[jsu_aggie]

I am looking for a switch to manage my home network. Ideally, I want a gigabit switch that can handle 100Mbit devices and gigabit devices simultaneously and not sacrifice my gigabit speed. Does such a switch exist? If so, where can I buy it?

I ask because I am not a tech guru; the way I understand it is, a switch will default to the speed of its slowest attached device.

I don't know if they make the type of switch I want but I am hoping someone out there can clue me in.

If the switch doesn't exits, then please tell me how to run gigabit and 100Mbit devices on the same network and not loose the gigabit speed.

[ghporter]

Originally posted by jsu_aggie:
I am looking for a switch to manage my home network. Ideally, I want a gigabit switch that can handle 100Mbit devices and gigabit devices simultaneously and not sacrifice my gigabit speed. Does such a switch exist? If so, where can I buy it?

I ask because I am not a tech guru; the way I understand it is, a switch will default to the speed of its slowest attached device.

I don't know if they make the type of switch I want but I am hoping someone out there can clue me in.

If the switch doesn't exits, then please tell me how to run gigabit and 100Mbit devices on the same network and not loose the gigabit speed.

Just about all switches handle mixed speed media transparently. It's no big deal for you to have 10/100 connections on the same switch as gigabit connections. In other words, switches don't care what speed each connection is. They do not "default" to any speed; they pass traffic at the speed that comes in. There are of course exceptions to this, but as a rule, you can expect a gigabit switch to handle any traffic up to gigabit speeds.

Consumer-level gigabit devices are becoming more and more available and affordable. I've seen quite a few such products at CompUSA for a lot less than I'd have expected.