[geeks] Gigabit upgrade

[Shannon Hendrix]

On Aug 3, 2008, at 23:24 , Sridhar Ayengar wrote:

> Alois Hammer wrote:
>> Now that my network has a fair number of gigabit-capable PCs, with a
>> couple more rebuilds on the way, I'm looking seriously at gigabit
>> switching.  I'm upgrading from an Intel 510T and 520T (24x and
>> 12x10/100Mbps, respectively) with backplane interconnect.  I've been
>> kind of spoiled by having managed switches, and I'm wondering if  
>> there's
>> any way to acquire 16-port-or-bigger managed gig copper switches  
>> without
>> either paying ~USD$700 or buying not-made-by-Dell (of which I have  
>> heard
>> many horror stories).  Used would be fine, so long as eBay is not
>> involved.
>> If not, I'm eyeing the NetGear GS116 and JGS524 switches.
>> Does anyone know where to get new or used managed gig switches for
>> significantly less than MSRP, or whether the NetGear units would be  
>> best
>> avoided for some reason that's not clear in the NewEgg reviews?
>
> I *highly* recommend the HP Procurve 1800-24G.  It's pretty cheap  
> for an  enterprise-grade managed L2 switch.

I've already said I recommend this one too, but wanted to add:

As soon as you get it, upgrade the firmware.  It really needs that  
first update for best performance, and some critical bug fixes.

Switches sold now might already have it, but check.

Also, just in case anyone needs more information:

This switch does have decent SNMP support, and it supports port  
redirection so you can mirror your switch traffic to a port for  
logging, analysis, whatever.

Multiple vlans, trunking, etc.

I have tried the SFP ports with non-HP fibre optic modules and they  
worked fine in spite of HP's warning to use nothing but HP modules.



-- 
Shannon Hendrix
shannon at widomaker.com