Recommended switch?

[Aardpsymon]

What IS the difference between CAT3/5/6 etc? is it just quality of manufacture or what?

[Net2Infinity]

Gigabit for normal workstations is overkill as a machine doesnt have enough throughput to saturate the link. In addition you need at least 5e for 100mb. You should try to isolate the bottlenecks before throwing gear at the problem. Perhaps the issue is a slow file server, or an over utilized internet connection. I would recommend a Cisco 2960-48-TT, it should cost around 1600.

[cybersamurai]

Use cat6 in the server rooms for your firewall - router; CISCO is a must for your firewall so PIX 506 and above. use cat 5e for your network, 30 pc's not too match of a hassle! whats with the 5 DC's? thats weired are you runnin a WAN? what do you need all that power for a 30 PC network? and if your are runnin on a WAN you might want to check and make sure you've got synchronization(e.g. outlook, my docs etc) properly configured, also a group policy to block torrent client ports is also a good idea! check your network logger as well!(hey company resources are for official business!! ) hope this helps! later