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Mitel Forums => Non-Mitel Chatter => Topic started by: acejavelin on April 02, 2013, 01:39:38 AM

Title: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: acejavelin on April 02, 2013, 01:39:38 AM
I know most people are using HP Procurve, Cisco, or Extreme Network switches for enterprise grade PoE switches, but has anyone found a "cheap" basic managed PoE switch capable of VLANs and 24 or 48 ports for companies not willing to lay out the cash, or don't have the need for, higher-end switches? Preferably ones that can be purchased through Mitel Datanet and have some kind of a brand name?

We had been using Edgewater EdgeConnect switches, very configurable and relatively low cost compared to our normal HP Procurve 2600/2900 series switches, and our hosted solution side use them like crazy with Polycom and Aastra SIP phones successfully, but the three site I have with Mitel 5000s and Edgewater switches have very odd issues where everything will work for weeks or months then they start doing strange things, DHCP won't pass through the switch, ports get "locked" to a phone (phone works fine on one port, won't work if moved to a different port), second devices on the run through the phone won't talk on the network, etc., just weird things that a reset fixes every time. Only seems to be an issue with MiNet phones, SIP based phones have no issues, and the manufacturer is... ummm... lets just say "less than helpful" on these issues. Needless to say we are looking for an alternative.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: sarond on April 02, 2013, 02:17:51 AM
I have used Cisco SF-300 (http://amzn.to/2a8uQCP) series switches and they appear to be ok. They are layer 3 so have some inter-vlan routing.
I must admit I haven't used them with CDP/LLDP so can't comment too much on that.

They're not the cheapest but are not expensive compared to HP/Cisco/Extreme
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: Mattmayn on April 02, 2013, 07:19:38 AM
Until recently I would have said Dell 35xx series switches, but they are EOL now. They also make other lines but have recently "adjusted their pricing model to be more consistant with the rest of the market," which means they have almost doubled the price over night.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: acejavelin on April 02, 2013, 08:14:33 AM
I have used Cisco SF-300 series switches and they appear to be ok. They are layer 3 so have some inter-vlan routing.
I must admit I haven't used them with CDP/LLDP so can't comment too much on that.

They're not the cheapest but are not expensive compared to HP/Cisco/Extreme
Have you tried the SF/SG-200 series at all? I don't really need most of the routing and they seem to support Cisco SmartPort, and a 48 port 10/100 PoE for around $600 is significantly cheaper than what we have been using.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see why they are so cheap, they are HALF PoE, not full... so a 48P is 24 power and 24 unpowered. I will look into the 300 series.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: martyn on April 02, 2013, 08:37:51 AM
My suggestion would be for the Cisco sf-300 (http://amzn.to/2a8uQCP) series as mentioned, or if you only need layer 2 then the HP 2520 switches are a great option at a much lower price than the 2600 series.

Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: ralph on April 02, 2013, 09:13:33 AM
Does anyone use Adtran?

Also, for SOHO I've used Netgear ProSAFE unmanaged data switches  (http://amzn.to/2aI7G63)with good results.  8 ports POE.

Ralph

Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: acejavelin on April 02, 2013, 09:37:17 AM
Until recently I would have said Dell 35xx series switches, but they are EOL now. They also make other lines but have recently "adjusted their pricing model to be more consistant with the rest of the market," which means they have almost doubled the price over night.
Lol... maybe, except they are made by that evil 4-letter "D" word... DELL... since I started handling most of our in-house IT stuff and recommendations for customer equipment and moved to HPs (http://) our troubles with equipment have dropped to almost nothing. My past experience with Dell has pushed me away from anything they sell. I will never go back to Dell equipment of any kind in the foreseeable future.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: bluewhite4 on April 02, 2013, 12:59:50 PM
Until recently I would have said Dell 35xx series switches, but they are EOL now. They also make other lines but have recently "adjusted their pricing model to be more consistant with the rest of the market," which means they have almost doubled the price over night.
Lol... maybe, except they are made by that evil 4-letter "D" word... DELL... since I started handling most of our in-house IT stuff and recommendations for customer equipment and moved to HPs our troubles with equipment have dropped to almost nothing. My past experience with Dell has pushed me away from anything they sell. I will never go back to Dell equipment of any kind in the foreseeable future.

Thats too bad. We have had a lot of success with these. Didn't know they were EOL or that their pricing had gone up. Their SPF's were like $50, so that was a big selling thing for us.

