Fw: Need a managed Gigabit switch....? 16 port £69+VAT

[Gareth Cook <g@xxxxxxxxxx>]

from elsewhere...



Well mine arrived today, and I thought I'd share my thoughts on the kit=20
with you all (in the hope that it may help someone either decide to get=20
it, or realise that it's not for them). Because the offer is now running=20
until the end of January and this thread has been active for a week, I=20
have decided to post here rather than in the Computing forum.

Physical=20
The unit arrived well packaged and unscathed, despite the box receiving
a=20
light beating on the way over (image). The unit itself is smaller than I=20
had expected (image) but is clearly solid and well built. As has been=20
pointed out by people on other forums, Dell appears to have used Delta=20
Networks OEM design - the features and physical appearance are almost=20
exactly the same (link). This being a "smart" /
"web-managed" switch,=20
there is no console port to be found on the exterior, like there would
be=20
on (much more expensive) fully managed switches. Moving to the rear (image
) , we find a single power socket, helpfully covered with a label=20
reminding us to remove said label before use (image). There is no on/off=20
switch on the unit. Come to think of it, there are no switches at all=20
(with the exception of a depressed button next to port 16 to switch=20
managed mode on/off (image )). Brackets to fit this unit in to a
standard=20
19" rack were also supplied with it.

Starting her up...=20
Powering the unit on is as simple as plugging the cable in. In unmanaged=20
mode the switch comes online almost immediately, although the
"management=20
mode" light flashes on/off slowly for a minute or so, presumably as a
part=
=20
of the bootup process. Since I was mainly interested in the management=20
features of this switch, I enabled management mode immediately. After=20
poking a pencil-head in to the "Managed Mode" hole the switch
rebooted=20
immediatley and took on a slower boot process. Whilst it came up=20
immediately again, each port seemed to go offline one after the other in=20
succession, only to come back online a second or so later. Ports running=20
at 1Gbps Full Duplex show Green/Green LED's, whilst ports running at=20
100Mbps Full Duplex show Amber/Green LED's (image ).

Management=20
Logging in to the switch was straight-forward. It has a default IP address=
=20
of 192.168.2.1, a default username of admin, and absolutely no password. I=
=20
shalln't go over all the details of the web GUI (as you can find them
all=20
in the manual if you are interested), but I will make some general=20
observations. Firstly, it's slow! Expect to wait a good second or two
for=20
each page to load. Secondly, some pages seem inaccessible using Firefox=20
(such as RMON statistics) - it throws me back to the login page.
However,=20
it works fine using IE6 and IE7. I suspect that it's a firmware issue that=
=20
will be fixed in a future release (although there has been no new firmware=
=20
since the initial revision). Aside from the above, all the management=20
features I've tested work correctly and perform well (I've been toying=20
with port mirroring in particular). For those with longish cables, take=20
some heart in the fact that I had absolutely no issue connecting a
server=20
some ~50m away (although this was only at 100Mbps FDX - I haven't got a=20
gigabit card in that machine).

Performance=20
Whilst I haven't had a chance to perform any detailed performance=20
statistics, I can at least offer the following:
(1) A transfer of a 497MB file between two Windows desktops via a standard=
=20
SMB share took 14.1 seconds - averaging some 35MB/s (Although I believe=20
that hard drives are the limiting factor above this point)
(2) A "netspd" benchmark reported transfers of some 92MB/s (keep
in mind=20
that this uses RAM, not HDD). Benchmarking app can be found: here

No optimisations were performed on the desktops and jumbo frames were
not=20
enabled (most of my kit here does not support jumbo frames, so it would=20
just cause issues elsewhere).

Hacking around=20
Appealing to the hacker in me, I decided to have a little dig in to the=20
firmware provided by Dell. The Delta website seems to mention the
ability=20
to backup and restore configurations, although the Dell lacks this. The=20
Dell manual also explicitly says that it does not support SNMP (the
Delta=20
website does not even mention it). Performing a full port scan on the=20
management IP of the switch revealed that only port 80 was open - no=20
hidden telnet, SNMP or any other ports I'm afraid. Undeterred, I=20
downloaded the Dell firmware and fired up "strings" on a Unix
machine.=20
Despite lots of interesting strings (bootup messages, references to=20
"Bryant" everywhere, and mentions of "uIP 0.9" (uIP
TCP/IP stack)), there=20
is no hidden SNMP support, no hidden CLI and only one or two hidden HTML=20
pages (which just have help text anyway). Results of applying strings to=20
the two binary files can be found here and here . I was going to try=20
loading the generic Delta Networks firmware on to the device, but could=20
not find any on the Delta website.

I tried opening up the switch to have a poke around inside (I suspect=20
there's pinouts somewhere for a diagnostic output), but I failed miserably=
=20
and rounded off a screw in the process - oops. I may have a bash in the=20
future, but I needed to put it in to use so it'll have to wait for now.

Summary=20
In summary, I think this is an excellent bit of hardware for the money. If=
=20
you're thinking about getting a 16 port gigabit switch, then I'd
strongly=20
consider this one - even if you don't need the management features.

An alternative?=20
If you'd rather get something else, you might like to look at HP's 1800-8G=
=20
(discussed further up in this thread). HP currently have 10% off + free=20
delivery on all products (over christmas), plus a =A315 rebate on=20
1800-series switches. Whilst you can't seem to buy the 1800-series online,=
=20
you should be able to get it over the phone. With these discounts, you=20
should be able to get it at pretty much exactly the same price as the Dell=
=20
- although you will only have half the number of ports.


----- Forwarded by Gareth Cook/UK/IBM on 26/01/2007 07:28 -----

Discussion
Main Topic

ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Today 01:13

.
Subject:
.
[ukha_d] Need a managed Gigabit switch....? 16 port =A369+VAT
.
Category:



Just a heads up really to this post by Eddie in the Automated Home=20
'bargain forum' as it seems to warrant its forum title, or am I missing=20
something here ?

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=3D1230

It's a Dell 16 port managed Gigabit switch for =A369+VAT with12 months=20
onsite warranty.  It's fanless - so silent and includes 19" rack=20
mounting ears. Also both unmanaged and web managed operation and port=20
mirroring for 'snooping' .    There's a 24 port as well but looks like=20
it may have a fan as pic shows a vent on the back ...

Kevin










[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]