Dell Switches.....

[cross6]

I need a rack mount gigabit switch to put about 8 servers on, but right now I can't push alot through our budget so a Cisco is out of the question.


I don't need it to do anything fancy but switch. I just need it to be STABLE.



How are there managed switches? I see one for about 300-400 with same day replacement service.

 

[InlineFour]

i just bought a dell 10/100 24 port switch just last week. i should receive it by tomorrow. i'll tell you what i think when i receive it. $300-400 for a managed gigabit switch sounds like a bargain.

i actually have a 3com superstack 3 3300 managed 24 port switch for sale, however, it's 10/100 only.

 

[cross6]

I hear the management sucks. But I don't need to manage it. This switch will be on it's own network, I just need it switch quickly and not freeze up on me!

 

[InlineFour]

you can save a lot if you go with the unmanaged version.

 

[Cooky]

I have Dell's 2216 10/100 unmanaged switch and it's been working well for me at home.
If this is for critical servers at work I'd get something else.

 

[cross6]

Any other enterprise alternatives that might be cheaper than a Cisco cat 2790?

 

[kevnich2]

I've got a web managed 8 port gigabit for our servers here at work. It's been working like a charm, actually. We've had it for about five months now with no hiccups. We even had a broadcast storm on our main switch (older switch) and the dell didn't pass any of the bad traffic through which kept our servers online.

 

[cross6]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
I've got a web managed 8 port gigabit for our servers here at work. It's been working like a charm, actually. We've had it for about five months now with no hiccups. We even had a broadcast storm on our main switch (older switch) and the dell didn't pass any of the bad traffic through which kept our servers online.

Nice, how much traffic do they put out? Is it a good load? I'm talking an easy 20 megabit constant usage

 

[cmetz]

cross6, Dell's previous generation switches were good. I do not like their current generation switches.

Dell's service and support is "award winning." I can't express what award they deserve in terms polite enough for a public form. I will simply say that you better hope you don't need support or warranty service on any Dell product. Luckily, their switches are pretty reliable. Software bugs are an issue but you can usually work around them.

I would strongly recommend that you consider SMC. They make solid switches, and back them with a lifetime warranty (how often do you see that in the tech business?). They aren't quite as cheap as Dell but are a lot closer to the Dell price scale than they are to the Cisco price scale.

Also check Cisco's "Catalyst Express" switch line. They look nice on paper, and they're not quite as much of a rip-off as usual for Cisco. I have not yet figured out where the catch is with these switches. When I see a low-end product from Cisco that's cheaper than usual, usually it's crippled in various ways.

While a managed switch is more expensive, in a business setting, you want a managed switch.

 

[CrashX]

I recommend D-Link Enterprise products. My company is an authorized reseller for D-Link and we use them exclusively in SMB and education installations. They have unmanaged, Smart managed and full managed products, Layer 2 and Layer 3. They are solid, great priced and backed by a lifetime warranty.

 

[spidey07]

I think it all depends on what you want your switch to do and what features you desire.

Any switch will act as a switch/multiport bridge. What more do you need? If it's for business then you for sure have management of some kind. What kind of management/control/reporting do you need?

 

[cross6]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I think it all depends on what you want your switch to do and what features you desire.

Any switch will act as a switch/multiport bridge. What more do you need? If it's for business then you for sure have management of some kind. What kind of management/control/reporting do you need?

None really.


This switch will hook into a 1800 router. This small farm (8 or so) servers will ALL be talking to themselves 99% of the time so it should stay in the switch. On their own network.

I don't need 802.1x, trunking, voip, failover, qos, etc etc etc


I just need it to not require power cycling

 

[nweaver]

I'm not a big fan...the stupid gig ports on our 24 port 10/100 + 2 gig ports model (not sure which one) has issues getting link to a gig port on your Cat 6500. powercycling and fiddling fixes it, nothing else. Huge pain when this happens in the middle of imaging a rack of machines.

