Cascade or direct link new switches

[mech820]

Hey everyone, i am new here but I have a project coming up soon for my company and I need some advice.

I am replacing 3 hubs on our network with 3 unmanaged switches, D-Link 1024DGS. Right now the hubs are cascaded. They are connected to a 4 port Cisco Pix 501.

I was wondering if it would be better to connect all 3 switches directly to the Pix or continue cascading like the hubs are right now. My main purpose is to have a more efficient network since our network is pretty terrible with the hubs.

Thanks in advance for any and all help you can provide.

 

[cajuntank]

Even though the PIX501 has a built in 4 port switch, I probably would choose using one of the D-Link's as your "main" switch to link the others along with the Cisco to. My thinking is that since the Cisco PIX501 is a fairly older platform, that it will not have the backplane speed compared to a newer switch of most any manufacturer. So using the D-Links greater backplane bandwidth between your LAN will give you greater overall performance than bottlenecking that intra-switch traffic through a less backplane speed Cisco PIX501.

Hope that helps and hope you are preparing to replace that PIX501 with something that handles today's threats.