The company I work for sells complete systems. One or two servers, a bunch of computers and a bunch of printers.

The software we resell uses config files on each computer and a master list on the server to define computer roles.

The computers are exactly the same and quite interchangeable.

Currently the staging dept creates a static ip using windows for each computer, and in case of replacing one at a clients site, the techs ( me included) have recreate it.

Not too hard, but in the case of IP printers, it can cause a problem when there is a failure and the clients want to take a working printer and move it to a location where they have a failed printer.

They incorrectly assume that it's the location that matters and not the IP, since the old versions of the application (carry over from DOS) used to run the printers off serial ports.

So I was wondering if anyone had knowledge of a cheap switch we could use to save lots of time.

I would love to be able to assign the IP's based on port numbers, so replacing computers could be easy, and swapping busted printers could be easy as well. Usually the customer's have plenty of spare printers, but no one with the knowledge to log into them to change the IP to replace the damaged one.

Any help would be appreciated.

The idea is to spend under $300, a customer is not going to want to replace a cheap $150 switch with a $2000 model.