Napera Indigo Beta

Wow they ship fast, 2 day shipping. I am quite sure they aren't making any money from the shipping fees. I can't wait until monday (when FedEX predicts it will be here). These features seem like they will SOOOO simplify some stuff I do, going from a dumb 24-port Gigabit Netgear, which has been, knock on wood,reliable as hell, to a managed switch sounds like heaven to me. Hopefully, reliability wise it will be as good as my dumb netgear with DD-WRT (Linksys WRT-54GS v2), which have not gone down once in the past 2 years.
 
Well I asked:
Is the Cobalt hardware the same as the hardware used in the Indigo beta or is it less powerful? I understand that the Indigo software was much more intensive than the cobalt software which off-loads the processing to the web servers. I am just curious about this and if when the beta is finished, will there be an option (or even possible) to flash to the indigo software?
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Todd replied:
It's essentially the same hardware platform running different software. The hardware platform doesn't support end user changes to the software, and we weren't planning on offering the Indigo beta software as an option at this time. We do plan to have most of the Indigo features in a future release however.
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http://getsatisfaction.com/napera_n...l&utm_source=reply_notification#reply_1291436


Hmm, sounds like what you beta test is what you get and thats it. Can't say I blame them but oh well I figured I would ask :D I guess now it is up to someone to use the jtag port inside to see if they can pull a dump.

Can anyone with indigo tell me what their part number is?
The cobalt switch I have is: P/N CV24-002

I must say they used quality components on the inside. All of the capacitors are either United Chemicon or Panasonic (well technically Matsushita as they have the [M] but that's just the parent company of Panasonic). The heatsinks are simple, the fans DO have a strong high pitched whine to them. Not sure what I am going to do about that, maybe try dynamat to see if the whine is resonance enhanced. Unfortunately in my fathers office, the networking equipment is in with my mother (she's my dad's business manager) and the office manager (another lady). They were NOT happy about the whine so far, so I am likely gonna have to take it down and move it or something. WHich means redoing all of the wiring in that area. Oh well, I really should move it into the other room where I moved the server to. Just would have been nice to not have a driving force behind it.
 
Has anyone had any issues and traffic being blocked on the napera cobalt?

I ran the nap enabler on my box at work. win2k8 std, has firewall, etc.

Passes diagnostics, I get the congrats your clear to use your own network.

But wait, no I am not!

I can not use our shop's software.

I can not get my emails.

I can not get the webpage from the server to load.

I can not get to mapped network drives.

I can not RDP to anything internal.

I can not use the network scanner/printer.

I CAN get to the internet.

I CAN RDP home.

I have done all of the basic trouble shooting steps. I have renewed my ip.

I have only tried the cobalt on my machine at work. I have emailed support 3 times on this issue and get no response. I can not put this on the network if I can't even use the network through it.

I also can not connect to the cobalt website or anything to make my pc exempt to health monitoring.

I have powered the switch off, it is not connect to anything on the network.
 
Scotty - Sorry to hear you are having problems. Who did you contact at Napera support?

The official support forum is over at http://getsatisfaction.com/napera_networks and that is the #1 way to get problems solved. Did you post on that site? There is a big Feedback button on every Cobalt page that takes you there.
 
napera said:
Scotty - Sorry to hear you are having problems. Who did you contact at Napera support?

The official support forum is over at http://getsatisfaction.com/napera_networks and that is the #1 way to get problems solved. Did you post on that site? There is a big Feedback button on every Cobalt page that takes you there.
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Was working with Tony.

I'll post up over there when I got some more moments. Def. want to get this thing going on the network. I like the fact I can clearly see all devices and ip addresses on the network, along with the status of said devices. I don't like how I can't use my network when connected to it.
 
I sent my $30 last week but have gotten no confirmation that they got the payment or that my unit is on the way. Did I miss a deadline or something?
 
ShockValue said:
I sent my $30 last week but have gotten no confirmation that they got the payment or that my unit is on the way. Did I miss a deadline or something?
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Did you just send them money, or, did you get a letter saying you where picked?
 
I got an email saying I was picked, and then folowed their paypal link.


Sometimes I randomly send people money, but this time :)
 
We set an internal deadline of early August for beta participants. I have taken down the Paypal link but one person did slip through and was refunded.
 
Dang, that was me.. I just got my refund. I'm happy for that, but totally bummed about not getting to try this out.
 
