Checking need for Gigabit ethernet

Hi

We are an office of 30, spread over 2 floors. Currently, we have the following network;

Cisco 2501 router (ISP managed) - Cisco 506e PIX - 4 x 3COM 10/100 Mbs switches/hubs - servers/PC's/laptops

The 3COM switch on the 2nd floor is connected to the 3COM on the first via standard 100Mbs ethernet.

The 3COM equipment is causing a few problems (ports dying etc) and I'd like to get it replaced. This would be a good opportunity to implement VLANs as well, plus possible gigabit connection to the servers and also between the various switches. Whilst I can see a security need for the VLAN's (we have a lot of visitors and I'm hoping to segregate them onto their own VLAN), there's no point moving to Gigabit if we don't need it. We don't use any bandwidth intensive packages here, and most of the traffic is file transfer. Can anyone recommend any tools which I can use to measure data flow to the servers and also between the switches to see if there's a real advantage to investing in 1000Mbs?

Secondly, we have a PIX-PIX VPN with our head office who are now using Cisco VoIP. To reduce phone bills, they will be sending us a small amount of VoIP phones to plug into our network to connect with them until we introduce our own VoIP system. As a result, I'd like to have QoS capable switches that will give precedence to VoIP traffic. Will QoS capable Cisco 2950 switches suffice?

Last question, as mentioned above, we do not plan on any intervlan routing for the time being. Hence, am I correct in thinking that there is no need for any L3 switch, such as the 3560, here? Or can anyone see any features the 3550/3560 has that may benefit me?

Many thanks in advance.

Reply to
kammy_boy186
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Please do not multipost. A couple of people have answered you in comp.dcom.sys.cisco .

Reply to
Walter Roberson

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