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

[Sean Kennedy]

> 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.

1. I will be responsible for the management, as I am the contractor for 
that office ( typically ), until they get large enough to get their own 
on site tech.

2. No, which is why they hire me.

3. The purchaser does, I make sure they understand their options before 
they make their decision.  Now, they may base their decision off my 
recommendation, but that's their choice to make still, I am not 
responsible for that.

> 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.

As I mentioned, I take care of my clients until they get large enough to 
need an on site tech.  Managed switches allow more control over the 
network, which makes all kinds of sense in an unsupervised enviroment.

> 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.

I have very few clients that plan on staying small, therefore, buying 
equipment "just to get by" until they get larger doesn't make any 
sense.  I set them up and I set them up right, so when they do become 
large, they don't get growing pains.  The few clients I do have that 
don't plan on getting large I still recommend a managed switch ( I don't 
stress it as heavily ).  It's just too damned handy, and truly, 5-600 
bucks is a good investment on network equipment, and as mentioned, is a 
tax write off. 

After being a contractor for as many years as I have been, I've stopped 
worrying about cost.  It's not that it's not important, far from it.  
However, it's more important to get the right equipment setup the first 
time around, instead of piecing equipment together as they get larger.  
I had a customer that I thought would never need a 10/100 managed switch 
with a few gigabit ports, but I set them up with it anyway ( I even told 
the customer that they probably wouldn't need it, but they decided to go 
with it because I recommended they do so ), only to find that, a year 
later, they were using even the managed features of the switch ( voip 
situation that I was not a part of ).  Since they went VoIP, and I 
wasn't able to supply them with that, I'm not their contractor anymore.  
However, I still get referrences from them.  ;)

It's all about making the customer happy, and I find customers are 
happiest even when they have to swallow a big pill up front, as apposed 
to later.