Choosing a cisco switch, question/advice

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java

New Member
Jan 28, 2013
28
4
3
Europe
Hello,

I'm building a home server rack, I had to choose between a few of cisco switch models : WS-C4948-S, WS-C3560G-48TS-S, WS-C2960G-48TC-L
The switch must satifies the following requirements :
1. Had at least 44 ports
2. Must be a gigabit switch
3. Very flexible in configuration (supprot for VLANs, etc)

So I chose WS-C4948-S, because it has layer 3 settings. On ebay WS-C4948-S costs between $1000 and $2000 (of cource used). But I bought from a seller which sold it for only : $800.

My questions are : Is my choice good ? Can it be so cheap (only $800) ? I don't have the switch yet, still waiting, but I'm afraid it could have some issues. The seller claims it is everything ok.

Thank you
 

java

New Member
Jan 28, 2013
28
4
3
Europe
yes, but cisco is the defacto standard in the networking devices. I decided to stick with it, I want to learn IOS in more depth. I have no experince/knowlege related to HP network devices.
 

cafcwest

Member
Feb 15, 2013
136
14
18
Richmond, VA
Earlier 4948's with a single power supply really are quite cheap nowadays.

Somewhere I have a picture of a stack of 60+ brand new 4948's with dual power from circa 2007 (we used them as rack switches)
 

TheBay

New Member
Feb 25, 2013
220
1
0
UK
If you really want to get your teeth in to IOS just buy a cheap Cisco switch/router to mess around with, most will take the latest version's.
For something easy to use and works well go for HP Procurve, you pay a tax with Cisco gear and although it's good it's all sold on name and pointless for home server use.
 

Dragon

Banned
Feb 12, 2013
77
0
0
Hello,

I'm building a home server rack, I had to choose between a few of cisco switch models : WS-C4948-S, WS-C3560G-48TS-S, WS-C2960G-48TC-L
The switch must satifies the following requirements :
1. Had at least 44 ports
2. Must be a gigabit switch
3. Very flexible in configuration (supprot for VLANs, etc)

So I chose WS-C4948-S, because it has layer 3 settings. On ebay WS-C4948-S costs between $1000 and $2000 (of cource used). But I bought from a seller which sold it for only : $800.

My questions are : Is my choice good ? Can it be so cheap (only $800) ? I don't have the switch yet, still waiting, but I'm afraid it could have some issues. The seller claims it is everything ok.

Thank you
I am curious, what kind of home setup requires 44 ports? Are you sure a Netgear or HP can't handle your need? It's cheaper and safer to use a few cheap unmanaged switches instead of an expensive switch with a bunch of vlans.

If you really need 40+ ports, over here we'd just get a Huawei S5700-48TP-SI-AC and be done with it, US$950 brand new, 44 x 1000Base-T + 4 GE combo ports, 256Gbps switch fabric, 72Mpps, all the new gadgets + does everything Cisco can do, except costing only 1/3 of Cisco's equivalent.

Cisco had been running a monopoly and over charging for years, and when Huawei shows up with a cheap and superior product, they get their friends in Washington to start fear mongering, GCHQ inspected the stuff for months and found nothing, yet Cisco is still crying with absolutely no proof, it's quite funny really, bunch of CXOs acting like high school students.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

java

New Member
Jan 28, 2013
28
4
3
Europe
If you really want to get your teeth in to IOS just buy a cheap Cisco switch/router to mess around with, most will take the latest version's.
For something easy to use and works well go for HP Procurve, you pay a tax with Cisco gear and although it's good it's all sold on name and pointless for home server use.
I already have a few cheap 100MBits switches, can't stop to play with them :)

I am curious, what kind of home setup requires 44 ports?
For now I need aproximately 30 ports, I have separated VLANs for ISP, general purpose, monitoring and video streaming traffics. But I'm thinking for the future that's why I've chosen to have at least 44 ports

If you really need 40+ ports, over here we'd just get a Huawei S5700-48TP-SI-AC and be done with it, US$950 brand new, 44 x 1000Base-T + 4 GE combo ports, 72Mpps, all the new gadgets + does everything Cisco can do, except costing only 1/3 of Cisco's equivalent.
Maybe, but I want to learn the Cisco hardware/software in more depth, because it is a quite popular technology, it is used in every datacenter. I don't need a brand new switch, cisco even old is still a rock solid piece of hardware

Cisco had been running a monopoly and over charging for years, and when Huawei shows up with a cheap and superior product, they get their friends in Washington to start fear mongering, GCHQ inspected the stuff for months and found nothing, yet Cisco is still crying with absolutely no proof, it's quite funny really, bunch of CXOs acting like high school students.
I'm note interested in politics, when Huawei will reach the popularity of Cisco I'll switch to them. I just use the technology which is popular nowdays, and I think Cisco won't disapear in the near future.
Dragon, are you working for Huawei ? your talk seems like a holly war.
 
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Dragon

Banned
Feb 12, 2013
77
0
0
I already have a few cheap 100MBits switches, can't stop to play with them :)

For now I need aproximately 30 ports, I have separated VLANs for ISP, general purpose, monitoring and video streaming traffics. But I'm thinking for the future that's why I've chosen to have at least 44 ports

Maybe, but I want to learn the Cisco hardware/software in more depth, because it is a quite popular technology, it is used in every datacenter. I don't need a brand new switch, cisco even old is still a rock solid piece of hardware

I'm note interested in politics, when Huawei will reach the popularity of Cisco I'll switch to them. I just use the technology which is popular nowdays, and I think Cisco won't disapear in the near future.

