Network equipment (was: Tuning NFS)

[Ben Scott]

On 8/25/06, Paul Lussier <p.lussier at comcast.net> wrote:
> One of those tweaks, IMO, is stay very far away from Dell switches.
> They have to be some of the worst switches I've ever laid hands or
> cables on! SMC switches aren't far behind either ...

  Heh.  SMC makes many (most?) of Dell's switches.  Some of the
PowerConnect models even have identical SMC TigerSwitch models,
differing only in the name badges.

  I've been looking at upgrading our motley collection of unmanaged
switches to a managed infrastructure myself.  Ruled out Dell, mainly
on warranty: Dell will not offer a warranty or service contract on
their switches beyond five years.  No thanks, we plan on keeping our
network longer than that.

  I'm currently looking strongly at HP ProCurve (2600 and 2800
series).  Good rep.  Lifetime warranty with next-business-day advanced
part replacement.

  Cisco and Nortel both have a good rep, but they're also hard to buy
and rather expensive (fiendishly so for Cisco).

  A good friend of mine works for Enterasys (FKA Cabletron), and so
I'm probably going to at least look at their stuff.  In the distant
past I wasn't a big fan of their stuff from a technical standpoint,
but they're done the acquisition game so many times my past experience
is invalidated.

  I'm interested in hearing the opinions of others.

-- Ben