ShockValue said:
Dang, that was me.. I just got my refund. I'm happy for that, but totally bummed about not getting to try this out.
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If you will paypal me $30 I will send you the box for the cobalt beta along with the manual.:D
 
If anyone doesn't want thier switch, either an indigo or a cobalt, let me know I will take it off yoru hands for the $30
 
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Captain Colonoscopy said:
I'll send you my switch for $50. Performance on this thing sucks. :(
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I noticed this.

Also, I got 2 workstations that I had connected to it. They didn't pass the enforcement settings, so I had exempted them.

Then, I rebooted them. I can log onto the domain as the admin from each workstation, use exchange, and the shop software. Everything works.

Try to log in as the user, and Nada. Can't even log into the domain.

I am going to try rebooting the server tonight. I logged onto the machine locally and have each person using a local terminal server, this is just odd to say the least.

I will def. say the indigo experience as a whole was a lot more finished and much more intuitive then the cobalt.

I did email support about my issue this AM with the cobalt.
 
Captain Colonoscopy said:
I'll send you my switch for $50. Performance on this thing sucks. :(
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OmegaAvenger said:
If anyone doesn't want thier switch, either an indigo or a cobalt, let me know I will take it off yoru hands for the $30
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Dont even waste your money on this, capt. told me some of the details on it and it sounds like a waste of 30 bucks. you would be better off getting an off the shelf linksys. Seriously, this thing can't even beat out a 3524-xl.... that's laughable.
 
hrmm, i just realized i never got my cobalt :\
 
xphil3 said:
Dont even waste your money on this, capt. told me some of the details on it and it sounds like a waste of 30 bucks. you would be better off getting an off the shelf linksys. Seriously, this thing can't even beat out a 3524-xl.... that's laughable.
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I love how people compare beta-test hardware which is not even the purpose of the beta to a known well-established product. Why don't we compare the flavor of unripe an ripe fruit while we are at it. Keep in mind the goal of this test was to test the SOFTWARE and the SERVICE not the switch. Its all been discussed numerous times. We help them test some software and we get a 24-port gigabit switch for the cost of shipping. And I believe the 3524 XL is managed right? well the switching hardware on this is not truly managed.
 
napera said:
We have had a couple of switch issues that have proven tough to debug in a couple of our beta networks. Thanks for your patience as we work through them.
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I named mine fpita.:mad:
 
I guess people forget why they call it "beta"

That's what the good companies do so the end user doesn't have to go through the same issues in the field. It's what we signed up for. The good and the bad.
 
OmegaAvenger said:
I love how people compare beta-test hardware which is not even the purpose of the beta to a known well-established product. Why don't we compare the flavor of unripe an ripe fruit while we are at it. Keep in mind the goal of this test was to test the SOFTWARE and the SERVICE not the switch. Its all been discussed numerous times. We help them test some software and we get a 24-port gigabit switch for the cost of shipping. And I believe the 3524 XL is managed right? well the switching hardware on this is not truly managed.
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Im not comparing anything, simply stating my opinion on what ive heard. The beta test isn't to test hardware? What are you smoking? Last time I heard it was the software and HARDWARE that does all the frame switching :rolleyes: so this beta test is indeed to test harware and software.

Anyways, the fact that a fast ethernet switch can outperform a gigabit switch is pathetic. Again, my opinion. Yes, the 3524 is fully managed but so is this switch? How can you say its not truly managed when you can configure specific features?
 
xphil3 said:
Im not comparing anything, simply stating my opinion on what ive heard. The beta test isn't to test hardware? What are you smoking? Last time I heard it was the software and HARDWARE that does all the frame switching :rolleyes: so this beta test is indeed to test harware and software.

Anyways, the fact that a fast ethernet switch can outperform a gigabit switch is pathetic. Again, my opinion. Yes, the 3524 is fully managed but so is this switch? How can you say its not truly managed when you can configure specific features?
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because it operates as unmanaged switch when it is not activated as napera themselves said. Furthermore they themselves stated that the test is NOT on the hardware its on the software and service running on the hardware and they intend to offer it on switches sold by OTHER COMPANIES.

Please stop comparing a device designed to facilitate a beta test to know well-established switch. I'd also really like to know what enviorments people are using these and getting such poor results because I get on the order of 65-90 megaBYTEs per second which is well above fast ethernet. Also the indigo device is still in use at the company i was formely employeed at, and its thier CORE switch and its get pounded daily and never misses a beat.

Ask napera themselves here: http://getsatisfaction.com/napera_networks
if the beta test is just on the software or the actual hardware.
 
OmegaAvenger said:
because it operates as unmanaged switch when it is not activated as napera themselves said. Furthermore they themselves stated that the test is NOT on the hardware its on the software and service running on the hardware and they intend to offer it on switches sold by OTHER COMPANIES.

