(Please don't close this post, it's a serious post so... Be cool, no trolls please, I need an answer ;p)

Hello, I am looking for an alternative to Cisco (too expensive for me !) for semi-pro utilization (at home but with advanced feature (I'm studying in IT)) and in small/medium enterprises. I think I will choose between LinkSys (Including Cisco Small Business), Netgear and D-Link, but I've never really used these products, that what I need is a manufacturer that make "almost" all type of networking equipment (Like Cisco but cheaper..), here are my needs :

• I need almost all my products to be rackable
• I need a good warranty (Netgear lifetime waranty rulez!)
• I need an "unified" network environment

I made a little comparison of the characteristics that interest me after hours of search on Internet (based on result found on many websites):

(Prices are based on the ldlc-pro.com french website)

Hotline/Support Quality:

• Netgear : Not so bad
• Linksys : Not so bad
• D-Link : Poor!

Most common Warranty:

• Netgear : Unlimited Lifetime Warranty!
• Linksys : Limited 3 years warranty
• D-Link : Limited 5 years warranty (Unlimited in US but I'm on France :(...)

VPN protocols compatibles with routers on endpoint mode:

• Netgear : Only IPSEC :(
• Linksys : IPSEC, PPTP, L2TP
• D-Link : IPSEC, PPTP, L2TP

Cheaper 8 ports Gb switch :

• Netgear : 30€
• Linksys : 47€
• D-Link : 30€

Cheaper 48 ports + 1Gb uplink(s) administrable switch :

• Netgear : 263€
• Linksys : 630€
• D-Link : 600€

Cheaper VPN router :

• Netgear : 100€
• Linksys : 80€
• D-Link : 60€

Cheaper rackable switch :

• Netgear : 50€
• Linksys : 87€
• D-Link : 50€

Cheaper rackable and administrable switch :

• Netgear : 120€
• Linksys : 370€
• D-Link : 171€

Netgear and D-Link are in the same range of price, where Linksys is more expensives.

I've searched for some other criteria ( the full comparison is here, in french with shop/source links: http://forums.jeuxonline.info/showthread.php?t=1072280 ) and made a final score for each manufacturer :

SCORE including IP camera sub-score:

• Netgear : 6.2/10
• Linksys : 7.3/10
• D-Link : 7.0/10

SCORE excluding IP camera sub-score:

• Netgear : 6.9/10
• Linksys : 7.0/10
• D-Link : 6.7/10

On both case, Linksys wins. So here is my little comparison, but because I've never really used these stuffs, I need your help to make a decision on witch manufacturer choose for both my personnal and corporate use.

So here are the questions :

• What manufacturer do you recommend me (Not cisco (except Small business)) ? Why ?

• Have you called the call center of the customer support of one of these manufacturer ? How it was ?

• Did you had problems or bad experiences with these equipments ?

• Any other advices ? ;)

Thank you !