gigabit ethernet
 

hey out there,
I'm a network admin for a linux network at a church. I am considering purchasing a couple of gigabit ethernet switches for our audio/video guys as they send huge video files (10-20 GB) over our LAN on a regular basis and its getting kind of old using our 10/100 switches for this. The audio/video guys use Windows boxes, but the file servers are running Fedora 2, as are most of the other client computers.
So my question is, does fedora 2 support gigabit ethenet speeds and does anyone know of some gigabit NIC's and switches with that they would recommend. Just remember that this is for a church and we have a pretty tight IT buget, so the less expensive the better.

thanks much

Well.. yes, I realize the tight budget for churches...but gigabit switches are not cheap by any means...

I don't know how many computers you have.. but..

For a mid-range belkin 24-port gigabit switch it's $899.99 or a 16-port is $508.99

And Gigabit ethernet cards:

3Com gigabits are in the mid $50s or better... plus.. you are going to have to upgrade your cable as well... They say you can do gigabit over Cat 5e, but I don't trust that... You should be using Cat 6.. and in order to get the gigabit throughput, you need to be very good at cabling, if you're not buying the cables pre-made. You can't get away with the kind of crap cabling you can with 100 Mb connections.. If you have too much cable untwisted, your throughput will suck.. If you have too much slope, stretch, or bend in your cabling... Your throughput will suck...

I'm not by any means, trying to discourage you from the gigabit transition... But trying to help you realize how much work is really in this..

I was a work study for my college, and we are a Level III Microsoft IT Academy (I'm trying to push for linux classes, and perhaps a Red Hat academy) with full MCSE intructors... and we had Siemons and Anixter come in and evaluate our building for the transition... there was so much crap we had to follow... and they said that as long as we followed their instructions, Siemons would guarantee connectivity for 16 years...

Good deal at Fry's
 

I can't speak from experience, but I thought I'd point out that Fry's currently is selling Airlink Gigabit ethernet cards for $7.99 and a 5-port gigabit switch (also by Airlink) for $19.99.

Here's the specific card--

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/388...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Here's the switch---


http://shop1.outpost.com/product/388...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Looks like there is support in the FC2 kernel, but I don't know.

Just thought I'd throw some info in here....

di11rod