We've also used Netgear switches with decent success. They also advertise a lifetime warranty as well.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: Maximillian on May 02, 2013, 01:05:21 PM

I would look at ADTRAN (http://amzn.to/2akB4PG) mentioned above. Lifetime warranty and good support.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: acejavelin on May 04, 2013, 12:56:53 AM
We have actually switched to the Cisco Small Business line of switches, they seem to work really well and the "Smart Port" feature is actually quite usefully, automatically jump VLANs based on the MAC address. Also have a lifetime warranty.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: matthew on May 17, 2013, 02:22:48 AM
Does anyone use Adtran?

Ralph

We've been using the Samsung Ubigate (http://amzn.to/29ZcQb4) switches (we're also a Samsung dealer), which I -think- are a rebadged Adtran. Haven't had any dramas so far.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: matthew on July 01, 2014, 06:23:50 PM
Does anyone use Adtran?

Ralph

We've been using the Samsung Ubigate switches (we're also a Samsung dealer), which I -think- are a rebadged Adtran. Haven't had any dramas so far.

We had been using Edgewater EdgeConnect switches, very configurable and relatively low cost compared to our normal HP Procurve 2600/2900 series switches, and our hosted solution side use them like crazy with Polycom and Aastra SIP phones successfully, but the three site I have with Mitel 5000s and Edgewater switches have very odd issues where everything will work for weeks or months then they start doing strange things, DHCP won't pass through the switch, ports get "locked" to a phone (phone works fine on one port, won't work if moved to a different port), second devices on the run through the phone won't talk on the network, etc., just weird things that a reset fixes every time. Only seems to be an issue with MiNet phones, SIP based phones have no issues, and the manufacturer is... ummm... lets just say "less than helpful" on these issues. Needless to say we are looking for an alternative.

So much for the Samsung Ubigates. They've been having the problems mentioned above. I've issued a directive to the sales team not to sell any more with Mitel systems.  >:(
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: sarond on July 01, 2014, 06:38:06 PM
We had been using Edgewater EdgeConnect switches, very configurable and relatively low cost compared to our normal HP Procurve 2600/2900 series switches, and our hosted solution side use them like crazy with Polycom and Aastra SIP phones successfully, but the three site I have with Mitel 5000s and Edgewater switches have very odd issues where everything will work for weeks or months then they start doing strange things, DHCP won't pass through the switch, ports get "locked" to a phone (phone works fine on one port, won't work if moved to a different port), second devices on the run through the phone won't talk on the network, etc., just weird things that a reset fixes every time. Only seems to be an issue with MiNet phones, SIP based phones have no issues, and the manufacturer is... ummm... lets just say "less than helpful" on these issues. Needless to say we are looking for an alternative.

We have one site with a Mitel 5000 and Ubigate Switch and I have also experienced the above. Obviously not a good combination.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: matthew on July 01, 2014, 07:05:14 PM
I must have been going cross-eyed. It's an Accton, not Adtran. I see that the Edgeconnect is also "Powered by Accton".
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: x-man on July 02, 2014, 03:45:40 AM
We use Zyxel (http://amzn.to/2akz5uV) smart switches for the really cash strapped and GS series for the others. Have also tried Huawei on one site but not cheap. Rock solid though.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: jrg0852 on July 03, 2014, 08:12:49 AM
We have many clients using Dell POE switches and servers. Can't say I've heard of many if any issues. Maybe the model(s) involved? But besides that, I must go back to the age old adage:

You get what you pay for.

Thanks.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: martyn on July 03, 2014, 08:24:49 AM
If you are only after layer 2 the the Cisco 200 (http://amzn.to/2a8val6) series small business switches are a good fit
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: matthew on April 01, 2015, 11:13:06 PM
Just a follow up to the issues experienced with rebranded Accton switches having issues on Mitel. I'm not in a position to change out a couple of these for other brands, so I've gradually been trying different things to see if I can stop the problem. So far, it seems that disabling LLDP stops the weirdness. I have one that has nearly 6 months of uptime without experiencing the issues (would have been longer but they upgraded UPSs). They used to become unresponsive within weeks.
Title: Re: "Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches
Post by: matthew on October 14, 2015, 11:22:29 PM
Just to substantiate my previous post - the switch in question now has an uptime of 367days. It looks like LLDP is the culprit.