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localzuk

By localzuk
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ellsandell

ellsandell

Posted
Posted
Can anyone explain what the difference is between the Unifi and Edge series is? Specs look similar, although the Unifi series seems to be lacking in Layer 3 capability.

 

The Edge series get mentioned in this article: https://www.facebook.com/notes/rflan-redflag-lanfest/new-infrastructure-rflan-56/1336201743069081/

 

Pretty sure the Unifi range are managed via the Unifi Controller GUI, and the ES are standalone CLI only. (Unifi apparently do have a CLI as well but hidden away).

The EdgeSwitches only support static routing, there are no routing protocols implemented.

Unifi Switches don't support routing at all.

 

https://community.ubnt.com/t5/EdgeSwitch/Unifi-Switch-vs-Edge-Switch/td-p/1623620

ellsandell

ellsandell

Posted
Posted
Can anyone explain what the difference is between the Unifi and Edge series is? Specs look similar, although the Unifi series seems to be lacking in Layer 3 capability.

 

The Edge series get mentioned in this article: https://www.facebook.com/notes/rflan-redflag-lanfest/new-infrastructure-rflan-56/1336201743069081/

 

Pretty sure the Unifi range are managed via the Unifi Controller GUI, and the ES are standalone CLI only. (Unifi apparently do have a CLI as well but hidden away).

The EdgeSwitches only support static routing, there are no routing protocols implemented.

Unifi Switches don't support routing at all.

 

https://community.ubnt.com/t5/EdgeSwitch/Unifi-Switch-vs-Edge-Switch/td-p/1623620

markwilfan

markwilfan

Posted
Posted (edited)

Now that's a conundrum. One of the main reasons for staying with hp for me is I love their cli but I also like the convenience of the gui for that quick overview of what is going on. I also love the menu driven cli in hp, a really nice happy medium.

@richbrowncardiff have you missed the cli? Have your switches got serial ports? If so what good are they if they are gui driven?

 

I honestly thought the main difference between them too was that one was silver and one was black lol.

Edited by markwilfan
markwilfan

markwilfan

Posted
Posted (edited)

Now that's a conundrum. One of the main reasons for staying with hp for me is I love their cli but I also like the convenience of the gui for that quick overview of what is going on. I also love the menu driven cli in hp, a really nice happy medium.

@richbrowncardiff have you missed the cli? Have your switches got serial ports? If so what good are they if they are gui driven?

 

I honestly thought the main difference between them too was that one was silver and one was black lol.

Edited by markwilfan
snagrat

snagrat

Posted
Posted
Indeed. We have 7 sites at the moment, so centralised cloud controller would be ideal. We're already doing something similar with Ruckus for our wireless.

 

What are you doing with Ruckus? Are you using the Ruckus Cloud platform?

snagrat

snagrat

Posted
Posted
Indeed. We have 7 sites at the moment, so centralised cloud controller would be ideal. We're already doing something similar with Ruckus for our wireless.

 

What are you doing with Ruckus? Are you using the Ruckus Cloud platform?

njc235

njc235

Posted
Posted

This post is just my opinion.

 

Cheap, fast, reliable - pick any two.

 

I realise that's not terribly helpful but I've seen grey kit mentioned in posts. That makes it cheap but support can be a problem because you are not the registered owner of the switch.

 

Low end switches can be fast but their life, typically, is short. Usually a 3 year life as opposed to 7+ with higher grade vendors.

 

HP, Cisco, Brocade, Juniper etc are not cheap like some other manufacturers but they will still be there while others are being swapped out.

njc235

njc235

Posted
Posted

This post is just my opinion.

 

Cheap, fast, reliable - pick any two.

 

I realise that's not terribly helpful but I've seen grey kit mentioned in posts. That makes it cheap but support can be a problem because you are not the registered owner of the switch.

 

Low end switches can be fast but their life, typically, is short. Usually a 3 year life as opposed to 7+ with higher grade vendors.

 

HP, Cisco, Brocade, Juniper etc are not cheap like some other manufacturers but they will still be there while others are being swapped out.

richbrowncardiff

richbrowncardiff

Posted
Posted

@markwilfan to begin with so did I lol. Ok the Silver Unifi switches are the ones I have. They do have an RJ45 Console port on the back (I'm 99% sure they all do but it maybe only a few models (I have most of the unifi range) will confim next week for you if I remember. I have never been a massive CLI user to be honest. I much prefer to see what I'm doing so the unifi controller is awesome for that they do have cli but not touched it yet. The Edge switch range are more advanced and do L3 whereas the unifi ones are L2. I purchased an edge router pro 8 port for the L3 routing. (yet to be configured) but looking online it seems very straightforward to setup.

