Recomended switches for a network of 125 hosts

what about the Procurve 2810-48G  goes for somewhere around ~ $2,000 versus the Cisco 3750G-48Ts around ~ $ 6,000
48 Ethernet, Fast Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet Ports Remote Management over HTTP RMON 1, RMON 2, RMON 3, RMON 9, SNMP 1, SNMP 2c, SNMP 3, SSL, Telnet Warranty: Lifetime

Each switch has 4 dual-personality ports for RJ-45 10/100/1000 or mini-GBIC fiber Gigabit connectivity. Ideal for high-performance and secure 10/100 and Gigabit connectivity, the 2810 series offers access security and advanced prioritization and traffic-monitoring capabilities. The 2810 series is costeffective and easy to use, with a shallow, stackable form factor that provides operational flexibility for use in smaller wiring closets.
 
Stacking capability: single IP address
management for a virtual stack of up to 16
switches, including the ProCurve 2500 series,
2510 series, 2600 series, 2800 series, 2810
series, 2900 series, 3400cl series, 3500yl
series, 4200vl series, 6108, 6200yl-24G-mGBIC,
and 6400cl series  
 

I have to agree with atrevido. The procurve switches are very good, offer 90% of cisco's functionality, and cost about 60% as much. Go with the 3500yl for stacking. It is good.

Well a 6500 can handle way more that 96 gigabit ports.  You can get up to 11 48-ports blades in a 6513, over 500 ports.

But unless you plan to grow a 6513 would be way over kill, in fact I think any of the 6500's or 4500's would be overkill.

Can the 2810-48G do layer 3?  I didn't think it did.

Do you need L3 capability?

Many thanks for the suggestions - but these switches are several thousand (GBP) wheras the SRW2048 is about six hundred!

akalbfell said

"if the linksys has everything else you need but you are just worried about backplane between switches why not user etherchannels between the switches to up the bandwidth? that will help with the backplane issue although you will be using up some ports"

The linksys DOES have everything we want. And it IS just the backplane between switches. But the etherchannels thing confuses me. Is that what the "Port Trunking for up to 8 groups allows you to increase your bandwidth for each uplink or Server connection" is for? Presumably I need to get fibre cables and link the switches with them?

Thanks,

Matt

im a cisco guy, what can i say...
in regards to the 96 gig ports i was thinking specifically a 6506 which i believe that is true for although i could be wrong...

yes, sorry etherchannel is a cisco term but its a trunk. essentially bridging multiple links to combine bandwidth.

Awesome - many thanks. If you can group up to 8 pairs then that means I can have four links between switch1 & switch2, and then 4 between switch2 & switch3 - giving a 4gigabit uplink between each one?

Many thanks - will probably stick with our srw2048.

yep, thats probably your best bet

Thanks so much - you saved my bacon man!