February 20, 2009 | Posted At: 07:40 AM | Author: Brian Nadel | Category:
Hardware
You may not know it but your school’s network may be costing your school’s budget a small fortune. That’s because every networking hub, switch and router uses electricity and chances are that if they’re older than a year or two, they’re not only wasting power but also add to the cooling load of the building; those in cold climates take note, the equipment may help to heat your building but not particularly efficiently. D-Link’s latest gigabit switches feature top performance but only use maximum power when in use. Parts of the equipment that aren’t being used go to sleep, saving lots of watts. The five-port DGS-2205 switch is available now while the 8-, 16- and 24-port switches will get power saving features later this year. For the typical usage pattern, the switch can cut power use by between 45- and 66-percent, depending on usage and cable length. The DGS-2205 costs $60, but can pay for itself in a year or two of use with lower electricity bills.
