3Com SuperStack 3 4226T 24-Port Ethernet Switch (3C17300)

The 4226T is a perfect switch for a small but growing network. Having an uplink and downlink port allows cascading of 4 of these switches in a row. This means that you can quadruple the size of your network without needing to upgrade your core switch. Although performance is affected by doing this, it really isn't as bad as you might expect. These switches can really cope well even if you're using all 96 ports through a single uplink. And once you've upgraded your core switch then you can return to peak performance by plugging all cascading switches directly into the core.

When these switches were new their price was quite high, relatively speaking. but now on eBay you can pick them up for next to nothing.

So far i've used nearly 20 of these switches over the last 4 years and haven't had a single failure, and i don't expect i'll see one within another 4 years. That's why when one comes up for auction i'm always interested whether it's new or used.

These things are invaluable for a growing network of limited or irregular funding. And although they will work straight out of the box, there are endless abilities to manage and analyse usage through the easy to use web interface.