 

The other difference to note is the edge switch range do not talk to a unifi controller. Hope that helps

richbrowncardiff

richbrowncardiff

Posted
Posted

@markwilfan to begin with so did I lol. Ok the Silver Unifi switches are the ones I have. They do have an RJ45 Console port on the back (I'm 99% sure they all do but it maybe only a few models (I have most of the unifi range) will confim next week for you if I remember. I have never been a massive CLI user to be honest. I much prefer to see what I'm doing so the unifi controller is awesome for that they do have cli but not touched it yet. The Edge switch range are more advanced and do L3 whereas the unifi ones are L2. I purchased an edge router pro 8 port for the L3 routing. (yet to be configured) but looking online it seems very straightforward to setup.

 

The other difference to note is the edge switch range do not talk to a unifi controller. Hope that helps

localzuk

localzuk

Posted
  • Author
Posted
What are you doing with Ruckus? Are you using the Ruckus Cloud platform?

At the moment we're going to be running a physical controller at our central site. They're all pretty small schools, in the scheme of things.

 

If the trust grows, I will look at it again.

  • Thanks 1
snagrat

snagrat

Posted
Posted
At the moment we're going to be running a physical controller at our central site. They're all pretty small schools, in the scheme of things.

 

If the trust grows, I will look at it again.

 

What controller and number of APs you got?

minimoo

minimoo

Posted
Posted
There are quite a few skus of the 2530. The top whack one with 48g ports 2 sfp+ and 370w poe+ is around the £1100 - 1300 matk

 

heh, you should have asked for pricing on that model on friday - apparently there was one at distributor at 1000 - then jumped to over 2500 (the 2540 and 2920 and 3800 series switches would actually be coming in cheaper!)

AlanD

AlanD

Posted
Posted

We are entirely Netgear (Cue: laughter from those using Cisco and HP).

I've never really understood the disparaging comments thrown about Netgear. I have found them excellent - and brilliant value for money.

We operate a vastly over specified 24GB virtual stack at the core - with aggregated 1GB links to around 30 edge switches with 1GB to desktop - with VLANs for BYOD and projectors and other stuff that we need to control access to.

Most of our switches are second hand off ebay. Never paid more than £100 - and we use really cheap third party fibre modules (£10 each) - which unlike the genuine Netgear ones (that cost a fortune and regularly fail) never seem to give any trouble. Obviously at that price we can afford to keep a couple of spare switches on hand for instant replacement should a switch go down....and of course - while you have a spare on site - nothing ever fails.

Yes - I hate the fact that the Web interface looks differently on each model. Yes maybe the switch capacity (packets) is not as high as the premier makes. But they do a really good job. I always think that schools need to find the "ford Mondeo" solution rather than the "BMW" one....and I think netgear does well to fit this requirement. I guess doing things on a shoe string budget with second hand kit is not everyone's vision - although most people seem happy buying second hand cars. Oh...forgot to mention - yes, the fans are noisy.

  • Thanks 2
Asgard

Asgard

Posted
Posted (edited)
We are entirely Netgear (Cue: laughter from those using Cisco and HP).

I've never really understood the disparaging comments thrown about Netgear. I have found them excellent - and brilliant value for money.

 

Sir, welcome to my world. I've sort of just learned to ignore the bad wrap they get. You will never change personal preference/opinion but I suppose that's what makes life interesting.

 

Our infrastructure does more than what we need. We don't need 30/40gb to edge cabs, we probably don't need 1.2TB switching/routing at the core but we can and do.... I had a Cisco CCIE tell me our kit was great and the code base is about 99% the same as the Cisco CLI.

 

We have recently become the second Sixth Form in the country to get Grade1 outstanding (in all areas) under the new Ofsted Common Inspection Framework. Ofsted commented on our IT system and our external auditors backed that up. Our network and infrastructure gets high praise from staff and students.

 

By saving money on our switches (because I have confidence in the service they provide) I can make sure that all the user facing kit is virtually brand new - we have just shy of about 2000 devices I think and none of them are older than 4 years, over 80% are less than 2.

 

If this is what Netgear is helping me and more importantly helping the students achieve I'll take the bad vibes all day everyday.

 

This is written in the spirit of friendship and not a rant/attack so please no one should take offence at any of this. We're all a community here to support/encourage/nurture all of our talents. Who cares about the little boxes in the server rooms

Edited by Asgard
  • Thanks 2
Mistert89

Mistert89

Posted
Posted
If any vendor's kit was bad, they'd no longer be trading! We were delivered a Cisco network under BSF, yet have added some non-C kit quite happily. We have no qualms whatsoever.
mjk

mjk

Posted
Posted
If any vendor's kit was bad, they'd no longer be trading!

 

It's horses for courses though.It all depends on the number of clients and the usage. I think a lot of the mistakes made in schools is (through lack of budget) is putting too low a spec of kit in. You wouldn't want to put bottom of the line, small business kit in from any manufacturer if it has to provide the backbone for thousands of clients in a large enterprise environment. Some of the stuff you get what you pay for : the routing protocols on the higher end stuff save money, the stackability and management features save money. THe cheapest isn't always the most sensible option in the long term.

localzuk

localzuk

Posted
  • Author
Posted
My fear with Netgear is that it is as bad as the other Netgear stuff I've had in the past - no end of failures. Then again, it was all their consumer kit.

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