Dragon, are you working for Huawei ? your talk seems like a holly war.
What? An insult on this forum? Seriously?What is the point asking for opinions when you're already on a $brand_name band wagon? This is a no bullshit community that focus on performance and value, not a Cisco fan club, you asked for opinions and that's what you got.

If you want to learn the Cisco OS, play with their emulators, you can't learn much from just a switch.

As for your little personal remark, I've been consistently bashing any company that overcharges their customers, I and others here have also suggested a cheaper Netgear/HP route, but of course Cisco fan boys will always ignore them because they believe if it's not a Cisco then it's garbage.

You're not running a stock exchange, If a $50 switch is enough then who cares what is proven or popular, when a $50 Netgear switch fails, buy a new one. If you think Netgear/HP are garbage, buy 2 and have one ready for replacement. That is not politics, that is common sense.

You never mentioned actual traffic, chances are all your stack need is a router connected to few $50 layer 2 unmanaged switches, but the problem with that setup is you can't take cool photos of your rack and scream "HEY LOOK EVERYONE I BOUGHT A CISCO!" on Facebook. So yeah, that can be a huge problem for some.

Have fun getting all your vlan traffic snooped because of a single backdoor/misconfig on a switch.
 
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nitrobass24

Moderator
Dec 26, 2010
1,087
131
63
TX
Reign this convo in guys!

He asked for opinions/options on cisco, we suggested otherwise he isnt interested. So make a cisco recommendation and leave politics out of it :)
 

Jeggs101

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2010
1,529
241
63
Reign this convo in guys!

He asked for opinions/options on cisco, we suggested otherwise he isnt interested. So make a cisco recommendation and leave politics out of it :)
On OP topic --- what are you trying to do with it? Is this just to learn on?
 

nitrobass24

Moderator
Dec 26, 2010
1,087
131
63
TX
Look at the Cisco 2960

Cheap
IOS
48 port gig

EDIT: Linked wrong one, see chart below for list of gig models.
 
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Dragon

Banned
Feb 12, 2013
77
0
0
Reign this convo in guys!

He asked for opinions/options on cisco, we suggested otherwise he isnt interested. So make a cisco recommendation and leave politics out of it :)
My bad, I made the mistake of answering "Is my choice good?" to a fan.

Should have played along, pick one and then suggest the Cisco WS-C3750E-48PD-EF that only cost a little bit more to do the same thing.

Despite having only 64 Gbps of switching fabric, nothing comes close to Cisco WS-C3750E-48PD-EF in photos.
 
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Dragon

Banned
Feb 12, 2013
77
0
0
Reign this convo in guys!

He asked for opinions/options on cisco, we suggested otherwise he isnt interested. So make a cisco recommendation and leave politics out of it :)
And OP asked for "Must be a gigabit switch", so make a 10/100/1000 recommendation and leave 10/100 switches out of it.

Try stay off the power trip, what I posted was business news that support my claim (Cisco has been overcharging with their monopoly), the politics involved are just the side effect of Cisco dragging the gov onto their side. I can respect different sites having different policies, removing some of the links I can understand, but what exactly is so political about this?

Cisco's Chief Executive John Chambers has repeatedly called Huawei its toughest rival in the enterprise market and promised to be compete aggressively.
"There really has not been a legitimate major competitor for Cisco for a long time ... and in comes Huawei and we are not a small player," Roese said.
Huawei gearing up to take on Cisco on its home turf | Reuters
So you can't even post related business news now? Where is the memo? What better way is there to show how competitive Huawei switches are? You know their stuff works when Cisco CEO's say they are a serious competitor and have to pull every dirty trick in the book to fight them off.

I've been enjoying sharing with this friendly community so far, there aren't much places left like STH, try not to ruin it with your new found "power" like what happened to the other forums out there, they may have higher traffic but they are full of benchmark junkies and egotistical BOFH.

As I posted in a comment in the news section a few days ago, 99% of the time people just don't need a $xxxx Cisco and this is me sticking to what I believe in. My apologies if this ruins the friendly mood, I wouldn't be posting this if mr. nitro would just edit my post without giving me the lecture after. Sure I can try to please everybody, I gave it some thought too but then I decided I've lived too long to take lectures from someone who doesn't know what a gigabit switch is on a tech forum.

People say they want to learn networking but then they go and buy the one thing that does everything without them having to learn anything.
 

nitrobass24

Moderator
Dec 26, 2010
1,087
131
63
TX
The 2960 does come in gigabit variants. [FONT=.HelveticaNeueUI]http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6406/prod_models_comparison.html[/FONT]
[FONT=.HelveticaNeueUI]
[/FONT]



Cisco Catalyst 2960-S Series Switches

Model10/100/1000 Ethernet portsUplinksIOS Feature SetAvailable PoE PowerFlexStack Stacking
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-48FPD-L
482 SFP+LAN Base740WOptional
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-48LPD-L
482 SFP+LAN Base370WOptional
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-24PD-L
242 SFP+LAN Base370WOptional
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-48TD-L
482 SFP+LAN Base-Optional
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-24TD-L
242 SFP+LAN Base-Optional
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-48FPS-L
484 SFPLAN Base740WOptional
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-48LPS-L
484 SFPLAN Base370WOptional
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-24PS-L
244 SFPLAN Base370WOptional
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-48TS-L
484 SFPLAN Base-Optional
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-24TS-L
244 SFPLAN Base-Optional
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-48TS-S
482 SFPLAN Lite-No
Cisco Catalyst
2960S-24TS-S
242 SFPLAN Lite-No
 

Jeggs101

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2010
1,529
241
63
Comment - OP asked for Cisco switch. He could be doing CCNA for all we know. I think the PoE models use more power even if you do not turn on PoE. That might be something to think about.