, 3Com (they just got back into those products), Nortel, Seimens to name a few. All of them are more expensive than the more common broadband routers.

As to your switches, as unmanaged switches go, they should be ok. With the size of your network, you may want to consider moving to managed switches to better manage the flow of traffic and identify and control any issues remotely, especially if the switches are dispersed rather than in a single closet.

the switch you listed (GSM7312) gives you some layer 3 functions which allows for inter-network routing (the ability to jump from 1 discrete subnet to another subnet on the same network) and this switch also would allow you to create ACL's that would allow you to control how the traffic would flow between these 2 networks.
HTH

[mairving]

Are you running Cat5 cable or Cat5e? Actually Cat6 is really what you need for the gigabit connections although I really doubt if that will help your network performance all that much. Dell actually has the best deal on Gigabit switches. A 24-port switch with a fiber uplink for $354 is hard to beat.

I guess that you also need to determine if you need managed switches or unmanaged. Managed are better for remote locations but can be quite costly.

[Life36]

Thanks for the advice, fellas. Looks like I'll be using Cat5e for the main runs, and Cat6 for the gigabit ethernet backbone. I'm gonna go with that Layer 3 Netgear GSM7312 as a switch for all the backbone connections. I think I should consult with the guy who's going to be installing our T1 connection before deciding on a router though.

Four of the 24 port switches will be in a central location, and one of them will be in another building connected via a conduit with Cat6 gigabit backbone. My materials budget is 10,000 dollars, and I'm only at 6,500 right now. So I've changed my mind on the main switches, for another hundred bucks a piece I can get these Netgear layer 2 managed switches. I don't see the need to create separate networks for administration and students, so I'm curious as to the other practical applications of these Layer 2 / Layer 3 switches. I'm also confused as to the difference between the switch I just mentioned, which is "stackable", and an almost identical switch which isn't "stackable". What are the advantages of a stackable switch?

Thanks again guys

[mbossman2]

By the way, on the router, you can always have the cost of the router bundled in with the cost of the T1, that way configuration and maintenance of the router is the telco's porblem, not yours.

Stacking/stackable is one of those 'fluid' terms in networking, but the most common application of stacking is when you tie 2 or more switches together in a "stack" (depending on how stacking is done, it is a software thing, they may not have to be in the same physical area) they are generally viewed by the network and management applications as 1 big switch (IE 2 x 24 port stackable switches are viewed and managed with 1 IP address and "seen" as a 1 48 port switch).

The main function of layer 3 switching is to allow the user to segment out the network for not only security issues, but also performance issues and broadcast control. In your case, you probably wont have broadcast issues (the network is a little small), if you are considering doing voice and/or video you may want to segment out that traffic onto its own VLAN and you may have to route that VLAN around, so the real issue is security for you.

Are you using e-rate funding for this project? if you are, you will need to consider security (firewall) and a filtering solution to meet the SLDC/Federal requirements for this type of funding. You may want to discuss this with a local reseller who specializes in the educational space it you are not familiar with the e-rate process.

[Geeky907]

i agree with ya mbossman2... you might even consider getting into something like a set of baynetworks or cisco switches.. if cost is a major hurdle *which i am assuming it is* go bay-networks.... in my personal opinion netgear is not considered "mainstream enterprise" e.g. you wouldnt see MICROSOFT.COM using netgear switches... atleast not for critical systems... and MANY of you enterprise level switches have auxiliary ports that you can configure or upgrade to communicate directly with the T1 AND do some of your firewalling and routing and then invest in a switch of a slightly lower caliber *cheeper* that will uplink to the more expensive product that will save ya some serious bucks and leave you with a LOAD of upgradeability l8r down the road if the school choose's to add more classrooms or computers l8r... and IMHO build your "gear rack" your routers and such WAY OVERKILL.. that way if you have latency or traffic issues you know or can assume its less of a back-end problem and more of a client or drop issue and it also makes for far easier upgrades in the future.. e.g. ... 2x24 ports this year.. 6x24 ports 3 years from now.. you dont have to upgrade from gigabit copper to fiber interlink l8r.. the framework for growth is still in place.

- Geeky907