Re: Switches

My experience is that they all work when you plug them in, but the "off
brands" get flaky sooner and work better with most of the ports connected.

YMMV, but I like HP ProCurve. Cisco is great but pricey. Netgear is good,
and Linksys/Belkin/DLink/3com are OK. Avoid the off-the-wall brands for
obvious reasons.

Big price differentiators ...
1- Support for Power over Ethernet adds a bunch of cost. You don't likely
need it unless you will be deploying IP phones, IP webcams, or distributed
wireless access points.

2- "Managed" switches are more expensive. Basically, a "managed" switch
allows you to assign it an IP, has a console where you can control settings,
and can talk SNMP. I prefer to deploy managed switches in a business
setting, because troubleshooting network problems is easier, and because it
is generally advisable (IMO) to set port speeds for servers rather than use
negotiation.




---------
Tom Jedrzejewicz
tomjedrz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 7:51 AM, Pat Barber <mboceanside@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Has anybody seen any significant differences in the many
Ethernet switches ?

I have gotten in the shopping mode for a client and I can't
believe how many folks are building these things, yet they
all appear to be identical in form and function.
(Over 35 suppliers from my distributor)

I am looking for a simple 12 and 6 port switch(s) and have found
them from $10 to $300, with a few going waaay up in price.

I am talking about a 10/100/1000 wired switch for a very basic
network of 1- 15 devices.

I don't really need the gigabyte version but I thought, why not since
we are doing a whole new deal.

Is the Netgear stuff really any different than the HP Procurve stuff ?

I tend to avoid the really off the wall brands from China but who knows ?



--
This is the PC Technical Discussion for iSeries Users (PcTech) mailing list
To post a message email: PcTech@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/pctech
or email: PcTech-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/pctech.