C4 network configuration?

[EagleMoon]

I'm getting a lot of 127.0.0.1 flooding.

You're seeing that address on your network? I think that means some device has a broken TCP/IP implementation. I guess I could be wrong, but I don't think you should EVER see that address on the wire; it's an internal loopback address, the host is not supposed to actually send it out. If you are familiar with packet captures, you might identify where it's coming from by looking at the source MAC address or by disconnecting one device at a time until it stops.

I can get a 48 gigabit Cisco for around $500 USD.

One that works? It must either be ancient or one that "fell off a truck. Or it's Linksys; but still: $500 for 48 ports POE is really cheap. Regardless, it's going to be loud. And if it's an old, "real" Cisco Catalyst, it's likely to be louder than most: not as power-efficient as newer ones so more cooling required and aging bearings so more noise.

If your Sonos streams from your Mac's library and you have multiple switches, then it would make sense to put the Mac and Sonos on the same switch. But that really depends on what else you are doing. Video traffic from the Mac to something else would likely be more important. You really just have to understand what all the traffic flows are and group devices into "communities" based on their primary traffic sources/destinations, then keep the communities within a switch when possible.

But don't over-think that; it's generally not going to make a lot of difference, especially if you have a gigabit network.

[wappinghigh]

Sorry. It's a rebadged linksys. No POE. Thanks for the tips again on my network. I'll definitely look into it...