# Are network switches basically the same as 5 to 10 years ago?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 23, 2014, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300 "2014-08-23T16:55:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/1 "2014-08-23T16:55:10Z")
It looks like my main network switch at home has died, after 5 to 10 years of use. If I go try to replace it, will I find that they have all changed and it is going to be a big project to learn how to use it? Configuration tools, specialized software that I won’t be able to install right, web updates that I can’t do because I don’t have the switch working yet, slightly different and incompatible plugs and jacks, anything like that?
Will they have become so feature rich that I can’t fix my network?
Or can I plug it in and be up?
By “network switch” I mean a box with about 16 ethernet jacks in it, which routes TCP/IP packets from port to port according to the data in their headers (at least that’s how I understand what it’s doing). This is for the hardwired portion of my home network, nothing wireless (all the wireless stuff is already in place and working). I hope it has no user interface, no passwords, no firmware updates, no no no.
Will I be happy or does my adventure have “Long Day” written all over it?
Thanks!!
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/2 "2014-08-23T17:10:36Z")
Network switches from 5 to 10 years ago had user interfaces, passwords, firmware updates, etc. New ones have some fancier options, but it’s still basically the same. The newer ones are gigabit capable and are probably a bit faster than your old 10/100 switch.
If all you are running is a local network then you can pretty much just plug it in and go. The default settings will probably work well enough for it.
For a more specific answer you need to specify a specific switch that you are looking at.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/3 "2014-08-23T18:23:44Z")
If you have 4 wired PCs or less why not simply plug your wired PCs into the Ethernet ports on your wireless router? Almost all of them have 4-5 wired ports with switch capabilities built in.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/4 "2014-08-23T19:01:58Z")
yeah for home just plug and zoom zoom.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/5 "2014-08-23T19:08:29Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> Network switches from 5 to 10 years ago had user interfaces, passwords, firmware updates, etc. New ones have some fancier options, but it’s still basically the same. The newer ones are gigabit capable and are probably a bit faster than your old 10/100 switch.
>
> If all you are running is a local network then you can pretty much just plug it in and go. The default settings will probably work well enough for it.
>
> For a more specific answer you need to specify a specific switch that you are looking at.
+1
Unless you have some specialized need, switches are plug and play, ethernet connections are the same.
If you dont actually HAVE that many ports in use there are plenty of inexpensive switch options
> **[Amazon.com: TRENDnet 8-Port Unmanaged Gigabit Switch, TEG-S80G, Desktop Ethernet...](https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Switching-Protection-TEG-S80G/dp/B001QUA6RA)**
>
> The 8-Port Gigabit GREENnet Switch, model TEG-S80g, provides high bandwidth performance, ease of use, and reliability, all while reducing power consumption by up to 70%\*. GREENnet technology automatically adjusts power consumption as needed,...
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/6 "2014-08-23T19:58:48Z")
11 devices all over the house, when it’s all doing what I want. Besides, the wiring is the expensive part, and it’s done.
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### Author:  [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/7 "2014-08-23T20:06:35Z")
Is your current switch an unmanaged ethernet switch? (Either because it doesn’t support management or you don’t do any.) In that case, it’s easy to replace by another one that will be pretty much identical, although it’ll probably support higher speeds (10/100/1000 rather than 10/100) and maybe jumboframes, energy efficient ethernet, 802.11ad… But nobody forces you to use any of that.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/8 "2014-08-23T20:30:45Z")
Then look like this should do nicely
> **[Amazon.com: NETGEAR 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS116NA) -...](https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Ethernet-Unmanaged-Protection-GS116NA/dp/B00023DRLO)**
>
> Amazon.com: NETGEAR 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS116NA) - Desktop or Wall Mount, and Limited Lifetime Protection : Electronics
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/9 "2014-08-24T01:45:43Z")
I’ve got a couple of that unit’s smaller brothers and they are plug and ignore. They also handle the semi-exotic (for a home LAN) traffic for Uverse and probably other IPTV systems. Although, I recommend keeping IPTV traffic physically separate from regular data if your wiring will allow.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2014, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/10 "2014-08-24T02:13:04Z")
Netgear is OK. Hewlett Packard is magnificent, and has a lifetime warranty.
