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Need a good L3 switch and a firewall for a business

M

mmx

Diamond Member
Needs to port about 5-8 users and abut 16-24 ports for all the outlets, and printers/faxes, and needs to have this qualifications:
traffic prioritizing (e.g. DiffServs, QoS) to use with VoIP and VideoConf

What do you guys recommend, i need to order today.

Please email me model for each. too many models, and i'm just getting more confused
 
Originally posted by: mmx
still very expensive. Was hoping for around $1200 for both devices
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Not sure how you're going to get there for $1200, but you could consider a 3Com L2 3824 for $1900 or so. I have not used 3COm equipment so cannot verify it meets your need.

Linksys has a 24 port L2 switch for about $500. Same caveat.

Otherwise, I am in complete agreement with teh above. I use Cisco equipment, 2821's and either 3548s or 3640s. PIX at the firewall. Handles voice/video, QoS no problem.
 
For $1200 you won't get anything decent.
I understand you have budget limit, but when users start complaining about VoIP jitters, you'll know it's worth it.
 
Originally posted by: Cooky
For $1200 you won't get anything decent.
I understand you have budget limit, but when users start complaining about VoIP jitters, you'll know it's worth it.
Click to expand...

One thing you do not want is jitter in an IP telephony system. You will be overwhelmed with complaints. Spend money to get decent equipment. It will save you time, effort and a whole lotta grief.
 
mmx, the best solution to your problem is an Extreme Networks Summit 48si. The second best solution would be a Cisco Catalyst 3750.

If you want to spend $1200, you might be able to find some very low end product, but you're not going to get a high-quality product.
 
Originally posted by: cmetz
mmx, the best solution to your problem is an Extreme Networks Summit 48si. The second best solution would be a Cisco Catalyst 3750.
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Curious as to why you feel this way? Can I get some insight?
 
Originally posted by: mmx
still very expensive. Was hoping for around $1200 for both devices
Click to expand...

Well I can do it for that kind of money .. PM me and I'll get pic's and info (it's used but works great, coming out of a rack so it will have minor scratches...) I got a router and a 16 port 10/100 L3 switch I don't need.

 
JRock, the Extreme "i" switches do per-port multiple queues, DiffServ, 802.1p, weighted RED, and a good number of ACLs in the ASIC, and do all of those right except that the ACLs are stateless. (okay for a switch to control internal traffic, but do not use this for a firewall!) They're all in ASIC and wire speed.

The Cisco 3750 does those features too, and they work right (unlike most other Cisco offerings). But, it is based on a network processor. If you only use one major feature, or certain subsets of features, you can get wire speed. If you enable the wrong combination of features, bye-bye wire speed, hello software speed.

The 3750 is basically a cost/performance trade-off. If you use few features, it does them right, everyone's happy. If you enable lots of features, you're going to hit its limitations. I haven't looked at 3750 prices lately, but if I can get the Summit 48si for a similar cost, I'd take the box that doesn't have that cost tradeoff.

I am not a fan of Cisco switches. They've put out a lot of severe underperformers, and some true dogs. And their sales and marketing people operate in a parallel universe when it comes to the limitations of their switches (if you ask their sales people, their products are perfect in every way). But the 3750 is a pretty darn decent little box. I'd take it over almost every other competitor.
 
Originally posted by: cmetz
JRock, the Extreme "i" switches do per-port multiple queues, DiffServ, 802.1p, weighted RED, and a good number of ACLs in the ASIC, and do all of those right except that the ACLs are stateless. (okay for a switch to control internal traffic, but do not use this for a firewall!) They're all in ASIC and wire speed.

The Cisco 3750 does those features too, and they work right (unlike most other Cisco offerings). But, it is based on a network processor. If you only use one major feature, or certain subsets of features, you can get wire speed. If you enable the wrong combination of features, bye-bye wire speed, hello software speed.

The 3750 is basically a cost/performance trade-off. If you use few features, it does them right, everyone's happy. If you enable lots of features, you're going to hit its limitations. I haven't looked at 3750 prices lately, but if I can get the Summit 48si for a similar cost, I'd take the box that doesn't have that cost tradeoff.

I am not a fan of Cisco switches. They've put out a lot of severe underperformers, and some true dogs. And their sales and marketing people operate in a parallel universe when it comes to the limitations of their switches (if you ask their sales people, their products are perfect in every way). But the 3750 is a pretty darn decent little box. I'd take it over almost every other competitor.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comment. We have had demo units from Extreme Networks in the past. At that time I didn't really have time to look deeply into it. As far as I was concerned the cisco equipment was performing quite well and I honestly didnt have time to efficiently learn a new type of "IOS". Your comment though have me thinkin' I should consider taking another look as we have about 8 or so 3750G-24TS-E in production. Thanks for taking the time to comment as I am always looking for ways to increase performance and production.

:beer:
 
Also one of the drawbacks of the Extreme Networks Summit 48si is its all 10/100 w/ 2 10/100/1000 as opposed to all 24 ports being 10/100/1000 and having 4 fibre gbics for a total of 28 gig ports.

Thats the only problem I would see for this being a solution for me as the 3750's connect each rack on our server lan (4 gig trunks) in a star type topology.
 
JRock, I think Extreme has other switches that are all gig, but not based on their "i" chipset. They also have a much higher-end chipset, but it's probably too high end, and it's a whole new chipset plus a whole new chassis plus a whole new software - it's like they wanted to maximize the risk to the customer 🙁
 
To add to Cmetz's comments about cisco's desktop line of switches.

They were always underpowered and never the best performers. Particularly with their ASICs - if you added too many features you could "overfill" the TCAM and something would be process switched (bad in a LAN environment)

But in all reality you had to really try to fill it up - huge access lists, policy routing and a pages of QoS. Not something you run into in normal applications. However I did run into it when using the 3550 line in a security setting...ACLs were too big.

The 3750 has overcome this limitation although I'm sure you could still overload it if you tried really hard.

Even the ranks within cisco "hated" the 2900 and 3500 XL line of switches. The 3550 were a little better, but not by much.

For any cisco switch today I say 3750 or go with another vendor. The 3750's stacking technology really is amazing - you can have hardware redundancy/link redundancy without any spanning-tree loops (you can create channels on different switches.) This is really important when you need sub second convergence times.
 
Hey, how about the Dell 5324 and a good Router/Firewall combo box?

The switch is about $800 with coupons, and all i'll need is a good Firewall/Fouter combo box to accept my T1/Dedicated DSL line.

 
so what can i get, and fast.

I've talked to cisco and they can only get me the stuff in 3 weeks.

Guys i really need the quipment asap.
Need to order tommorow, and have it this week.

I need Router for the T1/DSL
1 firewall
1 switch/ if its L3 then i don't need a router right?
 
mmx, maybe you could talk to a reseller rather than the manufacturer. Usually resellers can give you better price and fairly fast shipment.
Also, see if you can postpone the installation date cause careful planning will save you a lot of hassle later on.

We made a decision to get a Watchguard Firebox X5 in a hurry, only to find out it wasn't adequate for what we were trying to accomplish.
 
look what i want is recommendation for an:
L3 switch(so i can add the t1/dsl to the switch) and a firewall box OR
L2 switch + an Router/Firewall combo(i can add the t1/DSL throught the router)
 
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