On 8/2/07, Chris Bagnall <lists at minotaur dot cc> wrote:
> Greetings list,
>
> Not a directly m0n0wall-related request, but I'm sure plenty of people here use such things so
seems like a good place to ask.
>
> What are folks' recommendations for good semi-managed, cost-effective gigabit switches at the
moment? By "semi-managed" I mean features like port trunking, VLANs, etc, but not necessarily the
full management control a true layer 3 switch would give you.
>

I would define "semi-managed" slightly differently, it's more than L2
vs. L3. I consider the web-only switches to be semi-managed because
usually they're missing something that your typical web and CLI
switches have (again, leaving L2 vs. L3 completely out of the picture,
strictly talking L2).

I have a Netgear GSM712 at home, 12 managed gig ports, web and CLI
access and supports basically every L2 feature you'll find in any good
managed switch. I've been really happy with it. I trunk 6 VLAN's
between Cisco and HP gear and never had a problem with
interoperability or any of its other features. It's been a great
switch for me, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

Dell switches are relatively cheap, but can be buggy depending on what
you need to do with them. The older models (like the 6024, 5324) are a
lot better than the newer ones (like the 6224), but they all have
their quirks (browse the Dell forum and you'll see).

The other all-gig managed switches I use are higher end, higher dollar
L3 stuff, so I'll leave it at that since from your description, that
type of gear sounds way out of your price range. If you want to look,
or if anyone else is interested, I've had great luck with HP gear and
you can't beat it for the price. I'm a Cisco fan as well, but in the
switch market HP currently offers a lot more for the money for most
environments.

-Chris