Can anyone help me pick a new switch?
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I'm loving Brocade and the CLI is Cisco like. They also support CDP if you are using Cisco Call Manager. Also you get PoE and Gigabit for under $100!
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Is it gigabit? It says Brocade FastIron WS FWS648. FWS648G is the gigabit model.
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you are correct but there are plenty of them online that are gigabit. Also make sure you buy one with the power bridge so PoE is enabled. If not you will have to get the adapter, which I have seen on ebay as well. I have the switch with the slot for 10Gb.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brocade-FastIron-Edge-GS-648P-P0E-B966694-/381402361513?hash=item58cd5a2ea9:g:ZhAAAOSw37tV9yMr
is the one that I have and it is gigabit and PoE. I brought two of them because I couldn't believe the price and didn't want to take the chance of it failing on me. Mine has been going strong for 2 Years now.
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Seconding foundry/brocade, they're basically indestructible. After using them at work I fell in love after falling out of love with cisco and now my home is full of the GS and FESX series, the GS's running 10gbe as well.
the CLI is 90% cisco and the 10% that isn't is easily figured out with the manual, and they even have a (simple) web interface if that's your thing.
The prices for the fastiron series second hand are unbelievable. Search for Fastiron 648P on ebay - 48 ports of gigabit layer 3, 4x sfp slots, and a slot for a 10gbe card - $30 bucks typical price. They come PoE hot and there's a chance some of the $30 auctions you'll get will come PoE hot, but to guarantee it comes with the PoE daughter board you'll want to bid on an auction that includes the boot screen showing it has the poe mainboard or the chassis has a PoE logo, but even then 70~ dollars shipped for 48 PoE hot ports of either l2 switching or L3 routing depending on which firmware you want to load and pretty much indestructable hardware is an incredible deal
If anyone needs the latest firmware for these, feel free to send me a PM
typical price for a 648p http://www.ebay.com/itm/301929368638
datasheet of the featureset you're getting - https://www.brocade.com/content/dam/common/documents/content-types/datasheet/ds-fi-gs-series.pdf
example auction where it's specifically marked as PoE version - http://www.ebay.com/itm/141924304384
they also work with any brand of optic which is nice. If you don't see any Fastiron GS's available just wait a couple days, they come and go all the time
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Those brocade ones do look nice.
Only thing is I'm guessing they're not passively cooled, though if they're as inexpensive and reliable as that, I could afford to replace it if one burns out vs a cisco one.
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Those old Foundry/Brocade switches are built like tanks. IIRC they all take redundant power supplies too. My concerns would be power consumption and noise. And they're 1.5U high, which can get to be annoying.
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Those brocade ones do look nice.
Only thing is I'm guessing they're not passively cooled, though if they're as inexpensive and reliable as that, I could afford to replace it if one burns out vs a cisco one.
They're actively cooled like all datacenter network gear, after bootup in a typical/warm house environment they're only a little more noticeable than a desktop PC, or maybe the same volume as a gaming PC with a few extra fans. Something you'd never even hear if it was in another room. (This is for the Fastiron series like FWS, GS, FESX, etc. Their newer edge L3 switches like the FCX Series are literally jet engines at idle, and the PoE models on top of that, forget it ;D ) If you're familiar with the quieter Dell r610 and r710 servers, they're quieter than that if that helps
For power draw the Fastiron GS and FESX series idle at about 30W or less with typical home network traffic going through them, on the PoE models this will obviously go up with the more PoE devices you add like any other PoE switch.
As others have said they really are built like a tank though, I have yet to have a single port or fan die on any of them, and I've had some in remote ped cabs that get hotter/colder than they should. Sorry if I'm coming off like a sales person ;D just can't believe how undervalued they are on the used market - PM me if you need latest firmware for any if them
(and yes like Derelict said they're 1.5u which can be fun if you have just one in a rack and are tight on space - if you have two they make a nice 3u :P )
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Those brocade ones do look nice.
Only thing is I'm guessing they're not passively cooled, though if they're as inexpensive and reliable as that, I could afford to replace it if one burns out vs a cisco one.
They have fans but they are not too loud. I built a comm room in my basement so the noise is not that big of a deal but even when I open the door to the room the noise is like a low rumble, rather than a high pitched winding noise. I guess if you really wanted to tinker with them you could replace them with some ultra-quite fans.
Ditto on everything that Fohdeesha said. These switches are so devalued in the used market it like I just want to keep buying them for projects that I may have in the future that don't necessary require a service contract.
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Those brocade ones do look nice.
Only thing is I'm guessing they're not passively cooled, though if they're as inexpensive and reliable as that, I could afford to replace it if one burns out vs a cisco one.
They have fans but they are not too loud. I built a comm room in my basement so the noise is not that big of a deal but even when I open the door to the room the noise is like a low rumble, rather than a high pitched winding noise. I guess if you really wanted to tinker with them you could replace them with some ultra-quite fans.
Ditto on everything that Fohdeesha said. These switches are so devalued in the used market it like I just want to keep buying them for projects that I may have in the future that don't necessary require a service contract.
I'm guessing there's no option for new, and it's all used equipment, right?
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The Fastirons listed above have been replaced by the Fastiron FCX/SX series (maybe the ICX series as well, I'm more knowledgeable on their current carrier gear than I am edge switching), but expect $3,000 to $4,000 for base models and going up quickly from there. The stuff linked above for 30 bucks went for the same pricing when new years ago - if it makes you feel any better they're still actively updated, the firmware running on my GS was pushed out by brocade just a couple months ago
