Hardware for VLAN testing (initially)

0tt0 · Mar 12, 2009, 4:34 PM

HP/Procurve 1400 series (unmanaged) has no vlan support afaik,
HP/Procurve 1700 series (managed) supports it.

Sorry, my mistake. The hp web site makes no mention of VLAN support for the 1400 series and the 1400-8G has 8 10/100/1000 ports not 10/100 ports.

Yes, that's correct. I didn't think much of it since I had looked at them for a number of times. The fanless 1700-24 looks so nice, though I haven't been able to spot a single one used in 2 weeks time here.

I'm thinking of buying 2 used procurve 2524 in a few days, I hope they will make me happy. I have worked some with HP stuff earlier, including their "enterprise" access points and I think I like them. They do small things a little differently (but all of the big ones do I guess..) but they do make a very professional appearance.

Cheers,

banstyle · Mar 12, 2009, 8:49 PM

@mc_leuz:

HP/Procurve 1400 series (unmanaged) has no vlan support afaik,
HP/Procurve 1700 series (managed) supports it.

Take a look at the ProCurve 1800. The 1700 only supports 10/100 on the ports, where the 1800 is a 10/100/1000 device on all ports. I have these in place as some endpoint switches. They're iffy for enterprise due to the lack of true SNMP, but at home it's gotta be the best value I've seen. VLAN and Jumbo frames!

I've seen the 1800-24G go for $350 in the US and the 1800-8G for less.
For gigabit, I would say it's worth every penny.

jahonix · Mar 13, 2009, 7:35 AM

@0tt0:

I'm thinking of buying 2 used procurve 2524 in a few days, …

Check the firmware once you get them!
Newer firmwares have much better VLAN and grouping support. Been there, done that!

But the price point for the 1800-series is really great. If you need Gigabit, stick with those!

0tt0 · Mar 13, 2009, 9:44 AM

@jahonix:

@0tt0:

I'm thinking of buying 2 used procurve 2524 in a few days, …

Check the firmware once you get them!
Newer firmwares have much better VLAN and grouping support. Been there, done that!

But the price point for the 1800-series is really great. If you need Gigabit, stick with those!

Good point, will surely do that, that's the reason for buying them in the first place. Do you find the 2524 a good switch? Anything in particular you find lacking with it or not so good? And, do you find the 2524 noisy? The 1700-, and 1800- don't have fans (not even the 24 port Giga!) but 2524 do and just maybe one will be sitting in an open environment, not sure how much I will notice it..

I don't really need Gigabit but I do need more ports than 8 and I find the 24 port of 1800 series a little expensive (in comparison) so I'll go with non-Gigabit, although Gigabit uplink would be handy perhaps..

Generally though it's really amazing how efficient HP switches are, I looked at some random switches from a number of manufacturers, like some 3com:s (all 24 ports) and some were around 150-170 W max power consumption but the max power consumption of the 2524 (which is 24 ports) is only 36W! One would really think they should have been able to cool that passively altogether then.

And lastly, anyone heard of an American (?) brand called "Allied telesys" or "Allied telesyn" (I've seen dealers using both versions) or something similar? I saw a few switches at an Internet online dealer here and the prices were very good (cheaper than 2524 and especially the smartswitch was very cheap) and they too were fan-less and looking in the manual it seems they have a pretty good feature set. To be honest many users of L2 switches would get by with the feature set of these smartswitches. Just curious if anyone has any opinions on them.

Found one here, look at the features. The HP 1700, 24 ports is around 36% more expensive than this one at this particular dealer.
http://www.alliedtelesyn.com/products/detail.aspx?pid=217&lid=15

TIA!

jahonix · Mar 22, 2009, 8:01 PM

Usually they make pretty robust stuff and seem to be more common in industrial environments.
Used some of their fiber converters recently. Flawlessly as expected.
Give it a try and report back what you find, please!

0tt0 · Apr 2, 2009, 2:25 PM

@jahonix:

Usually they make pretty robust stuff and seem to be more common in industrial environments.
Used some of their fiber converters recently. Flawlessly as expected.
Give it a try and report back what you find, please!

Hi,

Well, now I'm sitting here with not one but two Procurve 2524 and one GB stacking kit. It's a very well built switch and I like it. Nonetheless I am actually a little bit uncertain of this. The reason is not the functionality (they are great, loads of features I won't need but can have fun testing with I guess..) however they do have a fan (and just one it seems, some other have 3 or 4 or more). And although I was very aware of that I kinda assumed it would be a little more quiet. I'll just have to wait and see if I can shield off the sound or if I'll simply sell them and get me a 1700-24 instead. (The main reason is the .1Q-support - anything else is a bonus).

Or perhaps it's safe to simply pull the fan out?!, if the loads stays low, which it will, compared to the maximum load the device is built for - full traffic on all ports? Any comments on that specific idea..?

Cheers,

ktims · Apr 2, 2009, 3:26 PM

@0tt0:

Or perhaps it's safe to simply pull the fan out?!, if the loads stays low, which it will, compared to the maximum load the device is built for - full traffic on all ports? Any comments on that specific idea..?

Oops, I probably should've mentioned that. Any 1U device with a fan is going to be quite loud, the tiny 40mm fans are really tough to get quiet, even the 'silent' ones aren't really.

I haven't done it with that HP model specifically, but I have with a Netgear and a Dell in my home network and not experienced and real problems. They get slightly warm, but nothing to be at all concerned about. Your HPs will have fan monitoring so they'll complain if you disconnect it, but I doubt you'll have any functional issues.

GruensFroeschli · Apr 2, 2009, 4:27 PM

There are also switches without fans, although they get quite warm in normal operation too.

http://www.procurve.com/news/fanless1800.htm
or the netgear FS726T.

jahonix · Apr 3, 2009, 10:33 AM

@jahonix:

Usually they make pretty robust stuff and seem to be more common in industrial environments.

Sorry, I was totally unclear here. I referred to the AlliedTelesyn stuff.

0tt0 · Apr 3, 2009, 2:15 PM

@jahonix:

@jahonix:

Usually they make pretty robust stuff and seem to be more common in industrial environments.

Sorry, I was totally unclear here. I referred to the AlliedTelesyn stuff.

Ahh, ok. Interesting, I might end up with one of their smartswitches some day. Looks ok, not to mention the prising..

To ktims: I was aware of the fan and have worked around other 19" switches so I knew they were (or could be) loud.. that's no issue in a server room though, so perhaps I should simply put it away somewhere in a closet or something, if I keep it.