saabman, the Dell 27xx switches' web UI is a bit fragile, it's not too hard to wedge it so that it won't work anymore, it'll connect but not do anything. Once in this state, it's not too hard to cause the whole switch to lock up and die. This has happened to me a few times in production environments where people were just trying to configure the switch, so I imagine that someone who was malicious and trying to cause trouble would be able to pretty easily.
I do believe that Dell says that the 27xx switches are wire speed. That is not what my testing shows. I have never had any interactions with a Dell employee or contractor who I think would know the difference, so it's not even worth discussing with them. All Dell does is resell Chinese networking gear, they don't do engineering and they sure aren't willing or able to fix anything. It's like telling the customer service desk at Wal-Mart that a product's labelling makes false claims.
Madwand1, you don't get to a really low price point without making some cost optimizations (a polite way of saying cutting corners). For a 10/100 switch, it's pretty easy to deliver wire speed performance, and most switches sold today do just fine at that. For a gigabit switch, esp. 16-24 ports, it does require a bit more horsepower and SRAM to build a true wire-speed switch... and most customers won't know the difference.
When folks who deal with carrier-grade equipment say "wire-speed" or "full line-rate" that means a specific set of tough conditions are met (basically, it ain't never droppin' a packet). When the marketing department of a low-cost PC reseller who dabbles at reselling Chinese switches says "wire-speed"... what does that mean?
I don't understand the Chinese business landscape very well, but I do know that a lot of the Chinese/Taiwanese companies are interrelated in various and complex ways; the Accton/SMC family is huge and seems to have a hand in everything. It would not surprise me if DNI is interrelated with Accton/SMC. The key here is that Dell is simply reselling Chinese gear based on commodity chipsets and running Chinese software. Dell might do some product evaluation before stamping their logo on it, but they don't design it and they don't fix it.
Again, it's like Wal-Mart; they're just a very efficient reseller. You can get some great deals there, but you have to be a very savvy shopper and you have to suck up that you're going to get lousy customer service on cheap things. If you're not a savvy shopper, don't be surprised if you get ripped off.
Some of the switches that Dell has sold have been great buys. I really liked the 33xx series switches, for example. Some of the switches that Dell sells now are really crap. The 27xx switches in particular have given me a lot of grief. It's about time for a big networking product refresh from Dell, and I don't know whether the next generation will be great or mediocre... and either is as likely as the other. That's the thing with low-cost gear and low-cost vendors - just look over at Hot Deals. You have to do a lot of research and work to get the best for the least.
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