Dead Switches... would you get this replace it?

[tarquel]

Hi guys

 

Found out this morning that the 2 identical Dynamode "£30" switches we had in one of the computer room's had finally given up on life.

 

Turning them off and back on again provides no joy whatsoever, and the clients just cant get anything through to the other side of them.

 

With there being nothing to reset on them other that power off and on, I thought it not worth it, and I started looking at a relatively cheap [compared to them] switch to replace the both of them.

 

I was looking at the NETGEAR ProSafe FS752TS Smart Switch which has 48 10/100 ports, 4 10/100/1000 ports and 2 SFP (mini-GBIC) style ports for just over £200.

 

Anyone got one of these and does it seem a good plan?

 

The machines in the room arent amazingly fast and the bottleneck of the 10/100 is irrelevent as the DC / FS has only a single 10/100/1000 card in it hehe

 

Would be nice to pipe a 1G connection to that room now though.

 

Any thoughts welcome, but i need to order it sharpish. The computer rooms are used pretty much continually so cant have it out of action for too long.

 

Regards

Nath.

[Geoff]

Have you considered the various ProCurves?

[andyrite]

As Geoff suggests go for the procurves if you have the cash. I have some Netgear layer 2 managed switches here and i've had no trouble with them.

[kearton]

Procurves have always been my preference...

[MicrodigitUK]

Go for the HP-ProCurves.

 

I think most of HPs ProCurve kit has a life-time warranty, so if it brakes you can just send it back!

 

[tarquel]

We dont have the cash or it would be ProCurves all the way for me

 

[Have ProCurves in key places]

 

The cheapest 48-port ProCurve is over double the price of the Netgear one. I'm all for Procurves where possible, but no management is really needed for this switch - just needs to work thats all hehe

 

Nath.

[pete]

While I like Netgear switches in general, and our backbone switch is one of their pricer ones, I hate that particular model.

 

We've had 3 FS752TS, all of which have managed to brick their management interfaces - they still shunted packets, but no amount of power cycle jenga, reset buttons or arcane combinations thereof returned them to defaults or an unbricked state.

 

Bricking occured within a couple of weeks of installation in the cabinet.

 

We've returned them and are replacing them with another (fan-cooled, not passive) model - compared to the other fan-cooled netgears they get rather warm, which probably doesn't help.

 

The first two had close (within a handful of digits) serial numbers, so it could have been a bad batch, but the third replacement wasn't.

[m25man]

Netgear are not too bad when you compare them on a £ per port basis to the competition.

 

They recently increased their warranty to "Lifetime"

 

The warranty swap out centre is in Enfield and on the odd occasion I have had to use them they were next day swapped out.

 

They lack some of the really advanced and patented protocols used by HP and Cisco that you pay through the nose for but they do a good job for the money and thats what it's all about in schools isn't it!

 

The latest L3 Stackable units do get quite hot and I also lost one because of this by having them too tight together in a rack, give them a little breathing space and they run cool enough but cram them together and you have a George Forman!

[Dos_Box]

I have lots of these:

http://www.netgear.co.uk/gigabit_smartswitch_gs748t.php

And they are fantastic. All of the features you need without the pricetag.

[john]

I have used the switches mentioned in this thread (the top NEtgear ones) and they are great, excellent remote management stuff, very nice kit.

[tosca925]

I will have a lot of 12-18 month old Netgear switches for sale in a few weeks if anyone is interested.

[alonebfg]

I would be depending on price of course. need about 2 at the moment as we got one Just gone down and due to lack of funds in school had to take all spare ports out and that means i cant plug my laptop in to test when some others are in use also had to take a printer hub away Again due to lack of ports. luckly it was only 24 but that is enough.

[john]

I'd be potentially interested in them as well tosca.

[tarquel]

New switch installed and all is well [so far].

 

Nath.