giga-bit switches

[imipenem]

I'm looking at 24port gigabit switches and I've found that SMC and Trendnet are the cheapest. SMC is a little cheaper and offer a limited lifetime warranty. Are they a good value or are they poor quality products?

Also, why would a webmanaged switch be cheaper than the unmanaged?

GS24C-SMART 24-Port Web Managed

GS24 24-Port Unmanaged

Thanks in advance

 

[cmetz]

SMC is good quality, their warranty is great - but not all products have the limited lifetime warranty, make sure.

The GS24C-SMART looks like a great switch for the price. Understand that you are *not* getting a full fledged managed switch, though it is a lot better than just an unmanaged switch.

 

[Thor86]

Stay away from SMC, their RMA procedures suck.

 

[dartworth]

please explain the diff between managed and unmanaged...

TIA

 

[cmetz]

Thor86, my RMA experiences with SMC have been good. Every time I've had a switch die on me, they've advanced replaced it with few questions.

 

[zylander]

Originally posted by: dartworth
please explain the diff between managed and unmanaged...

TIA

wondering the same thing.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: zylander

Originally posted by: dartworth
please explain the diff between managed and unmanaged...

TIA

wondering the same thing.

An unmanaged switch is just a dumb device that switches frames/packets. You have little to no visibility into the status of ports, and literally no troubleshooting ability. It's plug and pray.

A managed switch allows you to have visibility into what the switch is actually doing, looking at counters on switch ports, setting speed/duplex/auto-crossover settings. That's managed switch at the most basic level - from there the sky is the limit on what you can and cannot do.

Me personally, I can see not reason for a switch to be unmanaged in the year 2007.

 

[zylander]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: zylander

Originally posted by: dartworth
please explain the diff between managed and unmanaged...

TIA

wondering the same thing.

An unmanaged switch is just a dumb device that switches frames/packets. You have little to no visibility into the status of ports, and literally no troubleshooting ability. It's plug and pray.

A managed switch allows you to have visibility into what the switch is actually doing, looking at counters on switch ports, setting speed/duplex/auto-crossover settings. That's managed switch at the most basic level - from there the sky is the limit on what you can and cannot do.

Me personally, I can see not reason for a switch to be unmanaged in the year 2007.

Thanks, Im looking for a 5 or 8 port switch right now and I had no idea what the difference was between all these managed/unmanaged switches were.

edit: after looking at prices, it looks like managed switches are more for businesses. Cheapest managed switch I found is over $200.

 

[dartworth]

Here is the switch I'm running on my home network:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122141


Very happy with it.

 

[zylander]

Originally posted by: dartworth
Here is the switch I'm running on my home network:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122141


Very happy with it.

I was looking at the 5port version of that one. But that one has 1MB of buffer mem where as the 5 port has only 128kb. Is there a big difference in buffer memory?

 

[JackMDS]

For a regular Entry Level Giga switch SMC is one of the best choices.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: zylander
I was looking at the 5port version of that one. But that one has 1MB of buffer mem where as the 5 port has only 128kb. Is there a big difference in buffer memory?

There doesn't seem to be any difference. Note: 8 x 128 = 1024. Two interpretations: (1) One's given per port and the other's given for the entire (8-port) switch. (2) One's give in bytes and the other in bits (8 x bytes). (2) seems to be the right answer here, but you often can't count on the published specs to get such details right.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Me personally, I can see not reason for a switch to be unmanaged in the year 2007.

KISS works very well for the consumer / SOHO market. Less support, documentation, internal training, firmware development / support, RMA due to user mis-configuration, etc. An unmanaged desktop gigabit switch can be a thing of beauty for simplicity, cost and performance.

I'd bet that many or most of the unmanaged switches are actually management-capable switches, but the vendor has chosen not to expose / market the management features. I opened one inexpensive unmanaged desktop gigabit switch, and found this to be the case. This is fine for the low end, but of course costs sales at the higher end so is rarer there these days.

 

[bluestrobe]

You can pick up a new Dell PowerConnect 2708 for around $50 on eBay. Mine was $50 shipped. It's a jumbo frame switch which can be managed or unmanaged. Managed switches for the average home user is overkill IMHO.

 

[zylander]

Originally posted by: Madwand1

Originally posted by: zylander
I was looking at the 5port version of that one. But that one has 1MB of buffer mem where as the 5 port has only 128kb. Is there a big difference in buffer memory?

There doesn't seem to be any difference. Note: 8 x 128 = 1024. Two interpretations: (1) One's given per port and the other's given for the entire (8-port) switch. (2) One's give in bytes and the other in bits (8 x bytes). (2) seems to be the right answer here, but you often can't count on the published specs to get such details right.

Ah ok, thanks.

 

[robmurphy]

I bought a powerconnect 2716, as it was cheaper than the 2708, but I did notice on Dell's site that they show that the 2708 does not do jumbo frames, the 2716 and above do. Please see the following links for details.

