"Cheap" PoE Manages swtiches

[acejavelin]

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.

[sarond]

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

[Mattmayn]

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.

[acejavelin]

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.

[martyn]

My suggestion would be for the Cisco sf-300 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.

[ralph]

Does anyone use Adtran?

Also, for SOHO I've used Netgear ProSAFE unmanaged data switches with good results.  8 ports POE.

Ralph

[acejavelin]

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.

[bluewhite4]

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.

[Maximillian]

I would look at ADTRAN mentioned above. Lifetime warranty and good support.

[acejavelin]

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.

[matthew]

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.

[matthew]

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. 

[sarond]

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.

[matthew]

I must have been going cross-eyed. It's an Accton, not Adtran. I see that the Edgeconnect is also "Powered by Accton".

[x-man]

We use Zyxel 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.