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Cisco Meraki free switch

LeMarchand

By LeMarchand
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Chris_

Chris_

Posted
Posted

Plugged it in to test and it brought the network to a halt! Pretty sure somebody else on here had the same experience.

 

It has sat on a shelf since.

newpersn

newpersn

Posted
Posted
Plugged it in to test and it brought the network to a halt! Pretty sure somebody else on here had the same experience.

 

It has sat on a shelf since.

 

That might be me... I'm sure they just need to be plugged in until they learn the network routes. (I just unplugged it straight away and took it home to play with)

 

Sat at home using it to power the free AP :)

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newpersn

newpersn

Posted
Posted (edited)
Had a similar plan :whistle:.

 

Just didn't think it was worth a weekly sales call.

 

Called "Sorry cant this call as im in a classroom reason...." (That's what i told our office staff when they tired to ring though.)

 

Edit: I did speak to them and talk about it and our network issues with wireless.

Edited by newpersn
atcoates

atcoates

Posted
Posted
As long as you are open and honest with them they are ok. We are Meraki customers now but initially weren't and got a free AP and Switch with no real hassle.
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rich_tech

rich_tech

Posted
Posted
you can get a free switch, AP and even a security appliance(small firewall), as others have said, they will ring you initially, especially when it was done as an evaluation for switching as we were doing a mass update, but we went with another provider in the end.
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crc-ict

crc-ict

Posted
Posted

Got one of their free APs. No hassle whatsoever. Had to talk to the local rep once to sort out the delivery details etc, but then have never heard from them since.

 

Used the AP to get me out of a hole when one of my Xirrus units failed, and it worked well so I have left it in place.

 

However, recently got pricing to buy another one for another area, and found them to be very pricey - I could buy a 3 pack of UniFi Pro's for the price of one Meraki ap!

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LeMarchand

LeMarchand

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Thanks for the thoughts, folks. I eventually decided that it was less hassle to buy a cheap switch for home than to get permission to keep a "freebie" and so owe a favour. Might have been different if a home switch was really expensive. Yes, I know there's a quality difference, but...
atcoates

atcoates

Posted
Posted
Thanks for the thoughts, folks. I eventually decided that it was less hassle to buy a cheap switch for home than to get permission to keep a "freebie" and so owe a favour. Might have been different if a home switch was really expensive. Yes, I know there's a quality difference, but...

They are good switches for free and are POE ;-) You don't owe Meraki anything they give away thousands of them!

jmak

jmak

Posted
Posted
Thanks for the thoughts, folks. I eventually decided that it was less hassle to buy a cheap switch for home than to get permission to keep a "freebie" and so owe a favour. Might have been different if a home switch was really expensive. Yes, I know there's a quality difference, but...

 

What did you go for? I'm updating my home network and looking at the Netgear switches. Don't quite understand why the 8 port switches cost less than £20 and the 16 ports are nearly £70...

LeMarchand

LeMarchand

Posted
  • Author
Posted
What did you go for? I'm updating my home network and looking at the Netgear switches. Don't quite understand why the 8 port switches cost less than £20 and the 16 ports are nearly £70...

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008PC1MSO £11

 

I haven't got a fancy home network. Superhub provides wireless and ethernet to my PC, the HTPC and the V6 Box. The final port goes to a borrowed switch which feeds the PS3 (the wireless on it seems painfully slow), a Powerline adapter to the Tivo upstairs and a "spare" cable that ends near my PC which gets used from time to time for repair jobs/laptop updates or as a feed for a separate wireless network as Bonus Daughter #2's Mac seems to get the short end of the stick if there's a lot of network traffic (quite rightly so, IMHO). Could probably get away with a four port, but figured for £3 extra I'd go for 8. I know that most people have problems with the Superhub and use their own wireless, but (apart from the Mac problem) mine is generally OK.

 

I'm tempted to liberate an HP Procurve I claimed from a school that was chucking them out, but I'm fairly sure that Mme LeMarchand would object to a rackmount switch under the TV cabinet, and I suspect a 48 port switch burns a lot more energy. Though having just turned it on, it is surprisingly quiet...

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jmak

jmak

Posted
Posted
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008PC1MSO £11

 

I haven't got a fancy home network. Superhub provides wireless and ethernet to my PC, the HTPC and the V6 Box. The final port goes to a borrowed switch which feeds the PS3 (the wireless on it seems painfully slow), a Powerline adapter to the Tivo upstairs and a "spare" cable that ends near my PC which gets used from time to time for repair jobs/laptop updates or as a feed for a separate wireless network as Bonus Daughter #2's Mac seems to get the short end of the stick if there's a lot of network traffic (quite rightly so, IMHO). Could probably get away with a four port, but figured for £3 extra I'd go for 8. I know that most people have problems with the Superhub and use their own wireless, but (apart from the Mac problem) mine is generally OK.

 

I'm tempted to liberate an HP Procurve I claimed from a school that was chucking them out, but I'm fairly sure that Mme LeMarchand would object to a rackmount switch under the TV cabinet, and I suspect a 48 port switch burns a lot more energy. Though having just turned it on, it is surprisingly quiet...

My network's not fancy - life's too short - but 3 wireless APs, Xbox, 2 TVs, Blu-ray player, set top box and one back to the router takes me to eight and I can't imagine needing fewer in the future...
LeMarchand

LeMarchand

Posted
  • Author
Posted
My network's not fancy - life's too short - but 3 wireless APs, Xbox, 2 TVs, Blu-ray player, set top box and one back to the router takes me to eight and I can't imagine needing fewer in the future...

 

I've just checked - both the "domestic" D-Link and the Procurve claim the same max wattage draw (and a bunch of other green credentials). May try to sneak it in while the boss is out tomorrow night and see what she says!

DCUK6

DCUK6

Posted
Posted

Got the free Meraki switch about a month ago. Not had any calls since.

We will eventually move over to them though.

 

Probably overkill for home, licensing it all the time so you can actually edit the thing.

 

At home i just use the bog standard VM Gear plus a TP-Link adapter so i dont have to run a wire to the computer.

Never had a issue with gaming pc, xbox, ipad etc. They are normally all doing stuff at the same time.

Garacesh

Garacesh

Posted
Posted

I've actually had a free AP and a free Switch from Meraki.. I don't get any sales calls from them at all. I think I did get one or two but I was pretty honest with them at the time. Free kit is just to see what else is out there and mostly so I can muck about with a switch and not be fussed if I break it. We don't have the money to just rip apart our network and replace it all for no good reason.

 

Genuinely, though, it seemed pretty good, and if I were building a network from scratch it's something I might consider depending on what their quote came in at.

fewd01

fewd01

Posted
Posted

I think the free ones come with 3 year cloud licences, lose cloud management after that time I believe so be careful on getting too dependant on them as meraki is not cheap.

 

Sent from my MotoG3 using EduGeek mobile app

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