Layer 2 or Layer 3 networking devices..?

[spinjector]

Hi all,

I'm looking to replace our aging & failing network switches.

I'm finding the major division in price seems to be between Layer-2 and Layer-3 devices.

I understand the difference in concept between the two (L2 is port-based, and L3 is protocol-based), but I don't have the experience to understand the network management effects of that in the real-world.

Can anyone give me some examples/suggestions on the safety/security/usability between Layer 2 & Layer 3 switches?

Thanks.

FYI - In case anyone asks, these are the protocols/services we do/will have:

- number of users is 40 or less

- outbound general internet access, with no filters/restrictions

- Microsoft Exchange 2003, with Webmail & Blackberry (currently off-site, planning to move on-site)

- VPN for inbound file server, email, & RDC/VNC access

- a small-scale inTRAnet server for employees only

- we're a media company, so we have a lot of streaming audio inbound to desktops & outbound from WME servers to Akamai; we don't yet use QoS on those ports/protocols, but probably should

[cluberti]

Moved from W2K to Networking. As to the questions of L2 vs L3, it would depend on the vendor and their implementation of L3 (and managed vs unmanaged). For example, some Netgear switches are considered "smart" switches, and aren't truly L3 complete (even though they try to advertise it as such).

Most of the benefits of a managed L3 switch come with things like multicast, VLANs and tagging, QoS for protocols, streaming media, etc - you'll see benefits there if you want to configure your switches to handle those types of traffic specifically. If you're looking for just a "dumb" network that routes packets based on MAC address and you aren't going to do any QoS, multicast, or VLANs, you probably don't need an L3 switch (yes, you can do some of these things on an L2 switch, but not very well comparatively). Again, for such a small network, an L3 switch might be overkill, but if you do plan on doing a bit of media streaming, or multicast transfers, or even VoIP, an L3 switch with proper QoS support will help that network out quite a bit.