[sabes]

I recently endured a home renovation project that allowed me to run cat5 wire throughout my house, allowing me to use 5 hardwired slimdevices squeezeboxes in variour rooms throughout the house. due to some spectacularly poor planning, what has now become my prime listening area is also the place where all this cat5 is routed to a 3com 16port gigabit switch. despite claims in its literature that it is "silent" and "fanless", this unit (while otherwise working flawlessly) indeed has a fan, and a fairly audible one at that.  I've tried another model with similar claims, and its fan fired up as soon as it was plugged in.

Has anyone found a router/switch (NOT wifi) that is truly silent and has at least 16 ports?

[bpape]

Have you considered a small router in another room feeding a small switch daisy chained to a series of smaller switches?  While not as elegant a solution, it will allow you to use smaller truly fanless switches.

Bryan

[OTL]

DVD's stream @6-7 MBPS, so unless you're doing some production work at home 100 MBPS will get you through. 

The Gig chipsets are clocked much faster and generate mucho heat.  Quiet operation sans fans may mean you go with multiple 4 or 8 port 100 MBPS switches daisy-chained together. 

Just took a quick look at Netgear.  GB switch, 16 port, no fan, $200 bucks.  http://www.buynetgear.com/product.asp?sku=2525767

[sabes]

DVD's stream @6-7 MBPS, so unless you're doing some production work at home 100 MBPS will get you through. 

The Gig chipsets are clocked much faster and generate mucho heat.  Quiet operation sans fans may mean you go with multiple 4 or 8 port 100 MBPS switches daisy-chained together. 

Just took a quick look at Netgear.  GB switch, 16 port, no fan, $200 bucks.  http://www.buynetgear.com/product.asp?sku=2525767

thanks for the input; i'll give it a try. my smaller netgear switches in other locations are in fact silent, and daisy chaining may be the eventual answer, but i'll try that netgear gb switch first.

 

Have you considered a small router in another room feeding a small swith daisy chained to a series of smaller switches?  While not as elegant a solution, it will allow you to use smaller truly fanless switches.

Bryan

unfortunately, all cat5 wires are terminating in this room (why i did this i'll never know!), so options are limited. thanks for your thoughts.

[bpape]

OK.  Just  thought you might be able to intercept the input from the outside world at a router switch and just feed 4 more cat 5's into the room to feed 4 smaller switches.

Bryan

[EchiDna]

cat 5 and gigabit?

why didn't you go with cat 5e or cat 6??
 

anyway, have you considered sticking the router inside the wall cavity? inside a cupboard? above the ceiling? especially given you are renovating at the moment, you have options and lots of em!!

maybe post a picture of your area and we can get a better idea of what could be suggested...

[sabes]

cat 5 and gigabit?

why didn't you go with cat 6??
 

anyway, have you considered sticking the router inside the wall cavity? inside a cupboard? above the ceiling? especially given you are renovating at the moment, you have options and lots of em!!

maybe post a picture of your area and we can get a better idea of what could be suggested...

my error. it is in fact cat 6 wire. and the construction was completed a while ago, so while i could in theory open the walls again, i would then have to consult my wife, from whom all things audio are hidden...

[mgalusha]

Our new house was prewired and all terminate (cat 5E) at one spot. I'm using a 16 port Netgear 10/100 switch and I get about 90-95Mbit/sec between machines. It's unmanaged but fanless and cheap ($60.00).

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Switches/DesktopSwitches/FS116.aspx

I have my DSL router plugged into one of the switch ports and everything else is a home run to the switch and have zero problems. For wireless I configured my old wireless router as an access point and plugged it into the Netgear as well. One SB is on the Netgear and the other is wireless and both give me no trouble with networking at all.

[sabes]

My house was prewired and all terminate (cat 5E) at one spot. I'm using a 16 port Netgear 10/100 switch and I get about 90-95Mbit/sec between machines. It's unmanaged but fanless and cheap ($60.00).

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Switches/DesktopSwitches/FS116.aspx

I have my DSL router plugged into one of the switch ports and everything else is a home run to the switch and have zero problems.

Mike: that sounds perfect. silent? really appreciate the tip - i'm ordering today!

[mgalusha]

Mike: that sounds perfect. silent? really appreciate the tip - i'm ordering today!

Absolutely silent. I've had this switch for a couple of years and it runs cool and has no fan. I just mounted it to the studs next to the box where everything terminates in the basement. My servers sit on the floor below them. I'm eventually going to move the servers to the space under the stairs but I don't need to worry about that until I can finish the basement.

[sabes]

Mike: that sounds perfect. silent? really appreciate the tip - i'm ordering today!

Absolutely silent. I've had this switch for a couple of years and it runs cool and has no fan. I just mounted it to the studs next to the box where everything terminates in the basement. My servers sit on the floor below them. I'm eventually going to move the servers to the space under the stairs but I don't need to worry about that until I can finish the basement.

perfect!