Unmanaged Network Switch vs Managed Network Switch

Question

Currently I have an unmanaged POE switch connected to a Linksys router. I am thinking of upgrading my POE switch to a gigabit POE switch, the only problem is that the switch that I want to get is a managed switch.

So here's my question: with a managed switch, can I still connect all of my devices to it and have the devices request IP addresses from the DHCP server within the Linksys router or will the devices request IPs from the managed switch since I believe the switch has its own DHCP server as well?

Answer 1

Yes - managed switches still work in the default way a Unmanaged switch would work, but go on to provide extra features like SNMP monitoring, and much greater management over the flow of data through the switch itself (usually through a web interface), bandwith control, who has access to the data that flows through the switch and much more. SNMP is a key feature, and allows central monitoring of networked devices by querying the health status of the device. Furthermore, it also gives you complete control over every individual port on the switch itself, which port can communicate with Port X, or Port Y, or all the ports, or none at all and so on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Network_Management_Protocol - Here explains SNMP in some detail.

Managed switches are a lot more expensive however, and I question as to whether you need a managed switch in your environment since any basic unmanaged switch is fine for a home environment. I assume as you are looking at a Gigabit switch, this is a Small business environment?