Anyone used FS.COM switches (particularly core)

[CyBeRkId2002]

Hi all,

 

I am currently looking at beginning to look at replacing the networking infrastructure throughout our site (currently have Cisco 3750's throughout - ~12 years old and starting to come with some issues).

 

My priorities are going to be:

 

• Cost effective - and by that I mean absolutely as cheap as possible. Budgets are tight.
  
• Future proofed
  
• Easy to manage
  
• 
  

 

 

I know a little about networking (did my CCNA back in the day) but haven't kept up to speed for a while so likely to have lots of questions throughout this process.

 

I'll start of with a simple one - has anyone used FS.com switches throughout their site... and if so what do you think of them? Their cost / spec ratio seems insane and will likely tick box 1 and 2 from the above, but I am keen to find out if they are easy to manage. I am happy with CLI but would like a switch other members of my team can configure without diving deep into CLI.

 

Thanks and I am sure I will have more questions in due course.

 

Michael

[CyBeRkId2002]

actually - i'd also like to extend this to Unifi. I have seen a few comments on here (and elsewhere) that says their L3 is not up to the job, but just wondered what people mean by this, and if anyone had any real-world experience with this. The Gen2 Pro48 and ProAggregation seem like great devices.

[mdrabble]

Unifi have different flavour of switches.

 

I use the EdgeMax Lites - available as POE and Non-POE versions which don’t need a cloud controller to manage them, but instead I use their NMS software to manage them.

 

Can use web ui or cli to manage them fully manage them or the NMS to do most functions such as firmware updates, VLAN changes etc.

 

48 port versions come with 2xSFP+ and 2xSFP ports as standard but sadly the 24 port versions and lower only come with SFP ports which is a shame.

 

Currently they don’t support stacking but do support link aggregation. - which is a reason I don’t use their 10GB fibre switch for my core - instead I have a DLink 10GB switch which was in place when I arrived 7 years ago and I added another to form a stack.

 

As to then other (white) versions I couldn’t tell you about them as never used them.

 

Hope that helps a little

Edited March 30, 2022 by mdrabble

[synaesthesia]

Yes - I've used FS.com kit and have been suitably impressed. It's obviously "whitebox" hardware not too different to what you'd get from Mikrotik. In fact, I am kitting out a whole primary school with fs.com hardware this coming Easter Stackable, 10gbit switches and POE everywhere for the cost of a single Aruba switch, and unlike some of the other efforts at the same price point, a reasonable warranty. It's not lifetime HP warranty, but for the price...

 

Caveats - Stock, like anything is sparse but their lead times are better than most. You have cat in hell's chance of getting anything recent from UniFi this side of 2023, so unless you're planning and ordering well in advance, just don't bother. We found Mikrotik similar.

However, Aruba have just released a "budget" hardware line, I can't recall the models etc but it's white, 10gbit capable etc and very similar in pricing & capability to the Unifi and FS.com offerings. Certainly worth a look IMO.

[Davit2005]

Aruba 1960 is the new line, but I get the impression they are only stackable for management and do not act a logical stack i.e. being able to split LACP between members of the stack, etc.

 

 

A lot of Aruba switches are no longer lifetime, the warranty for models can be found no their site somewhere. I put in 120 48port PoE switches (mixture of 2530s and 2540s) in 2 buildings 4 years ago and we have only had to replace 2 of them.

Edited March 30, 2022 by Davit2005

[Arthur]

actually - i'd also like to extend this to Unifi. I have seen a few comments on here (and elsewhere) that says their L3 is not up to the job, but just wondered what people mean by this

The following video (from

) mentions a bit about the L3 capabilities (or lack thereof)...

 

 

I haven't used FS.com switches myself. It appears that a lot of them are rebranded Ruijie Networks devices.

 

In addition to @Davit2005's video linked above for the Aruba Instant On 1960 switches you should also check out this one...

 

[CyBeRkId2002]

Thanks all!

 

Arthur - have seen a few Youtube videos and a lot are vague on exactly what can and can't be done... I do know DHCP Helper addresses are not available which is kind of a deal-breaker so think I am going to steer clear for the core for now and am going to invest in others (including fs.com and Aruba kit)

 

synaesthesia - good to hear some positives for the FS.com kit! Strangely I am not seeing any supply issues for the Unifi kit I am looking at - multiple suppliers seem to have stock - so possibly thinking about going for that at the edge due to the simplified management