24 port switch from ebay?

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1

I was looking into getting a switch for my network as I don't have enough lan ports on my router. From what I've seen, used server 24 port switches can be had on ebay for relatively cheap (like $20). Compared to the prices of things new, this is a really good deal. They are 10/100 instead of gigabyte, but considering that the internet around here doesn't get anywhere close to gigabyte, and I don't do much within my own network, I don't think that will be any sort of problem.

Does anyone have any experience with these sorts of products from ebay? There was one which was labelled as tested, so it ought to actually work (dread the DOA). With one of those a $50 worth of bulk cat5e cable (1,000 feet), I could make a pretty solid home network for less than $100. Am I missing something here? Is this actually not a good way to go about things?

I'm pretty sure that I can just slap one of those 24 port switches after my router and be good to go, if I am not mistaken. If you can't tell, I don't know much about networking, so I am pretty unsure of myself. Any guidance is appreciated.

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I've used them before and never had any problems. Well, I had a HP where some of the activity lights were a bit dim, but everything else worked. If you get an undamaged switch then you just plug it in to your network and you're good to go. If you want something managed then that will probably work too unless they haven't reset it back to default but if you do want a managed switch then I recommend looking for one with a web interface so you don't have to learn how to configure it through the command line or with a console cable.

The reason you can get used enterprise stuff so cheap is because it's warranty has expired, and in a big company once the warranty goes they have to get rid of it because it's not worth the risk of it failing without any vendor support. So if they say it's in working condition then there shouldn't be anything wrong with it.