4800G - worth buying?

[merrym]

Hi,

we are going to upgrade our layer 3 switches. Basically we will go from 100 Mbit/s to 1000 Mbit/s. cabling is Cat6 or OM2, so no problem. OSPFv2 for IPv4 is needed, well as those switches will have to stay for a while IPv6 is necessary, too. Although it isn´t needed for now. DHCP-Snooping and of course a working loop protection.
Talking about warranty: The most modular switches only have a low warranty period. So, let´s take stackable switches

So, I looked and compared many of them. Well, there´s also a huge price difference a Cisco (3570-X with advanced ip services license) and a 3COM 4800G. There must be a technical difference?

I haven´t seen any real review of the 4800G, yet. So I´m asking you, whether you would buy the 4800G again? What advantages does it have? Any noticable disadvantages?

thanks in advance

Merry

 

[SYQUEST]

With the merger of HP and 3Com, who knows what they discontinue next! You might want to really look around.

....JIM....

 

[merrym]

Well, according to HP both series, 3com and HP will be continued. But what do you suggest?

 

[MrNick0483]

You might want to do some more research on a Cisco.

 

[merrym]

Well, I obviously did and the price difference is high. Back to my initial questions. Let´s talk about the 4800G series...

 

[cknipe]

Let me ask you this? Why are biased towards cisco? do you already have experience with it? Do you know what the TCO will be for cisco over 5 years? Most enterprise 3com switches come with a lifetime warranty. You generally only need to purchase a support contract if you want tech support or faster rma service (up to 4 hour hardware SLA's availible) To my knowledge, the silicon used in the chips in cisco switches is supposed to be a slightly higher grade than the standard commercial grade silicon used in all the other vendors chips. other than that, switches are becoming a commodity these days like eggs and milk. Everyone's selling them now, and everyone has thier own unique features.

Having said that, I have had experience with wannabe vendors like, netgear, dlink, linksys and have found that they absolutely do not belong in a business environment. I have seen too many of those products fail from exhaustion.

But the real enterprise producs like, cisco, 3com, hp, extreme tend to have longer life spans in my experience.

 

[cknipe]

after reading this I forgot to really touch on the 4800G. Its a good priced gig switch but the downside to it is that it does not allow you to stack it. If you want a stackable 3com switch you need to look at the 4500 and 5500's. Other than that its a more than capable L3 switch. I have it installed as the core switch for one of my customers. I havent touched it since we put it in 2 years ago.

 

[merrym]

Thanks for your info. Looking at the spec sheet, it says that it can be stacked

 

[merrym]

Well, I ordered one. Let´s see how it is...

 

[FaiTHLeSS]

You can stack 4800G switches, im currently running around 40ish 4800G switches stacked and unstacked all PoE based models. I havent had any issues with them they have been in place for about 9months now.

If you want to stack them you need to buy the following module to get in the back of the switch 3Com® 2-Port Local Connection Module.

The only downside to these switch could be the PoE side, where power is limited unless you buy the DC supply which acts as a backup supply or extra PoE power. If your PoE requirments arent high then it shouldn't be an issue.

The fibre based 4800g can take 2 power supplies in the back of it unlike the other models.

 

[merrym]

Thanks four the information. So some additional costs for stacking that switch. Well, the 4800G arrived today. I "played" a little with it. First thing,

"conf t" is becoming system-view
"show" is becoming display

Well, I get used to it...