Managed vs Unmanaged Switches: Which Is Best for a Home Network?

many switches will look very similar to each other so there is an assumption that they perform exactly the same functions as well this isn't actually the case and they can work very differently all switches will fall into one of two categories managed or unmanaged in this video we'll take a look at both and i'll explain some of the differences between the two hey everyone it's chris here from home network geek where we talk about everything home networking if you find this video helpful it'd be great if you could drop it a like and also subscribe to the channel and whilst you're there turn on those notifications as well now let's jump straight in and start with what a network switch even is if you aren't too familiar with what a network switch is let me explain a switch is a piece of networking hardware that allows you to connect multiple devices together over a local area network of which your own home network is one they use what is known as packet switching to filter out data and fold it onto the device that's plugged into it it's probably easier to understand this concept if you think about your typical office environment as an example a business may have six pcs that need to be able to communicate with each other to share different files they would have a switch in place to which all six pcs are connected using a physical ethernet cable this allows all of the pcs that are connected to the switch to communicate with each other and be able to share the files depending on the size of the business and how many devices they need to connect to their network will determine the size of the switch that they need some switches will have as little as three ethernet ports available but some can have up to 48. remember it's not just the pcs that the business may want to connect either they may also want to plug in some wireless access points to increase the overall wi-fi coverage throughout the office as well as a printer which will then be made available to everyone connected to the network before we move on to managed switches let's first talk about unmanaged switches as they are much less complex and easier to set up unmanaged switches provide the ability for devices to communicate with each other without any prior setup or even knowledge of how they work being needed they are known as being a plug-and-play device all you need to do is provide it power and then start connecting your devices and you're away unmanaged switches come with a fixed configuration that's been set by the manufacturer which you and i cannot change this type of switch is typically used in smaller networks where all of the users are quite happy using the predetermined configuration and won't even need to change it in the first place the majority of switches that you'll find in a home network will be unmanaged as the predetermined configuration is simply good enough for the majority of people they just want a way of connecting their devices over ethernet instead of having to rely on wifi which typically isn't as reliable or fast managed switches provide all of the same functions that a unmanaged switch does with a few additional features thrown in there they allow you to manage and monitor your network in much greater detail allowing you much greater control over all of the network traffic they give you so much control in fact you can even go as far as configuring each individual port to whatever setting that you desire this comes with the ability to better configure and manage your home network in different ways managed switches will usually have a remote console that's accessible through command line or even through a web interface now this allows you to monitor the network as well as make changes without having to be in the same physical location as the switch so now we know that unmanaged switches are simple plug and play devices whereas managed switches require some setup but of course they come with a host of additional features that ultimately give you much greater control over your entire network let's take a look at some of the key features that a managed switch has that makes it different to an unmanaged switch the first is simple network management protocol or snmp for sure this is a commonly used protocol that is considered the standard for monitoring and configuring a network it allows for the status and performance of a network to be monitored without even actually having to physically touch the switch any issues can be identified and fixed remotely thanks to snmp being in place vlans can be used to group devices together in a virtual sense this allows you to apply additional security to a particular group of devices and even help reduce unnecessary network traffic as an example in a home network you may choose to place your gaming pc in a separate vlan to that of a tv that's streaming netflix the vlan will allow for the streaming traffic to not interfere with the pc's connection to the internet so you get overall better performance on both quality of service is a useful feature on a managed switch as it allows you to prioritize different types of network traffic and also manage the available bandwidth that you have managed switches allow you to create rules so that certain devices will get priority of the bandwidth before the remaining bandwidth is provided to the other devices implementing qos on a pair of devices that frequently transfer data between each other is a common use case for this port mirroring essentially allows you to diagnose any network problems that could arise it allows you to send copies of traffic to a particular port on the manage switch for analysis a network analyzer tool would help to diagnose and fix the issue without having to take the entire network out of action redundancy is a method that provides continued network access even in the event of a failure it serves as a backup mechanism that simply allows you to switch over to the redundant side of the network switch that sits there waiting until it's actually needed redundancy can also be used to take a copy of the existing configuration of your switch this can be useful if you purchase an additional switch in the future or need to replace one that's failed this is a useful feature for businesses that simply cannot afford any downtime as inevitably setting up a brand new switch from scratch will take some time ban entry protocol is similar to redundancy and it allows you to set up a network with redundant links in place but without the danger of bridging loops if the main link goes down spanning tree will activate the link on standby and use that link instead bridging loops occur when there are multiple paths on a network that cause packets to loop continuously around the network which can bring devices to a grinding hull now this is more likely to occur in a large enterprise environment compared with the home network which is why a lot of businesses will invest in a managed switch with this feature managed switches come in two different types smart and fully managed smart switches come with fewer features and less configuration options compared with a fully managed switch but are much more affordable to buy fully managed switches on the other hand come with all the bells and whistles that we've already described but will inevitably cost more given how fully managed switches are considerably more expensive and come with a lot of features that you probably won't even make use of a smart managed switch is probably the best for you and your home network that is of course if you do want a bit of extra control over your network that the simple plug-and-play unmanaged switches can't provide i feel they're a nice compromise between an unmanaged switch that offers you zero control and a fully managed switch which really are more suited to enterprise environments given a cost and the features that are available i've left links to some of my favorite network switches in the description box below if you want to check them out so that was a rundown on the differences between managed and unmanaged switches if you enjoyed the video and found it helpful i'd really appreciate it if you could drop it a like and subscribe to the channel while you're there don't forget to turn on those notifications and head on over to homenetworkgeek.com where we've got a ton of articles on everything home networking thanks for watching i'll see you next time

Channel: Home Network Geek

Views: 74,972

Rating: 4.8968792 out of 5

Keywords: home network geek, homenetworkgeek.com, home networking, IT, networking, technology, network switch, managed switch, unmanaged switch, which is best, home network, best switch for home network, managed vs unmanaged switch

Id: BjVgAklMmd8

Length: 7min 31sec (451 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020