We had a 16 port die at work. I called HP for a replacement, and the lady said, “I’m sorry, Sir, all I have is a 32 port. Will that do?”
I said, “Yeah, I guess so.”
It was there the next day.
🙂
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### Author:  [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/11 "2014-08-24T16:19:31Z")
> [@Napier](#):
>
> 11 devices all over the house, when it’s all doing what I want. Besides, the wiring is the expensive part, and it’s done.
If upgrading your network, and if your cabling is CAT-5 or lower, you may consider swapping the wiring to CAT 6, or preferably CAT 7 to take advantage of the newer standards.
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### Author:  [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/12 "2014-08-24T16:25:54Z")
No.
There are no practical uses for cat 6 or higher at this time, and certainly not in the home. The only way it makes sense to install cat 6a is when you need to pull cable anyway and the other costs are so high that the difference between 5e and 6a are a very small percentage of the project costs.
Don’t forget that doing cat 6a right is much, much harder than doing cat 5e right, and what’s the point in doing it wrong? And if you need 10 gigabit today, just pull fiber and be done with it.
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### Author:  [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/13 "2014-08-25T04:15:59Z")
> [@Napier](#):
>
> It looks like my main network switch at home has died, after 5 to 10 years of use. If I go try to replace it, will I find that they have all changed and it is going to be a big project to learn how to use it? Configuration tools, specialized software that I won’t be able to install right, web updates that I can’t do because I don’t have the switch working yet, slightly different and incompatible plugs and jacks, anything like that?
>
> Will they have become so feature rich that I can’t fix my network?
>
> Or can I plug it in and be up?
>
> By “network switch” I mean a box with about 16 ethernet jacks in it, which routes TCP/IP packets from port to port according to the data in their headers (at least that’s how I understand what it’s doing). This is for the hardwired portion of my home network, nothing wireless (all the wireless stuff is already in place and working). I hope it has no user interface, no passwords, no firmware updates, no no no.
>
> Will I be happy or does my adventure have “Long Day” written all over it?
>
> Thanks!!
Well you can just plug in any switch to do the basic job.
Actually the cheapest switch is routing ETHERNET packets - it doesn’t care what protocol you use ABOVE ethernet… around $100 for a 16 port.
Expensive switches are “managed switches” which _can_ do things like VLAN, flow rate control ,monitoring, turn on/off ports remotely, and TCP/IP routing , would be “managed switches” and “switch with layer 3” (layer 3 meaning tcp/ip routing.) Anyway you won’t pay for a managed switch… so its useless to talk about then… this is just to say that the basic switch is PURE ethernet.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/14 "2014-08-25T16:48:51Z")
Switches are switches - essentially multi-way bridges.
Originally, Ethernet hubs used to be repeaters - as the signal came in on one port, it was repeated out the others. If two devices were trying to talk simultaneously, they would each back off and try again a short random time later. For the last 15 years or so, they’ve typically ben switches - they receive the entire packet on one port, determine from the “header” who the packet is for, and re-send it out the appropriate port(s).
Switches may or may not have the following features, which may or may not be relevant to a small home network:
MAC address table -all switches build lists of what network devices (MAC addresses) they see, and on what port. This allows them to direct traffic. This is basically what a switch does to switch.
Auto-negotiate - There are devices that use 10Mb, 100Mb, and 1Gp speed connections. Most newer switches will negotiate the fastest speed the device at the other end will allow, and “dumb down” for older devices. All switches do this nowadays. Older switches (15 years ago or more) required you to configure ports for MDI or MDI-X (hooked to a PC or to another switch?) to determine which wires in the cable were transmit and which were receive. Most switches in the last 10 years auto-detect this as well.
