Advice on buying Gigabit Switch.

g4mbit

g4mbit

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Dec 18, 2007
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Hello everyone, I would like to know what your suggestions would be for a 24 managed Gigabit switch. Preferred Features: VLAN support, SNMP, OSPF. I would like to keep it under $300, So far I been considering the DELL POWERCONNECT 2724 switch, Any suggestions? Thanks.
 
likuid.silence said:
Hello everyone, I would like to know what your suggestions would be for a 24 managed Gigabit switch. Preferred Features: VLAN support, SNMP, OSPF. I would like to keep it under $300, So far I been considering the DELL POWERCONNECT 2724 switch, Any suggestions? Thanks.
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You want a gigabit L3 switch for that price? Do you really need it to run OSPF? The 2724 isn't L3.
 
Generally speaking, I would never want to use a dell switch in a business environment. I just don't trust their track record as much as the other vendors. Dell doesn't even post their microsecond latency, which definitely sends a sign to me.

I'd go with the HP, even if it is a little more and you're just using it at home.
 
I've got eight Dell 2724 switches, each with two multimode fiber tranceivers in them I've yet to have a single one fail *knocks on wood*. They've been going strong for nearly four years now. With that said I've used brands from HP, Dell, Cisco, Trendnet, Netgear, and Linksys all in 24 port flavors without issue. I've had a 24 port ConnectGear and two 10 port StarTech switches fail.

I really love the HP procurve GUI port monitoring setup. Not sure if others have that but it's nice for a stats at a quick glance.

Edit: Bought two 3com unmanaged switches that have also worked well for the last couple years.
 
i have about 100 powerconnects at clients, no problems with em.... this is all small biz and using them for nothing more then switch
 
Protoform-X said:
The 2724 is a solid device.
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marley1 said:
i like the 2724 as well
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I use a 2724 at the home, never an issue, ever.

just2cool said:
Generally speaking, I would never want to use a dell switch in a business environment. I just don't trust their track record as much as the other vendors. Dell doesn't even post their microsecond latency, which definitely sends a sign to me.

I'd go with the HP, even if it is a little more and you're just using it at home.
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The only issue I got with dell switches is the one at work next door. Any time there is an issue with DHCP, it needs to be reset. I honestly haven't looked into it or spent any time on it. I'm hoping to replace all switches and go gigabit, but, we will see.
 
I've decided to go for the HP Procurve 1800-24G as it supports SNMP and found it for under $300 I'm sure I wont be disapointed with this new toy! Thank you all for the advice.
 
I've had Netgear, Dell, and Cisco Switches at home. My favorites still has to be the Cisco's. I have 2 Cisco 2948Gs. Takes a little bit to learn the catos.

I'm not sure if I missed this or not, but is this for home or for work?
 
likuid.silence said:
24 managed Gigabit switch. Preferred Features: VLAN support, SNMP, OSPF.
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Cisco 3750-G
I would like to keep it under $300
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Why does everyone always try to cut corners on the price. If you want enterprise features, and enterprise speed, and enterprise quality, you will pay enterprise prices. Networking gear can be Good, Fast, Cheap ... pick any two and only two.

I am so sick and tired of dealing with cheap networking gear that does not work properly in enterprise environments and then how everyone goes around crying and pouting when I break it to them that they must actually spend money on quality hardware if they ever want to have things work reliably. I seriously want to beat these people with a 3 meter Cisco stacking cable.

If this is for home, you have no reason to be running OSPF on a switch unless you are training, in which case you do not need Gig speeds. If you are planning on putting a $300 switch into the core of an enterprise network, may you be hit by a truck before you are able to pull this off. Seriously.
 
archivalbackup said:
Cisco 3750-G


Why does everyone always try to cut corners on the price. If you want enterprise features, and enterprise speed, and enterprise quality, you will pay enterprise prices. Networking gear can be Good, Fast, Cheap ... pick any two and only two.

I am so sick and tired of dealing with cheap networking gear that does not work properly in enterprise environments and then how everyone goes around crying and pouting when I break it to them that they must actually spend money on quality hardware if they ever want to have things work reliably. I seriously want to beat these people with a 3 meter Cisco stacking cable.

If this is for home, you have no reason to be running OSPF on a switch unless you are training, in which case you do not need Gig speeds. If you are planning on putting a $300 switch into the core of an enterprise network, may you be hit by a truck before you are able to pull this off. Seriously.
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QFT!

