Help me choose a Router and Switch for the office

Hello, I’m looking at buying a router and switch for the office.

I was considering buying a Draytek or Billion router with gigabit ports, 802.11n, ADSL+, QOS, VPN etc; something that is suitable to run our phone system and PC’s.

Currently 12 IP Phones and 5-10PC/laptops.

I’m also after a couple of suggestions for a 24port switch suitable for a VoIP scenario and that supports poe or poe+. I would only use the POE+ for a couple of IP cameras, so if it only had 2 or 4 poe+ ports that would be fine, but Ideally it would have POE across all the others.

I hope you guys can help recommend a few…

Many thanks!

Try one of these:

It’ll do just about anything you need it to. As for a switch, just buy one that suits your needs. I haven’t come across any seriously bad switches when purchasing from one of the big names. Mostly use Cisco and Adtran.

In terms of routers I think the Billion 7800n or an equivalent Draytek would work fine. I’ve used both but prefer the Billion as it’s easier to understand the firewall config. Mind you the Draytek’s seem to work better in terms of bandwidth management, which is important if you are sharing VoIP with other traffic (not something I would recommend by the way with that number of phones). In terms of PoE switches have a look at the Netgear FS728TP. I have a few of these and they work well with IP phones or other PoE devices.

Thanks cullenl :slight_smile:

Hi Lee; I did have a look at the Netgear FS728TP myself as it seems quite popular and I’ve seen them going on Amazon for around £200 - £248.

I was also looking at the TP-Link TL-SG3424P JetStream 24 Port Gigabit switch, which you can pick up for around £239.

Do you reckon its worth getting the TP-Link one over the netgear, I only say that as it seems like i’d be getting a tad bit more for the sake of £39; gigabit ports, 802.3af(POE)/at(POE+) across all ports. What would you go for out of them?

POE+ is not major important but I guess if I ever wanted to add a PTZ camera I could as they tend to be POE+ on PTZ IP cameras. If i only get standard poe and ever needed a poe+ port at some point down the road, a single POE+ injector would be more than £39 each if i ever needed any. So in that respect it seems to me like the better choice…

The camera stuff aside, would you say its worth the few extra pounds just to have the gigabit ports. My current phones don’t support gigabit but all my PC’s, SERVERS and NAS and I’m oping to buy some extra phones soon so I could look at poe ones as an option to reduce cables and power supplies from dangling everywhere.

I know I’ve kind of answered my own question reference the switch, but I need a second opinion LOL, what do you reckon

I was looking at the Billion BiPAC 7800N or 7402NX or a Draytek. I think the 7800n has the newer / better chipset though.

It’s nice to see that’s a managed switch for that price.

Make sure you use the VLAN feature, makes life so much easier provisioning phones.

HI SkykingOH…

I take it your referring to the TP-Link TL-SG3424P switch… Yeah, I think im going to order that one in bit…

I’ve just ordered a router finally. I went with a DrayTek Vigor 2850n in the end, it seems like its going to be a fairly decent router. Fingers crossed!