Well, I was in Las Vegas this weekend. While there I stopped by the local Fry’s Electronics. I started browsing the switches and noticed that the DLink DGS-2208 devices were on sale for $39.99. This is an 8-port Gigabit switch. I went ahead and bought their last 2.
I have now installed the switches on my home network which consists of one 8-port switch in my IDF and one in my server room (den). Contrary to the instructions and packaging, it did not autosense the uplink, so I had to make a crossover cable. Not a big deal.
Everything appears to be running well. Even initiating large file transfers while my wife watches the XBox 360 media center extender does not cause her to scream in agony every time the network congestion toast pops onto the LCD.