[c-nsp] cheap core switch for a "hacker space" (nonprofit association)

[Phil Mayers]

On 09/12/13 12:45, Markus H wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I know that this list is more for service provider discussions, but I feel
> like this is still the most suited place to ask.
>
> We just founded a hacker space [1] and are about to setup our home. For a
> few rooms full of people making and creating things and working on nerdy
> stuff you need a good networking infrastructure. So I have come to the
> following requirements:
>
> Fully managed, layer 3 and IPv6 capable switch(es) with 48 ports in total,
> at least 24 of them gigabit.
>
> The most affordable solution for me seems to be a stack of 3750s: 3750G-24T
> + 3750-24TS. Which has the added benefit that we could add another
> 3750G-24T to increase the number of gigabit ports later on.

You might want to be a bit careful about which specific models are EoS 
in that range; I lose track of which are current and which are old.

But 3750 stacks are a decent-ish product that will serve small L3 
networks reasonably well.

One important thing to bear in mind: All the cheap Catalyst devices, 
including 3750, have tiny tiny buffers, so tend to drop under 
microbursts. Search the archives for more details, but this can make it 
hard to get the full throughput out of them, *particularly* if you're 
going from 1G to 100M ports.

[This is usually true on competing products from other vendors in the 
same price range too[

You can't solve that without paying a lot more e.g. Cat4k range.