Please stop comparing a device designed to facilitate a beta test to know well-established switch. I'd also really like to know what enviorments people are using these and getting such poor results because I get on the order of 65-90 megaBYTEs per second which is well above fast ethernet. Also the indigo device is still in use at the company i was formely employeed at, and its thier CORE switch and its get pounded daily and never misses a beat.

Ask napera themselves here: http://getsatisfaction.com/napera_networks
if the beta test is just on the software or the actual hardware.
Click to expand...
Fari enough, but its still the software that controls HOW PACKETS ARE BEING SWITCHED as the device doesn't use ASICS., therefor throughput tests should be conducted through this beta as the software is responsible for the CPU interrupts. Im done arguing with you though, no one is going to change your mind as to why this hardware device is trash. Furthermore 3 separate people that I talk to all confirmed well under 5Mbytes/sec overall throughput and about 10-11Mbytes with other switching. They test's were conducted with the most basic of setups(2 hosts connected off the switch ports, not sure how they were actually testing it though). Whatever, my original statement still stands, this hardware switch is garbage.

Core switch? I sincerely hope that you didn't put that into place, if you did.... wow...

btw, just because you need to "activate" the switch to make it user configurable doesn't change the fact that its managed or not. The device is a manageable device, end of story.
 
xphil3 said:
Fari enough, but its still the software that controls HOW PACKETS ARE BEING SWITCHED as the device doesn't use ASICS., therefor throughput tests should be conducted through this beta. Im done arguing with you though, no one is going to change your mind as to why this hardware device is trash. Furthermore 3 separate people that I talk to all confirmed well under 5Mbytes/sec overall throughput and about 10-11Mbytes with other switching. They test's were conducted with the most basic of setups(2 hosts connected off the switch ports, not sure how they were actually testing it though). Whatever, my original statement still stands, this switch is garbage.

btw, just because you need to "activate" the switch to make it user configurable doesn't change the fact that its managed or not. The device is a manageable device, end of story.
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The performance of the device is moot for the beta because they don't intend to sell the actual hardware in the future. Sorry they aren't providing a device to outperorm a linksys, but again this is a beta test, and the performance of the device is not the point of the test.

Those people must of had some crappy systems as I have more than that running on my network and I had SUSTAINED speeds of well over 40 megabyte per second for HOURS solid.

The reason why you aren't going to change my mind is because you are wrong. I was transferring well over 1.5 terrabytes to my WHS two days ago between the pcs using windows file sharing which isnt exactly the fastest protocol, while 1 person was watching hulu on a laptop, and another was playing online poker and I was torrenting. It seems to keep up pretty well to be able to do all those tasks and still give me MINIMUMS of 40 megabytes per second and more often than not it stayed higher around 60-85 and peaked at 80, this is just one drive to one drive, no raid arrays here.

Maybe it helps that I used only Intel NICs in my wire enviroment and avoid any thing else If I can help it, no cheap realtek, etc. NICS here.

Again I also tested the indigo at my previous company and we fucking POUNDED THE LIVING SHIT out of it DAILY, were talking acronis/norton ghost imaging of hard drives over the network from 10-20 computers for an entire 9-10 hour day, and left many running over night. Our NAS HDDS were under maximum load day in and day out, and the switch sure as hell was holding them back, we also would steam videos over the crappy dsl line there, transfer files between pcs.

Yeah it was their core switch, but my old boss was cheap, and I hated him for it, I wanted something better, but the ass wouldn't buy it. The napera beta was a god send for someone like me who was a tech who also doubled as a network admin because I had the skills, knowledge, and
no one else was going to do it. We are also talking about a computer shop here not Dell or IBM. It sure as hell beat the 10/100 48-port catalyst in speeds we were using, and the previous set up before than of about 20 daisy chained 10-100 mbit switches around the office everywhere.
God damn that was a nightmare.

You can call it garbage all you want, but I sure as hell know from experience from both the betas you are wrong. Maybe these people you were talking to need to make sure they dont have thier nics set to 10 mbit half-duplex, because I'm getting better speeds in a home enviroment, let alone a buisness.

One thing I will say about the cobalt though is I hate the UI. I liked the napera before, but again this is an evolving product.

I'll give you that yes, it is still a manageable device, I just meant you aren't able to actually do much the managing when its not activated.

The whole reason I joined the beta was because I wanted a high port count gigabit switch for cheap. They wanted a beta tested. Now if you'll excuse me I have to transfer more filed to my WHS at 40 mbyte plus speeds.
 
