Managed switches and 'nix (WAS: TP-Link gigabit managed switch)

[James Knott]

Tyler Aviss wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 5:44 PM, Lennart
> Sorensen<lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>   
>> On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 05:04:58PM -0400, James Knott wrote:
>>     
>>> Actually, it's likely only 2 gigabit ports.  You can use either copper
>>> or fibre via SPF module, but not both.  At least that the way it works
>>> on all the switches I've worked with.
>>>       
>> It has two permanent gig copper ports and two SFP ports.  It says you
>> can use 4 Gig ports.  It is a 28 port switch (hence the 28 in the name).
>>
>> --
>> Len Sorensen
>> --
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>>     
>
>
> Seems I've opened a can of worms on this :-)
> Since it's only got the two gig ports (the SFP I suppose would be nice
> if modules didn't cost more than a switch these days) it's not quite
> as attractive as all-gig. However, price-wise it was still comparable
> in terms of the last "managed" switches the price isn't too bad,
> depending on how well the management, snmp, VLAN, and other such
> things actually work.
>
>
> Actually, along that vein I would recommend that anyone in a 'nix shop
> seeing products listed as "Cisco Small Business" steer clear. Where I
> previously worked we bought a few and found they're actually just
> Linksys crap (which some vendors don't advertise on the site,
> preferring the big name of "Cisco Small Business"). I don't remember
> the particular models we got, but they were 48-port managed switches,
> however the management console actually *REQUIRED* windows+IE+ActiveX
> to configure the VLAN's etc to work. They had no telnet console. No
> cross-browser compatibility, and a few other missing things like SNMP.
>
> It seems to me a sad day when even core networking equipment is tied
> to a given OS, but I thought I'd pass along a warning to anyone else
> that has to deal with this. Not all vendors use the "Cisco Small
> Business" label, as many are a bit more honest and list them as
> "Linksys".
>   

As I understand it, Cisco is planning on dropping the Linksys name and
calling everything Cisco.  The gear I'm most familiar with is made by
Adtran.  That link is for a switch that's similar to the Adtran 1224,
though it may be closer to the replacement for the 1224, however, I've
forgotten that model number.  With the Adtran gear, you can use a
browser with HTTP or HTTPS or CLI via telnet, SSH or serial port. 
Adtran's AOS is similar to Cisco's IOS.  I have used SFP modules on jobs
where fibre is necessary due to distance.

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