5-port gigabit switch - any advice?

[Mohinder]

Evening chaps and chapesses.

Currently in the middle of a redecorate/new kit/sorting my network spat.

Network is pretty good now but all wi-fi - I've got three things in this little sitting room upstairs that *need* to be online (2 macs and a 360), I'm looking into a NAS or similar, and my TV's got an Ethernet port as well, so I'm looking at a 5-port ethernet switch and then running it downstairs to the Airport Extreme. I think it's time to go wired now the network's actually becoming... a network!

I have pretty much no idea about switches and whatnots. Can someone recommend me one? Looked on Dabs and seen a GS605UK Netgear one which seems fine, that's £33 or so. There's a GS105 as well which looks a bit more serious, that's £43.

On eBay I found a ZyXEL GS105B which is only £23, I've rummaged up a few reviews and they seem positive, but I trust you lot more.

Would the ZyXel be ok?

If not, I'm pretty much after the cheapest 5 port gigabit ethernet switch that won't let me down and any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks :)

[mejinks]

I have been using a gs105 for about 3 years now and its not let me down. Its home market though and doesn't properly support Jumbo frames. It will consistently do 110Mb/s.

A quick search through the net reveals the GS605UK to be a very solid and reliable switch, so the choice is yours. I would go with the GS605UK as it is white and "appley" whereas the GS105 is Blue.

[Mohinder]

I have been using a gs105 for about 3 years now and its not let me down. Its home market though and doesn't properly support Jumbo frames. It will consistently do 110Mb/s.

A quick search through the net reveals the GS605UK to be a very solid and reliable switch, so the choice is yours. I would go with the GS605UK as it is white and "appley" whereas the GS105 is Blue.

Cool, and thanks. I'm not fussed by colour or looks, it will be behind a unit and probably mounted on the back of it anyways, I just want the cheapest switch that will be nice and quick (it's for streaming video partly) and not misbehave or fail hopefully. Good to know I don't have to spend too much.

Anyone got any experience of ZyXel stuff?

[Zirax]

Just checked and my network is made up of a GS105 and GS605. The 105 has been rock solid in transferring large files between machines with a good throughput. Not convinced by the GS605 downstairs, when hammering it I have had to reset it a few times. It has also managed to "lose" my network route to the router a few times. Could just be my dodgy one but I'm about to order another GS105. It is smaller than the GS605 as well.

[Toby]

I've been using a GS608 as my main switch with a GS605 downstairs in the living room for several years now and they work superbly well, with the hard disk speed being the limiting factor in data transfer speeds.

The only small problem I've experienced is a couple of machines' on-board NICs sometimes fail to autonegotiate with the GS608 and fall back to 100Mb speeds. Simply forcing the speed to 1Gbps full duplex in the properties of the network interface seems to cure this though.

Highly recommended little switches for the money :)

[Mohinder]

Well I'm sold, one of the netgears it is.

Thanks chaps