The Best Business Networking Products

The Best Business Networking Products
These eight offerings can boost your business by making your network more secure, increasing its reach and efficiency, and turning it into the backbone of a powerful, cost-saving interoffice phone system.

Knowing the business end of your small business is hard enough but not good enough. The corners poorly illuminated by your understanding can conceal ugly surprises. If they concern the data and communication systems you depend on, they can be particularly unpleasant. To give your knowledge about those networks a quick boost, we've plowed through scores of our recent hardware and software reviews, sifting out the eight best products.

As your business grows, so will your network, both in size and complexity. At a certain point, your intrepid little unmanaged switch won't do the trick. When your infrastructure requirements start including voice over IP, multicast streaming, virtual LANs, a fast backbone, and the like, it's time for a managed switch. The D-Link xStack DGS-3627 is a good place to start. If you don't have an experienced networking person on staff, you'll need a consultant to make full use of this device's deep capabilities, but network applications will greatly benefit.

If the demands on your network are somewhat lighter—say those from general office networking as well as a moderate amount of VoIP and video traffic—the Netgear ProSafe GS724TS is ideal. It costs considerably less than the D-Link xStack yet has that product's most important features.

Enterprises that need management features but can get along with an eight-port device will save a bundle with the SMC EZ Switch 10/100/1000 (SMCGS8P-Smart). It costs around $300 or less yet has many enterprise-level features. That makes it one of the best deals you'll find in managed switches.

Maintaining your network is critical, but software to assist with diagnosing problems and tracking help-desk activity is often difficult to use and can strain a small business's budget. Spiceworks solves the problem. It's surprisingly easy to use, provides hardware and software monitoring, and even includes basic help-desk capabilities. Since our last review, the company has added support for Mac and Linux systems in addition to Windows PCs. We can't vouch for how well the additions work until we retest the product, and you might be annoyed by the ads that appear—but it's free, so trying it out is worth your time.

Security can be another costly headache, but it's not one you can afford to skimp on. If keeping out attackers and detecting attacks is especially important to your business, and you want a set-and-forget system, eEye Digital Security REM Security Management Appliance 1505 can provide it. You'll pay a pretty penny and the initial install can be difficult, but once installed the eEye Digital Security system provides a complete, hardened security solution.

Many, many businesses depend heavily on the Internet, but not all are in areas with reliable service (or any). The ZyXEL ZyWall 2WG wireless router solves that problem and has some other impressive capabilities. Should your wired Internet fail, the ZyWall automatically switches over to a 3G modem (you supply the card) for wireless broadband, supplementing that with a modem dial-up connection. The versatile device also functions as an entry-level UTM (unified threat management) appliance.

When you move your operation into larger quarters, you'll likely need to extend your network's reach. These days, some portion is probably wireless, and the signal carries only so far. The combination of the Ruckus Wireless ZoneDirector 1000 and ZoneFlex 7942 access points creates a robust mesh network that gives you coverage over a large area at a relatively low cost.

Are you currently spending money on two incompatible networks—one for data and another for voice? You might not need to. If your network has the extra bandwidth, stop wasting it—switch to a VoIP PBX, such as the RingCentral DigitalLine VoIP Service. For far less than an analog system, you'll get as many powerful features (probably more), along with a system that's much easier and cheaper to install, maintain, and reconfigure.