Gigabit Ethernet: Prime time for a new standard

habit of slowly adding weight to the point where sitting through the whole process can take many hours. This is not such a problem for backups after hours, at least until the receptionist can’t log on in the morning because the server hasn’t finished backing up.

A third factor has been the transition to broadband Internet connections. Several users all downloading over the one network can also increase lag and frustration.

The much-awaited wireless standard 802.11n (better known in its pre-approval form as ‘Draft N’) brings higher speeds of 200Mb/s to 540Mb/s that require the extra headroom of gigabit Ethernet.

Talking switches

Resellers are witnessing an increase in demand for gigabit motherboards and switches, although the reality is that most desktops and notebooks as well as servers are fitted with gigabit Ethernet by default. This includes an expanding number of devices for the SOHO market.

The exception is dual gigabit. Although it is common for barebone servers it has not yet made it to the desktop. For most purposes, it is overkill; although the network card is about $100, an SME then needs to add the extra infrastructure, including cabling, more ports on switches, and so on.

“If the reseller throws [dual gigabit] in for nix, that’s fine,” says Goldmann. But “most of the time, you won’t deploy the second channel anyway”.

Another trend is the increasing sales of smart switches over unmanaged switches. Fulton says that one reason is that smart switches cost the same or less than an unmanaged switch did a couple of years ago.

SMEs are also increasingly dependent on a single network for communication with the outside world and are happy to spend the money to increase uptime. Smart switches also have the advantages of controlling bandwidth to ensure quality of service, and the ability to troubleshoot by port monitoring.

The two most profitable Cisco products sold by LAN Systems over the past two years were two switches, the Cisco 2950 and 3750 respectively. Nathan Godsall, LAN Systems’ Cisco Solutions trainer, attributes popularity of the latter, a Power over Ethernet layer 3 switch, to the adoption of VoIP telephony by enterprise customers.

More SMEs are reaching up for better control and security on their network, which means moving to layer 3 switches. Many businesses have a combination of voice, data and video running over the one network and need to have it properly managed. A layer switch can provide the quality of service to make sure that a call is not dropped when someone starts to download a file.

Layer 3 also gives more control over applications running on the network. An administrator can permit or deny programs and identify and control traffic. “If you have more control you have more security,” says Godsall.

Users who fail to enter a password when connecting to the network can be quarantined in a guest VLAN or given guest access with restricted rights.

Network vendor Linksys says resellers are selling switches with GbE or fibre uplinks and gigabit VPN routers, some of which come with Draft N and SSL. Linksys is shipping 400-500 units a month of its eight-port Webview switch from its specially targeted SME range, which

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