Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 12:47:25 -0500 (CDT) From: Chris Dillon <cdillon@wolves.k12.mo.us> To: Jose Gabriel Marcelino <gabriel@maquina.com> Cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Gigabit recommendations Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007141211190.3049-100000@mail.wolves.k12.mo.us> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007141221310.35113-100000@devils.maquina.com>
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On Fri, 14 Jul 2000, Jose Gabriel Marcelino wrote: > > Hi! > > > > Note I only mentioned 3Com here, these are the only ones I could get some > > > info on. I'd be very happy to know other good, trustworthy brands you are > > > using (I think Cisco may be very expensive but I haven't found the correct > > > model yet...) > > > > The 3COM switches are all over-priced CRAP. Go with Cisco or HP > > ProCurve, which should cost the same or less, respectively, and offer > > better performance and features. I'm speaking entirely from > > experience. :-) > > I was somewhat expecting that response on 3Com products :) > > I looked really well into HP and Cisco and I was very surprised to > find that the Cisco really is less expensive than 3Com here. I was very surprised that Cisco was the same or cheaper, too. That certainly wasn't the case in the past, but I guess Cisco has been enlightened by other, cheaper products that can do as well as they do. > The HP one looks nice too, I'm amazed to find a HP product that > looks good (and is recommended) after all the mess I've seen with > all the brain-damaged Jetdirect printer modules (the printers > themselves aren't too good either) and the brain-damaGING HP-UX > boxes I've unfortunately had to support :) Yes, we've got three HP ProCurve 4000M's, using only the 10/100 modules so far (no Gigabit yet), and I am very impressed with them. We have six 3COM SSII-3300 24-port switches and twelve SSII-1100 24+2 port switches. We also have two Cisco 2924-XL switches. I am most impressed by the management software on the Cisco switches. It is top-notch. The management software on the HP switches is second to the Cisco switches, but where the HP stuff excels the most is its reliability and expandability compared to the others (I know 3COM and Cisco have chassis-based switches too, but NOT in this price range). The HP 4000M is a 10-slot chassis with all modules hot-swappable and comes with five 8-port 10/100 modules (40 ports) for barely more or the same price as a 24-port 3COM SSII-3300. It also has the ability for two internal hot-swap power supplies (it comes with one). The 3COM are not (nearly as) expandable, the internal management console is slow, and the management features are sorely lacking. Probably the big reason for the console slowness is that the 3COM switches use a Motorola 68EC020 at 16MHz for a management processor, about equal to a Macintosh Classic. In contrast, the HP switches use a 66MHz Intel 960 and the Cisco switches use a PowerPC 403GA of at least 33MHz, but probably 50MHz or more (I haven't opened one up to look, yet). The 3COM console is so slow it is unbearable to use for extended configuration sessions, and there is no way to use a text configuration file and stick it on a server somewhere or replicate it to other switches like you can with the HP or Cisco switches. -- Chris Dillon - cdillon@wolves.k12.mo.us - cdillon@inter-linc.net FreeBSD: The fastest and most stable server OS on the planet. For Intel x86 and Alpha architectures. ( http://www.freebsd.org ) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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