need help choosing the right switch

[Stéphane Graber]

Leonardo Canducci wrote:
> I'm setting up an LTSP classroom with 10 clients and an edubuntu
> server. It's an high school lab for electric cad and simulation; no
> multimedia. LTSP is not the only use and the classroom is connected to
> a quite large school nework on the same subnet. Clients are quite
> powerful pcs with gigabit ethernet and so is the server but they're
> connected with some old 24 port hub I guess I'd better replace with a
> switch.
> 
> Since I'm quite a newbie when it comes to network hardware and I'm on
> a tight budget (100-200€) I really need help choosing the right
> switch. So here come a couple of questions:
> 1. do I need gigabit ports in such a setup?

Having at least uplink ports as Gigabit is a very good idea (1-2 ports).

> 2. maybe two of gigabit ports (one for the server and one for the
> gateway) is enough?

Yep, that'd probably be enough.

> 3. should I consider managed/vlan/layer3 options or I'm fine with a
> standard unmanaged switch?

You won't be able to find any reliable 24port managed switch with 
Gigabit uplink within your budget and unless you have to do VOIP or 
other activities that you'd like to put on a separate VLAN it won't be 
extremely useful for you.

> 4. will any 50€ switch do or I'd better look for brands with proved reputation?
 > And finally: is there some specific model/brand you could recommend?

When possible, I usually try to take something in relatively well-known 
brands, it makes looking for information, reviews and debug/issue 
information easier, have a look at (I'm sure I'm missing some):
  - 3COM
  - Cisco (too expensive for you I'm pretty sure)
  - DELL
  - HP
  - Linksys
  - Trendnet (had some issue with some of their hardware, check for 
reviews before buying)

I don't have any specific models in mind, I'm using some refurbished 
3COM managed switches (24port + 2 Gig uplink) at the office that we 
found for a decent price on ebay, I also have a few good PowerConnect 
switches from DELL (non-managed, 48port + 2Gig uplink) and had good 
experience with HP and Cisco as well.

Linksys makes some cheap managed switches (only managable through web 
interface), I'd try to avoid these as I saw two of them over-heat 
(that's great for conference/demo setup but I wouldn't use that in 
production).

> Thanks!

You're welcome.

-- 
Stéphane Graber
Ubuntu developer
http://www.ubuntu.com