BUILD Advice Switch Ethernet

[jgreco]

C'mon you're an engineer right?

I thought he was a fancy Python reply script.

 

[Ericloewe]

I thought he was a fancy Python reply script.

I'd like to think my sense of humor cannot be captured by a simple Python script.

As for the "just don't use fans" solution: Be careful. Someone is bound to mistake that for serious advice and we might get a Linus Tech Tips episode out of it...

On second thought, don't be careful.

 

[anodos]

I'd like to think my sense of humor cannot be captured by a simple Python script.

As for the "just don't use fans" solution: Be careful. Someone is bound to mistake that for serious advice and we might get a Linus Tech Tips episode out of it...

On second thought, don't be careful.

Sounds like a great project idea to suggest to him. Someone should contact him. Based on his previous videos I'm sure a vendor will donate some wickedly expensive network kit for a jury-rigged water-cooling experiment.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/album.php?albumid=47

 

[Ericloewe]

Sounds like a great project idea to suggest to him. Someone should contact him. Based on his previous videos I'm sure a vendor will donate some wickedly expensive network kit for a jury-rigged water-cooling experiment.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/album.php?albumid=47

All that water is going to mess with the radios' performance... Cue the inevitable "huh, my WiFi sucks now, but the router is rock-solid now that it doesn't overheat".

I find it silly that "My router's CPU is operating perilously close to its maximum junction temperature" is a statement that applies to many cases, these days. When Asus decided to really invest in the market a couple of years back (with products like the RT-N66U), they literally reused PSU models originally meant for netbooks.

 

[jgreco]

All that water is going to mess with the radios' performance... Cue the inevitable "huh, my WiFi sucks now, but the router is rock-solid now that it doesn't overheat".

I find it silly that "My router's CPU is operating perilously close to its maximum junction temperature" is a statement that applies to many cases, these days. When Asus decided to really invest in the market a couple of years back (with products like the RT-N66U), they literally reused PSU models originally meant for netbooks.

The obvious solution would be to position your router away from your access points.

Oh. Poor sorry bastards. They can't do that because they're using those all-in-one consumer grade pieces of $#!+ that are commonly mis-referred to as "routers."

Mostly inexcusable these days. You can put a decent edge router/NAT gateway in the form of something like a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter PoE, which (if you get the 48V supply) will actually power several commercial grade access points like the Ubiquiti Unifi AP AC Pro, and then a low cost high flexibility switch like the Netgear Prosafe GS108Tv2. This stuff gives you an uncompromising network made out of high quality hardware, including the ability to install multiple access points that act as a single wireless system.

 

[Ericloewe]

The obvious solution would be to position your router away from your access points.

Oh. Poor sorry bastards. They can't do that because they're using those all-in-one consumer grade pieces of $#!+ that are commonly mis-referred to as "routers."

Mostly inexcusable these days. You can put a decent edge router/NAT gateway in the form of something like a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter PoE, which (if you get the 48V supply) will actually power several commercial grade access points like the Ubiquiti Unifi AP AC Pro, and then a low cost high flexibility switch like the Netgear Prosafe GS108Tv2. This stuff gives you an uncompromising network made out of high quality hardware, including the ability to install multiple access points that act as a single wireless system.

Average Joe is going to stick with "Oooooh... So many antennas, and they're so big!".

Funniest part is that these new fashionable antennas are mostly empty plastic. Inside, there's just a stubby little dipole, like the old-style stubby antennas.

That said, enterprise-grade APs are overkill for most people. Just not shoving VPN, torrent, NAS and god knows what else duties onto a puny ARM (for the recent high performance stuff)/MIPS (mostly older stuff)/ARC (literally descended from the SNES SuperFX add-on chip!) running Linux would go a long way towards reasonable territory.

 

[jgreco]

That said, enterprise-grade APs are overkill for most people. Just not shoving VPN, torrent, NAS and god knows what else duties onto a puny ARM (for the recent high performance stuff)/MIPS (mostly older stuff)/ARC (literally descended from the SNES SuperFX add-on chip!) running Linux would go a long way towards reasonable territory.

Honestly, I'm from back in the day when I was quite happy to have a 20MHz 68020 based UNIX system with 4MB of RAM because it represented a hell of an upgrade from the previous 6MHz 68000 with 512KB.

The fact that I can get a dual core 880MHz 5 port router box with 256MB RAM and 256MB flash for $49 today absolutely amazes me. Today's overkill becomes tomorrow's standard.

 

[JDCynical]

(May or may not have jury rigged a 120mm fan to replace three loud 60mm fans in his procurve 2824 on the rack)

 

[Ericloewe]

Honestly, I'm from back in the day when I was quite happy to have a 20MHz 68020 based UNIX system with 4MB of RAM because it represented a hell of an upgrade from the previous 6MHz 68000 with 512KB.

