Is this a good setup? [Pro 6 + drives + switches]

thebusdet wrote:
are you saying that without 802.3x support, everything will run at the speed of the slowest connected device?

No - the gigabit devices can run at gigabit, even with fast ethernet devices connected to the switches. But if you have a gigabit device sending data to a 100 mbit device, then the switch has to handle the downspeed. For some 100 mbit devices, the speed mismatch creates issues - this is generally a fault in the 100 mbit device, not the switch. But 802.3x can help overcome the problem - it allows the switch to briefly "pause" the faster device if that is needed to prevent data loss on the network.

thebusdet wrote:
My concern is that I have never administered a managed switch before.

The good news is that it will work like a normal GS116 out of the box (with no setup needed to get it running). I use the GS724T (which is similar) on my network, and it works well with my Pro. I ran into the need for 802.3x flow control with some of my media players - it is possible that you won't run into the issue. But if you do you can connect to the switch with your web browser and turn on "global flow control", which is pretty easy.

You also have control over the MTU size (e.g., jumbo frames) - which btw should be off if you have a mixed 100 mbit/gigabit network. The switch has stats can also be helpful when you are troubleshooting.

There are some complicated settings, particularly around VLANs and link aggregation. But you can simply ignore the complicated stuff if you want.