I gave up on trying to help those types of people. You get what you pay for, and don't come crying to us when the network is in shambles.
 
archivalbackup said:
Cisco 3750-G


Why does everyone always try to cut corners on the price. If you want enterprise features, and enterprise speed, and enterprise quality, you will pay enterprise prices. Networking gear can be Good, Fast, Cheap ... pick any two and only two.

I am so sick and tired of dealing with cheap networking gear that does not work properly in enterprise environments and then how everyone goes around crying and pouting when I break it to them that they must actually spend money on quality hardware if they ever want to have things work reliably. I seriously want to beat these people with a 3 meter Cisco stacking cable.

If this is for home, you have no reason to be running OSPF on a switch unless you are training, in which case you do not need Gig speeds. If you are planning on putting a $300 switch into the core of an enterprise network, may you be hit by a truck before you are able to pull this off. Seriously.
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Cisco equipment is purchased when you are forced into it and nothing else will cover your needs. Situations where the mandate is five 9s. If you are allowed 5 minutes of downtime per year then the switch price does not matter. Just the act of coming here to post about which switch to buy in the <$1k group likely means Cisco is not the right choice.
 
I do agree with the last 2 posters. If this is for enterprise.. 300 bucks isn't going to cut it. Spend the money, do it right, and if money is the issue make the powers to be understand the product of being cheap is a piss poor network
 
Vito_Corleone said:
Not even remotely true.
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Then someone is wasting their companies money.

Put a $ amount on downtime and figure out what it would cost to replace a piece of equipment should it fail. Most small to medium businesses I've worked for could not justify buying $5000 network switches when they could have a spare laying around for $300-500 of another model and 10 minutes to respond and replace.

If you are in a situation where the cost of downtime dwarfs the cost of equipment then high end equipment is a must.
 
archivalbackup said:
Cisco 3750-G


Why does everyone always try to cut corners on the price. If you want enterprise features, and enterprise speed, and enterprise quality, you will pay enterprise prices. Networking gear can be Good, Fast, Cheap ... pick any two and only two.

I am so sick and tired of dealing with cheap networking gear that does not work properly in enterprise environments and then how everyone goes around crying and pouting when I break it to them that they must actually spend money on quality hardware if they ever want to have things work reliably. I seriously want to beat these people with a 3 meter Cisco stacking cable.

If this is for home, you have no reason to be running OSPF on a switch unless you are training, in which case you do not need Gig speeds. If you are planning on putting a $300 switch into the core of an enterprise network, may you be hit by a truck before you are able to pull this off. Seriously.
Click to expand...


I agree with you on not to cheap out if implementing for a business environment. However, this is for home use and note that I say "Preferred Features" NOT a Necessity! ;)
 
ochadd said:
If you are in a situation where the cost of downtime dwarfs the cost of equipment then high end equipment is a must.
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My company would lose roughly 1-3 million USD/minute on average if the whole network was down. Though, in these times, it's probably more like 500K - 2mil ;)

Now, for a small business, I'm still all for good devices like Cisco/HP. In fact, HP has an edge on Cisco because they offer a liftetime warranty, but they have to in order to remain competitive with #1.

When I used to work in SMB, I found that they waste their money on a lot more than just a few switches. It almost becomes a drop in the bucket in comparison. Thankfully, I never have to worry about these cheap ass politics anymore. They tell us to "design a network that's right" then we'll discuss costs. Mind you, we don't buy everything out there, but if something makes logical sense, we always get it. Reliability makes logical sense to us.
 
just2cool said:
My company would lose roughly 1-3 million USD/minute on average if the whole network was down. Though, in these times, it's probably more like 500K - 2mil ;)

Now, for a small business, I'm still all for good devices like Cisco/HP. In fact, HP has an edge on Cisco because they offer a liftetime warranty, but they have to in order to remain competitive with #1.

When I used to work in SMB, I found that they waste their money on a lot more than just a few switches. It almost becomes a drop in the bucket in comparison. Thankfully, I never have to worry about these cheap ass politics anymore. They tell us to "design a network that's right" then we'll discuss costs. Mind you, we don't buy everything out there, but if something makes logical sense, we always get it. Reliability makes logical sense to us.
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I've been in the SMB segment for almost 10 years. Of that I've reported to one CFO or another for six of those. As much as I've wanted IBM and Cisco gear I've yet to get the go ahead. Even as the head of IT they tell me to get bent :( My companies have always been at the Dell and HP level.

