[asterisk-users] network design philosophy and practice

[Daniel Hazelbaker]

On Oct 29, 2008, at 10:10 AM, Darrick Hartman wrote:

> David Gibbons wrote:
>> Two separate networks? Did I miss something? I feel like I'm taking
>> crazy pills! Two separate physical networks means twice the hassle,
>> twice the maintenance, twice the cost, twice the headache. Not to
>> mention the fact that the whole idea of VOIP is to simplify IT and
>> focus on converging data and voice networks.
>>
>> This is what VLANs and QOS do best. I dare say it's what they were
>> designed foe. I can't think of any reason that I would ever recommend
>> two ports per desk to support telephony -- ever. It's ludicrous to
>> think that two ports will be better than one if we're setting up our
>> VLANs and QOS properly. A phone takes very, very little bandwidth
>> away from the desktop and a decent one will support tagging its
>> frames for the alternate voice VLAN.
>
> EVER?  What about Gigabit networks with 10/100 phones?  While some
> Gigabit phones are available, gigabit POE switches are not cheap,  
> while
> non-POE gigabit switches are pretty cheap and most business class
> desktops these days come with gigabit network connections.  In a new
> wiring install I almost always insist on two jacks per location rather
> than relying on pass-thru connectors on phones.  Try giving a few  
> users
> gigabit access to an Exchange server, then taking it away.  They will
> certainly not be happy!

I always considered myself to be rather tight on budget, but maybe I  
have more money available than most.  We use the SGE2000P LinkSys  
Gigabit, Managed, PoE switches and they work great.  I get them for  
about $800, which is just under $200 more than the non-PoE version.  I  
don't find that to be an excessive price since most decent managed non- 
PoE switches are in the $500-$600 range (I'm sorry, I just can't bring  
myself to buy a D-Link or NetGear Gigabit managed switch for $300 to  
run my entire network on, maybe they are fine but they always struck  
me as a "small player" so to speak).

Daniel

> Darrick