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pwcnt/en/pwcnt_27xx_specs.pdf

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/produ.../pwcnt_2716?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/produ.../pwcnt_2708?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

The links are from the UK site so may not work outside the UK.

Rob Murphy

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: robmurphy
I did notice on Dell's site that they show that the 2708 does not do jumbo frames, the 2716 and above do.

Yes, Dell has been explicit about this.

Jumbo frame support up to 9000 Bytes (2716, 2724, and 2748)

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pwcnt/en/pwcnt_27xx_specs.pdf

(BTW, these switches have to be run in managed mode in order to support jumbo frames.)

The 2716 and 2708 are fanless, the 2724 is not. The SMCs originally linked have fans, and some say they are noisy. This is a non-issue for typical business use (lan room/etc.) (and the Dell 27xx should not be used by such businesses IMO), but can be an issue for home / office usage.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Madwand1

Originally posted by: robmurphy
I did notice on Dell's site that they show that the 2708 does not do jumbo frames, the 2716 and above do.

Yes, Dell has been explicit about this.

Jumbo frame support up to 9000 Bytes (2716, 2724, and 2748)

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pwcnt/en/pwcnt_27xx_specs.pdf

(BTW, these switches have to be run in managed mode in order to support jumbo frames.)

The 2716 and 2708 are fanless, the 2724 is not. The SMCs originally linked have fans, and some say they are noisy. This is a non-issue for typical business use (lan room/etc.) (and the Dell 27xx should not be used by such businesses IMO), but can be an issue for home / office usage.

Not that I like them...but we run Dell 3324's (older 10/100 with 2 Gig uplinks) in our lab, and they work fine. We have been running them 24/7 for a couple of years now, and a couple of days a month (sometimes more then that) we hammer the crap out of our network (we have filled our dual OC3's a couple of times).

 

[cmetz]

The Dell 27xx switches have problems.

The 33xx switches are great for what they are. The 34xx switches are a step backwards.

spidey07,

>Me personally, I can see not reason for a switch to be unmanaged in the year 2007.

It's all about the COGS. A managed switch needs a CPU, ROM, flash, DRAM, a serial line driver, and a serial port. Those add tens of dollars to the COGS - hundreds of dollars to the MSRP. An unmanaged switch is pretty much a switch on chip, input protection circuits, and power supply.

What I don't really get is the "smart" switches. They have a CPU, ROM, flash, and DRAM - thought maybe not as much flash/DRAM as a full managed switch. Good SNMP stacks cost licensing $$, but now event the "smart" switches from SMC and Netgear have SMP. So somehow adding a real CLI to the OS raises the MSRP by hundreds of dollars?! Blatant market segmentation.

That's not to knock the "smart" switches if someone would otherwise be stuck with unmanaged - that's to say that there's still excess margin in managed switches.

 

[imipenem]

Thanks for the info. Anyone have experience with the Trendnet? I need a switch with more than 16 GB ports....

 

[bluestrobe]

So what problems do the Dell 27XX switches have? I plan on buying a 2716 here in a bit and never had an issue with my 2708 for over a year and a half now with moderate use. For the price they are being sold at compared to others they are hard to avoid.

 

[kevnich2]

On the trendnet side, I have one 48 port solid gigabit (48 gigE ports and 4 mini-gbic ports for linking to fiber nodes) and two 24 port 10/100 with 4 gigE/mini-gbic ports. I've had these running for 6 months now, not a single hiccup or issue at all. The 48 ports were around $750 and the 24 ports were around $300. If I had to do it over again, I'd go with a switch that has QOS prioritizing so that different traffic (such as VOIP) can have higher priority. The trendnet can only prioritize ports. The SMC from what I've seen has QOS.

 

[robmurphy]

Hi cmetz.

I have a Dell powerconnect 2716, but I've not started using it. I will definetly be using it in managed mode as I will be using the Jumbo frame support, and the port mirroring. From reading on the WEB I have found there is no way to take a dump of the config. Is that the main problem?

I assume that they will keep their config if they are powered off, and then on again.

Could you please let me and bluestrobe know what the problems are.

Thanks in advance

Rob Murphy

 

[bluestrobe]

Originally posted by: robmurphy
Hi cmetz.

I have a Dell powerconnect 2716, but I've not started using it. I will definetly be using it in managed mode as I will be using the Jumbo frame support, and the port mirroring. From reading on the WEB I have found there is no way to take a dump of the config. Is that the main problem?

I assume that they will keep their config if they are powered off, and then on again.

Could you please let me and bluestrobe know what the problems are.

Thanks in advance

Rob Murphy

I've asked in a few threads what's wrong with these switches and never received a solid answer. I doubt to get one here. Probably "Dell=Bad" bandwaggon or something. I know the reviews I read about them had nothing bad to say.

 

[spidey07]

Bluestobe, I'd trust what cmetz is saying.

It's probably an architecture/software problem.

There's a higher standard in networking. It is ALWAYS supposed to work and work correctly - no hiccups and no shortcomings. No reboots to fix things.