There are days, increasingly often, that it would be more fun to worry about the hardware instead of the $.
 
ochadd said:
I've been in the SMB segment for almost 10 years. Of that I've reported to one CFO or another for six of those. As much as I've wanted IBM and Cisco gear I've yet to get the go ahead. Even as the head of IT they tell me to get bent :( My companies have always been at the Dell and HP level.

There are days, increasingly often, that it would be more fun to worry about the hardware instead of the $.
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It is amazing what a few hours of down time can do for changing priorities. Once you have people demanding SLAs you will have no problem demanding the appropriate hardware needed to fulfill the business requirements. I find that almost any company I deal with think they can do just fine with a few hours of network outage, but when it happens everything comes to a grinding halt and everyone pretty much goes home as they can not actually do any work. At that point a few hundred employees with 0% productivity pays for some very nice equipment in a very short period of time. I have an economics background so it is very easy for me to justify high-availability in terms of business loss during downtime.
 
We just bought two 2960g 48 ports and I love em. Check out the 24 ports, I'm not sure how much they are, but I'm sure you'll like em too.
 
likuid.silence said:
I agree with you on not to cheap out if implementing for a business environment. However, this is for home use and note that I say "Preferred Features" NOT a Necessity! ;)
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Ok, then I would suggest a HP 2824 from ebay ... that's about in your price range, plus free updates without having to jump through the registration hurdles of Cisco. The only thing it doesn't do is OSPF.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=hp+2824&_sacat=See-All-Categories
 
Does the HP Procurve lifetime warrenty transfer owners? Say I get one off of ebay does it cover me?
 
ochadd said:
Then someone is wasting their companies money.

Put a $ amount on downtime and figure out what it would cost to replace a piece of equipment should it fail. Most small to medium businesses I've worked for could not justify buying $5000 network switches when they could have a spare laying around for $300-500 of another model and 10 minutes to respond and replace.

If you are in a situation where the cost of downtime dwarfs the cost of equipment then high end equipment is a must.
Click to expand...

You speak like reliability is the only "feature" of high-end switches like Cisco. Many Cisco products, including their switches, tend to have a boatload of features. Sometimes they are overkill but to many, those features are needed. My 6509's do more than just pass packets. They do a whole bunch o' things that a normal switch cannot do.
 
Valnar said:
You speak like reliability is the only "feature" of high-end switches like Cisco. Many Cisco products, including their switches, tend to have a boatload of features. Sometimes they are overkill but to many, those features are needed. My 6509's do more than just pass packets. They do a whole bunch o' things that a normal switch cannot do.
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That goes back to my first post about being forced into them. If they are the only manufacturer that has all the features than that's where you are going to go.

It is amazing what a few hours of down time can do for changing priorities. Once you have people demanding SLAs you will have no problem demanding the appropriate hardware needed to fulfill the business requirements. I find that almost any company I deal with think they can do just fine with a few hours of network outage, but when it happens everything comes to a grinding halt and everyone pretty much goes home as they can not actually do any work. At that point a few hundred employees with 0% productivity pays for some very nice equipment in a very short period of time. I have an economics background so it is very easy for me to justify high-availability in terms of business loss during downtime.
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I've experienced a couple bouts of serious downtime, not as a result of network equipment. While the knee jerk reaction of the check writers might be to pay for anything you promise will ease their pain it doesn't change things for good. It depends on your business and it's individual requirements. Not every company needs a top of the line switch.
 
The Spyder said:
So far mine have.
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To claim the warranty "proof of purchase" is necessary. Did you run into any problems with that?

I'm not trying to hijack the thread here, just I also happen to be looking for the exact same thing the OP was and the HP recommendations posts got me thinking.
 
If you don't need OSPF (which is really a L3 feature), then the basic HP 1800 series is quite good. It does SNMP, port mirroring and VLAN's.

If you ever want an unmanaged switch for home, I highly recommend the ProCurve 1400 series too. It's the same ASICs and speed of the 1800. 'tis much better than the Broadcom/Vitesse based switches from D-Link, Netgear, Belkin and Linksys.
 
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