this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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Home Networking

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I'm new to this community and actively learning about setting up a network for my new home. I'm thinking on a 24-26 Gigabit PoE managed switch l but after having read a few model reviews from brands like TP Link and NetGear, I hear the fans are so loud that people actually look to replace them. Is it really that bad? Should I go that route or are there options for quieter ones? I was a NetGear model but now I'm unsure.

Help is much appreciated.

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[–] Sportiness6@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago

If you need 26 ports you need a 48 port switch. I have an online UPS, that is loud so I don’t hear the switch unless I toggle the fan to high and I’m right in front of it. Closing the closet door muffles the sound enough.

[–] pdt9876@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My 24 port POE switch is pretty loud. But I have it in my attic along with a bunch of other loud electronic equipment. I also have an 10 port POE switch from TP link which is completely silent. Do you really need 24-26 POE ports?

[–] TeepsO@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Currently, I've got 6 cat cables going to rooms, 4 PoE cameras and 1 NAS. For certain rooms like a TV room that will have multiple devices like an Xbox, I was thinking of just putting a dummy splitter at that location. So maybe 24 is overkill but I wanted to give myself some room to expand.

[–] pdt9876@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So sounds like you need 4 PoE ports.

You can get a silent 24 port switch and you can get a silent 8 port POE switch, but a 24 port POE switch is designed for 350w (at least, more if its POE+) of consumption, so you're going to be dealing with active cooling, and considering most are designed to be rackmounted, that means small high RPM fans.

If you care about noise i'd just get 2 switches, one for POE and one for non POE.

Also, a house is not an office building or a hotel. You might have cat 6 in every room, but most people dont randomly plug and unplug in hardwired network devices in different rooms in their home. As someone whose had a home network for over a decade, i find it perfectly fine to go upstairs and connect a new patch cable when I plug in a new device to a previously unused port. So instead of sizing the switch for every possible connection you might make, size it for what you need now + a little margin, and who knows, maybe by the time you need the rest of those ports, 10G switches and network devices will have become more common and affordable.

[–] TeepsO@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago

This makes perfect sense and thanks for taking the time to provide your input. Two switches sounds like the way to go for now. And you're right, once I set up everything I want in the home, I'm more than likely not to add a lot more devices thereafter. You have any recommendations? If not, I understand.