The fact that I can get a dual core 880MHz 5 port router box with 256MB RAM and 256MB flash for $49 today absolutely amazes me. Today's overkill becomes tomorrow's standard.

I've noticed that their pricing seems pretty damn awesome and I've been meaning to look into their product range.
The non-standard PoE bugs me a bit, but I wouldn't be able to use it over fiber anyway.

 

[jgreco]

I've noticed that their pricing seems pretty damn awesome and I've been meaning to look into their product range.
The non-standard PoE bugs me a bit, but I wouldn't be able to use it over fiber anyway.

Well, there's some things to know.

Ubiquiti's target market is the fixed wireless (wireless ISP) market, so their product line very closely matches the type of components you'd need in setting up such a thing. That means low cost, well built gear with sometimes surprising specs, such as the Unifi AP AC Pro which is actually rated for both indoor and outdoor applications (though probably not *wet* applications). If you look at their intended applications for something like the EdgeRouter POE, it is clearly meant as a component of a small wireless deployment.

The original EdgeRouter 3/POE/etc have a lower MHz Cavium CPU that has *significantly* enhanced packet forwarding capabilities, able to hit 1 million PPS.

The EdgeRouter-X units are cheaper, have a faster CPU, but lack the hardware assist, being more in the range of 130K PPS. But if you look at the capabilities of your average home router, they're still totally awesome because they are only $50, and they support most of the Vyatta features.

They're not as easy to configure as a home router, but that's because most home routers say "here's your NAT" and just act as a NAT gateway. This thing *can* do NAT, multiple NAT, or act as an actual router. For the ER-X, the five ports can be treated as individual routed ports, or connected to an internal switch, etc. You can set up LACP, VLAN's, OSPF, DHCP, VPN's, etc., etc., but doing so isn't likely to be click-and-go.

I don't know what you mean by "non-standard PoE"; they do use passive PoE a lot, which is a reflection on their intended deployment scenario. The EdgeRouter PoE, for example, can be outfitted with a 48V supply and will happily run devices that accept standard passive PoE. I've run stuff like a Cisco VOIP phone off the ER-POE's in the past. Pretty much anything that doesn't actually implement 802.3af can be called "non-standard" but that doesn't mean "isn't useful."

 

[danb35]

The only issue I have with Ubiquiti is the near-total lack of support. There's nobody I can call, email, chat, or even put in a ticket on a web form (other than for an RMA). There is a forum (which I haven't really investigated), but I don't really consider a forum as a proper official support tool for a paying customer. Though when my UniFi AP bricked, I was able to get an RMA for it, and they turned that around pretty quickly.

 

[fta]

The only issue I have with Ubiquiti is the near-total lack of support. There's nobody I can call, email, chat, or even put in a ticket on a web form (other than for an RMA). There is a forum (which I haven't really investigated), but I don't really consider a forum as a proper official support tool for a paying customer. Though when my UniFi AP bricked, I was able to get an RMA for it, and they turned that around pretty quickly.

Their forum is fantastic. Ubiquiti employees (including developers on the products) actually read and reply on the forums. And they're not just giving lip service. They're working with the user. I've posted suggestions and feature requests and they showed up in the next beta release. Their forum (and the great hardware too) is the reason I went from just an ERL, to an AC Pro, to a US-8-150W switch. If only this forum had the same attitude as theirs.

 

[danb35]

Good to hear. I still tend to think that a forum isn't a proper official support tool, but it's good to hear that theirs is informative.

 

[jgreco]

The only issue I have with Ubiquiti is the near-total lack of support. There's nobody I can call, email, chat, or even put in a ticket on a web form (other than for an RMA).

Some of us are fine with that. In general, the large amounts of extra money you'd pay to get "support" tend to be the preferred method of vendors to separate people from their money. It's certainly nice to be able to contact someone familiar with a product and get some informed assistance with it.

But go price that out sometime. Just to pick up something like a Cisco 2901 is like $700, and then to get the support contract (which you need for firmware updates etc) is several hundred dollars more.

Or a Meraki MR32 access point at $500. Which still requires the purchase of a cloud controller license.

I'm not that big on support. Or even on warranties for that matter. Just give me the stuff I need at a reasonable price and I can take care of the rest.

 

[Jacopx]

I'm trying to buy a switch during this Amazon Prime Day... Somebody know this switch? It could be a good choice?

https://goo.gl/ugkmla

EDIT: stupid idea... Is not managed...

 

[Stux]

(May or may not have jury rigged a 120mm fan to replace three loud 60mm fans in his procurve 2824 on the rack)

You mean like this?


No reason that you can't add a nice big 24cm fan or so to a 10gbe switch. They just need upsizing to 2U ;)

With cablemanagement U above the switch, it doesn't even use an extra to add the additional fans.