Another alternative would be Enterasys. Used them for 5 years at my last job, and loved them. Hadn't heard of the Extreme switches until you asked about it, so can't give you input there, but if the cli is LESS intuitive than Cisco, which in my opinion isn't intuitive at all, then that could be a major downside...
Joe Heaton -----Original Message----- From: Kim Longenbaugh [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 6:45 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: GB switches At the risk of starting another of those religious debates about switch vendors, I'd suggest you also look into the Nortel Enterprise Router Switch offerings. Their gear is very robust, they have great technical support, and their switches have a variety of management options including a web gui, a Java Device Manager that is very intuitive, and a command line option that is similar enough to Crisco that most people can learn it quickly. And, their pricing is competitive. -----Original Message----- From: Adam Greene [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 8:31 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: GB switches Richard, Have not used the Extreme Black Diamond in particular, however, 4-5 years back, we did decide to try the Extreme Summit series as an alternative to Cisco for some of our core infrastructure. We were attracted by the price: at that time, Cisco didn't have an affordable layer 3 switch -- this was just before the 3550 was being released, if I remember correctly. We found the Extreme OS to be less intuitive than the Cisco IOS, and we experienced various minor issues with simple things like interface speed / duplex negotiation. Sometimes the telnet CLI would freeze up on the Extreme when making config changes. Here and there there were features which Extreme simply didn't support. We found ourselves saying, "If only this were a Cisco switch," and having to support and train engineers on both Cisco and Extreme didn't make sense for us. As a result of the frustrations with Extreme, after deploying 3-4 of them, we decided to take them all back out of production and replace them with Cisco 2960 / 3560 / 3750. Good luck obtaining further feedback!! Adam ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "NT System Admin Issues" <ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com> Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 8:24 AM Subject: RE: GB switches > FINALLY - I thought I'd have to hijack my own thread here! Although I > appreciate knowing that cheap fast ethernet switches have worked for some > folks, it really doesn't answer my question... > > I forgot to mention that, yes, we shall be needing POE. > > So, back to my dilemma... We do have a stack of 3 Cisco 10/100 switches. > Although they are managable, it seems we have "lost that ability". They > are not POE, although we have a little gizmo that sends POE to my desk for > a little "outlet ethernet switch". The thing about the Catalysts is, > we've never needed to manage them, and they've been "hang 'em in the rack > and forget about them". > > We are an incoming call center which handles about 450 veteranary > emergency toxicology cases PER DAY. At the busy times, we do seem to need > the additional through-put of the Gig switches. > > SO, our installers suggest Cisco. Our IT folks at national headquarters > suggest Extreme Black Diamond. > > So, again please, does anyone have any personal experience with both Cisco > and Extreme and could make some recommendations? > > Thanks! > -------------------------------------- > Richard McClary, Systems Administrator > ASPCA Knowledge Management > 1717 S Philo Rd, Ste 36, Urbana, IL 61802 > 217-337-9761 > http://www.aspca.org > > > "Cesare' A. Ramos" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 04/17/2008 07:55:53 PM: > >> Agreed with past posts with regards to the 1GB thought. >> >> We have rolled out Asterisk, 3Com NBX, 3Com VXC, Avaya, and Cisco. >> Never saw the need for 1GB switches at all end points. But would >> highly recommend POE functionality. >> >> As per switch, I am on the same snob group as Phil. I go ballistic >> whenever I see or hear an office running a DLink, Netgear, or >> Belkin. We have had great success with 3Com (primarily 3Com 4500 >> POE family) and Cisco. Of course 3Com is a bit lower in cost then > Cisco. >> >> Lates. >> >> CAR >> Phone: 305-443-0331 xt. 1202 >> Mobile: 786-412-1746 >> Fax: 305-443-0350 >> e-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> BB Pin: 23E727FF >> AIM: cramosMIA >> MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Yahoo: cramosMIA >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 1:17 PM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: GB switches >> >> Perhaps a wee bit OT, and I know there are some of you who sell and >> service Cisco. However... >> >> Currently most of our network is on fast ethernet. (We have a couple of > >> racks, each of which has a small GB switch to tie the servers in that > rack >> together.) >> >> We are soon to dump our NEC PBX and go with VOIP. (It will _not_ be > Cisco >> or Avaya VOIP.) We need more robust switches... >> >> Currently, we have about 100 desks, each with an XP Pro PC and a phone. > We >> will be going with VOIP phones (Polycom) rather than "soft phones". >> >> NOW, although we have some of their products and appreciate them, none > of >> us are "Cisco people", either by devotion or in knowing how to manage >> them. We have some folks recommending Cisco GB switches. We have > another >> group recommending (highly, and some of them are our equivalent in the > NYC >> office) Extreme Networks BlackDiamond switches. >> >> Does anyone "out there" have enough experience with the products of both > >> companies to be able to tell us the advantages of each? For example, >> might the Extremes be easier for a non-certified user to do port >> management? Anyone come across any tests as far as reliablility (both > for >> HW failure and for dropped packets), etc? >> >> Thanks! >> -------------------------------------- >> Richard McClary, Systems Administrator >> ASPCA Knowledge Management >> 1717 S Philo Rd, Ste 36, Urbana, IL 61802 >> 217-337-9761 >> http://www.aspca.org >> >> >> ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ >> >> ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ > > > ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ > > > > > ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
