[Asterisk-Users] [OT] PoE switch question (Netgear FSM7326P works with Cisco)

[Kevin P. Fleming]

Sean Kennedy wrote:

> Differing styles I'm thinking.  Anything more than 4 clients, and I 
> recommend a managed switch ( in most situations ).  Now, this might be 
> because my smaller clients tend towards growth.  They aren't going to 
> stay small.  So I set them up in a way that they will not need to worry 
> about replacing equipment every year, they can just expand with what 
> they have.

Yeah, that's definitely a very different style. In an office with 6 PCs, 
exactly who is ever going to run the management application for that 
switch? Do any of the staff at that location even have a clue what any 
of that information is for? I'd be surprised if any of my clients even 
cared about it at all, to be honest.

I have yet to come across a small business office that could not be well 
served with one or two reliable 16-port switches, of the sub-$100 
variety. If they have more than 32 nodes, then they will likely have 
some on-site staff, and then a managed platform might make sense. In my 
opinion, the "managed switch" is providing no additional value at all if 
no one ever uses the management interface. It certainly isn't going to 
forward packets any differently, unless it implements QoS and there is a 
demonstrated need for it on that LAN.

Yes, very different styles. I try to implement only what my customers 
can afford, without using bargain-basement equipment. Saying "$1000 is a 
  tax right-off (sic)" sounds like something someone who had never run a 
business would say :-) Whether you can write it off or not, it's still 
$900 more than you had to spend. If that $900 pays for a new copier, or 
part of someone's salary, or anything else, it's doing a lot more good 
for the business than the management interface in that switch.

Now granted, as Joe already pointed out, managed switches don't have to 
cost $1000. They only seem to cost that much when they also have PoE in 
them, for some bizarre reason.