Looking for switch recommendations ...

[Wes Peters]

On Friday 26 March 2004 11:08 am, Bakul Shah wrote:
> > What is the difference between Layer2 and Layer3, and what does that
> > affect?
>
> Layer3 == routing (based on IP destination address)
> Layer2 == switching (based on enet dest. address)
>
> Layer3 is probably not important for you.

That depends.  For a test network, a VLAN-capable Layer3 switch can be quite 
a nice tool, because you can partition the switch into 2 or 3 separate 
virtual networks without buying a bunch of boxes.

I write this not because I think VLAN switches are a general necessity, but 
rather because I have an idea of the kinds of activities Marc gets involved 
in, and suspect his networking needs are often far beyond ordinary.

I'm going to add a testimonial for the HP switches here.  Given that I'm a 
former Xylan/Alcatel employee, this should carry some weight.  The Alcatel 
architecture is fairly good, but it carries a lot of baggage from the Xylan 
"any to any" switching architecture which tends to drive their cost up a 
bit.  The HP ProCurves perform well and are reliable and (relatively) 
cheap.

-- 
         "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"

Wes Peters                                              wes at softweyr.com