[Curlyben]

My major project for our plant shutdown is to completely rebuild my LAN.
I'm currently using 4 ageing 24 port Cisco 400 series Fasthubs.
These deal with all of my LAN traffic all server, printer and workstations.

What I was thinking of doing is installing a 16 port Gig switch in each of my two server cabinets, then connecting these to two 48 port 10/100 switches with Gig uplink.

So the interconnects between the servers would be running at Gig speed and feeding the LAN at the same high speed.

My first part of the question is;
Does this make sense ?
Is it worth my while approaching this project from this direction or should I just replace the Fasthubs with the updated versions ?

Now my next bit is this;
I'd love to use Cisco throughout, but the 48 porters come in at around £1,000 a time. Budget isn't a problem, the problem is PO limits. Over a certain limit then I have to get Capex approval, which normally takes months. As usual I have left this to the last minute, shutdown is the end of July.

Ok so I could raise a number of PO's to cover the project, or I could go with cheaper kit.
I know from experience that Netgear make some good stuff, but is it robust enough for a project like this ?

Are there any other brands I should be looking at ?


I hope all this makes sense, please shout if it doesn't.
Cheers

[Flintstones1962]

Hello,
I would recommend your solution very much, and I don't recommend that you buy cheap kits, Cisco is really one of the best and very reliable.
This is according to my personal experience, and maybe others have something different to say.

Greetings