Spanning-tree - builds a list of devices attached to the network and their connections - so it can detect other switches, for example, and redundant links to other switches- spanning tree can cause the redundant link to sleep, and will revive it if the active link fails.
Manageable- Some switches can be assigned an IP address, can allow you to enable/disable the ports, monitor traffic, configure the networking, etc. Typically this is by telnet or web page.
VLANs - this feature allows multiple separate networks to be configured on one set of hardware. This allows managed switches flexibility in keeping networking separate (i.e. office internal and public access networks). Traffic on a port can either be tagged or untagged. tagging allows multiple VLANs to use one cable as a switch-to-switch trunk.
Some switches (especially CISCO) have a plethora of other features - security, where only certain devices (by MAC) are allowed on the port. Limit the number of devices on one port (so end user can’t connect their own switch). Block traffic based on criteria. There is even a new 10Gbps standard.
* * *
A lot of these features have been present on high end switches for a decade or more. they are slowly becoming available on more and more lower-priced switches. But, unless you are a techno-gasmic geek and love to fiddle with things, all you need is a basic, unmanaged, 1Gb switch.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/15 "2014-08-25T20:32:04Z")
You definitely want something that does IPv6, which much older switches can’t handle. (Plain old dumb hubs don’t care about anything at the IPvX level.)
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### Author:  [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/16 "2014-08-25T20:50:31Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> You definitely want something that does IPv6, which much older switches can’t handle. (Plain old dumb hubs don’t care about anything at the IPvX level.)
Uh, switches in general shouldn’t care about anything at all on the IP level. Switches operate on layer 2, IP is layer 3.
The only reason you would care about IPvAnything is if you’re combining switch and router functions. If something else is doing the routing and the switch is just there for ports, IP isn’t used.
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/17 "2014-08-26T02:23:48Z")
> [@drachillix](#):
>
> Then look like this should do nicely
>
> [Amazon.com: NETGEAR 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS116NA) - Desktop or Wall Mount, and Limited Lifetime Protection : Electronics](http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-ProSafe-Ethernet-Switch-GS116NA/dp/B00023DRLO/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1408825708&sr=1-4&keywords=16+port+gigabit+switch)
Well, we’ll soon see! Ordered today. Thanks!
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/18 "2014-08-26T14:51:57Z")
> [@dzeiger](#):
>
> Uh, switches in general shouldn’t care about anything at all on the IP level. Switches operate on layer 2, IP is layer 3.
>
> The only reason you would care about IPvAnything is if you’re combining switch and router functions. If something else is doing the routing and the switch is just there for ports, IP isn’t used.
Exactly - Switches operate on data packets as
(preamble)[MAC TO][MAC FROM][DATA]
What’s in the DATA is the problem of the router or destination.
there’s an additional feature (found on high end switches) where the [DATA] might start with an 802.1Q identifier allowing the switch to find packets entitled to higher priority (i.e. VoIP data for phone conversations likes delivery to be timely).
Again, this is high end esoteric stuff that a smaller network does not need to worry about, and home switches don’t have or need this feature.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/19 "2014-08-26T16:29:33Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> Netgear is OK. Hewlett Packard is magnificent, and has a lifetime warranty.
> We had a 16 port die at work. I called HP for a replacement, and the lady said, “I’m sorry, Sir, all I have is a 32 port. Will that do?”
> I said, “Yeah, I guess so.”
> It was there the next day.
> 🙂
Don’t you have to pay for an enterprise support contract for that? Like $50 million per port?
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-network-switches-basically-the-same-as-5-to-10-years-ago/696300/20 "2014-08-26T17:15:24Z")
> [@Reply](#):
>
> Don’t you have to pay for an enterprise support contract for that? Like $50 million per port?
No. Cisco, btw, wasn’t interested in helping us when their switches began failing. They didn’t make the model anymore. They were more than willing to sell us another 25 or so the redo the network.
Cisco switches cost thousand and have a three month warranty. HPs cost hundreds and have a lifetime warranty.
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