I was dead wrong about managed switches being overkill for a small office

For years I ran a flat network with dumb switches at a 15 person company in Denver. Thought VLANs and managed switches were just unnecessary complexity. Then we got hit with a broadcast storm from a looped cable on a cheap switch, took down the whole office for 4 hours on a Monday morning. My boss was furious, clients were emailing, total disaster. That day I swapped to a basic managed switch from a major brand, set up VLANs for the guest wifi and server traffic, and it's been smooth ever since. Now I see the value but I also get why some folks say it's extra work for tiny setups. What's your breaking point where you say it's time to go managed?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony_wells28d agoMost Upvoted

Blew my mind when a buddy told me his neighbor's Chromecast once knocked out half his office because they plugged two cables into the same switch without thinking.

bettym8928d ago

My friend's roommate did something similar with a Roku stick... plugged it into a splitter that was already maxed out and the whole TV setup just died for hours. Turns out it wasn't the Roku, just the cheap splitter throwing a fit from too much power draw. Had to reset everything and it was a mess for a whole afternoon.