[geeks] Ethernet Switches

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006, Phil Brutsche wrote:

> 3 of those vendors (DLink, Netgear, Linksys) are steaming piles of crap;
> a Dell is tolerable while the HP would be the best of the bunch.

Data point on the Dells (since I run about 80 of them at work):  Don't
put them (PowerConnect 5324s, anyhow) on networks much bigger than a
/24.  We have them on a /16 with -far- more than 256 individual MAC
addresses.  In the event that one switch reboots[0], it'll keep
rebooting until you "pound on the enter key like a wild monkey" (to use
the Sun technical phrase) at the login prompt.

That is, it'll come up, sit there for a while screaming ARP traffic like
mad and then just reboot.  If you press enter at the login prompt a few
times (in a "knock that crap off" gesture, I support), it'll behave
until the next reboot.

Don't ask me why; I don't know.  But it's a consistent behavior across
our switches, and Dell appears to have no intention of fixing it.

> Not that I would buy one, I get all the Cisco 2900XLs I want for free
> as long as I don't mind a bad port or three ;)

I'd imagine the switching latency on a ProCurve should be vastly
superior to a ciscoSystems 2900-series switch.  I like my 2924XL, but
for $370, I think I'll switch to a ProCurve.


[0] We had a few 5324s that would -reboot- under high-traffic loads
     until they had a few firmware upgrades.
-- 
Jonathan Patschke   "The ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes,
Elgin, TX            the powerful dictate what they desire--they all con-
USA                  spire together. The best of them is like a brier, the
                      most upright worse than a thorn hedge." --Micah 7:3-4