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OmegaAvenger said:
The reason why you aren't going to change my mind is because you are wrong.

.
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Okay, you're right.... happy. :rolleyes:
I have no idea what im talking about, im a frigging idiot and the people that tested this switch are retards too(sorry capt. :p)...

Have fun with your subpar switch, when you feel like playing with the big boys get yourself a Cisco. Have a good one
 
xphil3 said:
Okay, you're right.... happy. :rolleyes:
I have no idea what im talking about, im a frigging idiot and the people that tested this switch are retards too(sorry capt. :p)...

Have fun with your subpar switch, when you feel like playing with the big boys get yourself a Cisco. Have a good one
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Yeah, I'd buy a 24-port cisco, got a few grand laying around? How bout I sell my car. I make $9 an hour.

I also like how people like you get offended when you are told you are wrong. I never said you or anyone was an idiot, I said you were wrong based on my recent experiences from two days ago. Maybe I was seeing things when I saw all those gigabyte of files dissapear of my HDD and appear on my WHS, but I highly doubt that.

I also never claimed this was better than an equivilent cisco, but it sure as hell is faster than any 10/100 cisco can ever be, since its gigabit. I also don't really care if it is, because I don't expect to see it on sale, I expect to see their software in use in the future on third party devices like they have been saying they intend to do, and have been saying. They don't really care how well the hardware performs. They also know how well it performs, they designed it from the ground up.

You say that was a basic configuration of 2 computers right? well I have two pcs using PCI intel gigabit nics and I got better speeds between them for again hours solid at home.
 
OmegaAvenger said:
Yeah, I'd buy a 24-port cisco, got a few grand laying around? How bout I sell my car. I make $9 an hour.

I also never claimed this was better than an equivilent cisco, but it sure as hell is faster than any 10/100 cisco can ever be, since its gigabit. I also don't really care if it is, because I don't expect to see it on sale, I expect to see their software in use in the future on third party devices like they have been saying they intend to do, and have been saying. They don't really care how well the hardware performs. They also know how well it performs, they designed it from the ground up.

You say that was a basic configuration of 2 computers right? well I have two pcs using PCI intel gigabit nics and I got better speeds between them for again hours solid at home.
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LOL, thanks... I actually LOL'd at the car remark :D

Also, if you want details ask captain col, if he wants to chime in, he was bitching to me for about an hour one night about this device.
OmegaAvenger said:
I also like how people like you get offended when you are told you are wrong.
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Its not that I get offended by being told Im wrong, its just 99.999% of people on these forums dont know jack about networking technology and assume things.... especially college kids ;-)
 
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xphil3 said:
LOL, thanks... I actually LOL'd at the car remark :D

Also, if you want details ask captain col, if he wants to chime in, he was bitching to me for about an hour one night about this device.
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He should chime in here and give us the run-down.
 
The switch I received sucks ass, plain and simple. I tried to work with Napera to get a resolution and they declined to do anything really, other than apologize. As to the hardware I'm using, I don't use junk, all my servers connected to the switch have dual Intel or Broadcom gigabit NICs and all components are server grade. I tried leaving auto-negotiation on the NICs and also manually setting 100Mbps and 1000Mbps. Neither setting made any difference. I was unable to make ANY adjustments to the duplex/speed settings on any port on the switch to help troubleshoot. The response I got from Napera was "hmm, that's odd. well, we're just beta testing the software . . . " Which is fine, the software does appear to provide a service of some value, but, I don't know if it's the software or the hardware that causes the issues with the switch. The physical hardware inside the box looks to be of okay quality, nothing spectacular, no ASICs that I remember.

I was never able to sustain any type of decent transfer speed between any devices connected to the switch. I tried deskop OS to server OS, server OS to server OS, ESX host to OpenFiler NAS, ESX host to FreeNAS. I also tried various combinations of plugging the devices into different blocks of ports on the switch. No difference. Plug all my junk into my nice new HP ProCurve 1800-24G and what the fuck do you know? Everything is working as expected and I'm getting around 100MB/s. Same equipment hooked up the cobalt.

Also, the switch is, in fact, a managed switch. I can get into a web interface and set VLANs on the ports, assign IP addresses, etc. That sounds like a managed switch to me.

And on another note, to make blanket statements that people are getting shitty performance out of a shitty switch is because they are idiots or use shitty equipment is just shitty....
 