 

[cross6]

Originally posted by: nweaver
I'm not a big fan...the stupid gig ports on our 24 port 10/100 + 2 gig ports model (not sure which one) has issues getting link to a gig port on your Cat 6500. powercycling and fiddling fixes it, nothing else. Huge pain when this happens in the middle of imaging a rack of machines.

Portfast bug? I think I heard about that.

 

[cross6]

So the catalyst express series seem VERY similar to the linksys SR2024 series - coincidence?

 

[Cooky]

LinkSys doesn't post the specs for SR2024 on their website or spec sheet, and there's no way to compare the two.

 

[azev]

in my opinion most of the newer model switches these days are pretty reliable for a LAN connection. The reason I said this, is that LAN switch will almost never see a sustained high throughput. This is where expansive switches like cisco really flex its muscle.

 

[Pheran]

Originally posted by: cmetz
Also check Cisco's "Catalyst Express" switch line. They look nice on paper, and they're not quite as much of a rip-off as usual for Cisco. I have not yet figured out where the catch is with these switches. When I see a low-end product from Cisco that's cheaper than usual, usually it's crippled in various ways.

The catch is no IOS CLI - they are managed via a web interface. That being said, I have never used one so I can't say anything about how well they work.

 

[cross6]

Originally posted by: Pheran

Originally posted by: cmetz
Also check Cisco's "Catalyst Express" switch line. They look nice on paper, and they're not quite as much of a rip-off as usual for Cisco. I have not yet figured out where the catch is with these switches. When I see a low-end product from Cisco that's cheaper than usual, usually it's crippled in various ways.

The catch is no IOS CLI - they are managed via a web interface. That being said, I have never used one so I can't say anything about how well they work.

I have a sneaking feeling that those are nothing more but linksys 2024 switches

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: cross6
I have a sneaking feeling that those are nothing more but linksys 2024 switches

I don't see how. The Catalyst Express 500 are managed and mostly 10/100 switches with a couple of gigE/etc. ports thrown in. The Linksys SR2024 is unmanaged and has 24 10/100/1000 ports.

The Catalyst Express 500G-12TC has upto 12 gigE ports, and these seem to exceed even what the "smart" Linksys SRW2016 can do, in addition to not matching the port count.

Ah, I now see the Linksys SRW224P among others -- these are a closer match to the Catalyst Express 24 port offerings.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellit...name=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6545/index.html

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: cmetz
I would strongly recommend that you consider SMC. They make solid switches, and back them with a lifetime warranty (how often do you see that in the tech business?). They aren't quite as cheap as Dell but are a lot closer to the Dell price scale than they are to the Cisco price scale.

Some of the Dell and SMC switches are identical at the hardware level.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1041423,00.asp

(And SMC is subsidiary of Accton.)

Of course it's hard to track every one of these at this level, and possible for any two products to be different substantially or in minor detail as per the specific wishes of the manufacturer and reseller, and it's usual for the managment software to be different.

The PCMag article has some info on the particular differences in this case. The warranty differences stand out among them, and are generally indicative of the level of support.

cmetz, I'm sure you know more about the Dell/SMC relationship than me. Are you saying that new Dell switches are different from SMC or that perhaps SMC switches have become worse?

 

[Cooky]

Many switches are made by the same OEM manufacturers in Taiwan and China; Dell and SMC are just two examples.
The hardware don't differ much; what makes one better than the others are warranty, management interface, firmware, and QA.

 

[azev]

oh I forgot to mention on my last reply... I've administer a few dell 5324 gigabit switches and they are pretty solid switches, and the price are good for what they do.

 

[cmetz]

Madwand1, the current Dell switches are based on a different chipset than most of the current SMC switches. They're probably made in the same Accton plant, but different guts. And totally different warranty and customer service.

It happens that you can buy what appears to be the old generation Dell switches as current SMC products, if you compare closely.