Captain Colonoscopy said:
The switch I received sucks ass, plain and simple. I tried to work with Napera to get a resolution and they declined to do anything really, other than apologize. As to the hardware I'm using, I don't use junk, all my servers connected to the switch have dual Intel or Broadcom gigabit NICs and all components are server grade. I tried leaving auto-negotiation on the NICs and also manually setting 100Mbps and 1000Mbps. Neither setting made any difference. I was unable to make ANY adjustments to the duplex/speed settings on any port on the switch to help troubleshoot. The response I got from Napera was "hmm, that's odd. well, we're just beta testing the software . . . " Which is fine, the software does appear to provide a service of some value, but, I don't know if it's the software or the hardware that causes the issues with the switch. The physical hardware inside the box looks to be of okay quality, nothing spectacular, no ASICs that I remember.

I was never able to sustain any type of decent transfer speed between any devices connected to the switch. I tried deskop OS to server OS, server OS to server OS, ESX host to OpenFiler NAS, ESX host to FreeNAS. I also tried various combinations of plugging the devices into different blocks of ports on the switch. No difference. Plug all my junk into my nice new HP ProCurve 1800-24G and what the fuck do you know? Everything is working as expected and I'm getting around 100MB/s. Same equipment hooked up the cobalt.

Also, the switch is, in fact, a managed switch. I can get into a web interface and set VLANs on the ports, assign IP addresses, etc. That sounds like a managed switch to me.

And on another note, to make blanket statements that people are getting shitty performance out of a shitty switch is because they are idiots or use shitty equipment is just shitty....
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*sigh* I never said any one was idiot. Thanks for not reading my wall of text post. Calling someone wrong != calling them an idiot. I'm sorry you had bad performance.

I also am using intel dual port gigabit MT PCI-X server adapters in both my server and my desktop, both are in normal PCI slots and I've nothing but stellar performance. I'm sorry you had problems, but I think its also shitty to make blanket statements about a product just because you and some people have had problems, albeit major ones but still my point stands. As soon as I get another HDD for my WHS I'll post some screen shots of my transfer rates, since its out of space atm.

I did offer to buy it off you for the $30 before you ninjaed it to $50. That offer is still open.
 
Well I just had some issues with my switch related to the UI (locks up the wegbui when i click on the activation tab, if i dont do that, everything is fine, switching operation is unaffected), and they just shipped me a new unit, and since I have a friend that needs one, as soon as I talk with napera and fix the old switch, im gonna sell it to him, woot.

Profit! I guess they like me :p
 
Just received my new switch to replace the one that had a similar crashing when clicking the activation tab. New one works great and appears so far to have corrected all of the problems I was having (database clients couldn't see the server and exempted computers still were blocked from the network).
 
PedroDaGr8 said:
Just received my new switch to replace the one that had a similar crashing when clicking the activation tab. New one works great and appears so far to have corrected all of the problems I was having (database clients couldn't see the server and exempted computers still were blocked from the network).
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My new switch is doing it now too oddly enough.
 
PedroDaGr8 said:
Just received my new switch to replace the one that had a similar crashing when clicking the activation tab. New one works great and appears so far to have corrected all of the problems I was having (database clients couldn't see the server and exempted computers still were blocked from the network).
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The shop software we have requires a connection to the DB to get its settings. Through the switch, these clients can't do anything other then use the internet.

Also, no one using active directory, other then a domain admin, can do anything through the switch.

It is odd. I got an email that there is new software for that, so, I will try that and see.
 
got my switches working today. Napera had me enable the built in VPN tunnel, turned out my issues were DNS related.
 
Quick followup to the beta.

Today we announced PC Security Informer, our first app for Napera Insight. PC Security Informer helps IT managers prevent avoidable security compromises caused by missing security patches, ineffective antivirus and antispyware software and inoperative desktop firewalls. It's delivered from Napera Insight, our cloud based network management service. You can start a free trial at http://napera.com/products/pc-security-informer

PC Security Informer uses software agents on PC, Mac and network switches, and you can get started with just one PC. The first Napera compatible switch from a major vendor will be announced at Interop in April.

If you'd like to be first to try a Napera enabled switch, we have a limited number of 24 port gigabit switches available for beta testers, and we'll include a one year subscription of Napera Insight as our thanks for your interest in the beta. Sign up at http://www.napera.com/napera-switches while supplies last.

To use the Cobalt and Indigo beta hardware as a switch, see http://getsatisfaction.com/napera_n...your_cobalt_switch_beyond_the_end_of_the_beta

Thanks!
 
Sorry to bump an old thread. I got the napedra switch at the house thinking I could use it for another switch to putz with. I cannot get a link light and do not recall what the IP was. Playing with the reset button has not netted me anything.
 
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