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Should I upgrade backbone switch from 10 year old 3Com 4500G hardware?

I am considering upgrading network components for better throughput performance. I have 2 networks with 3com 4500G 24 Port Gig switches acting as the backbone. These were purchased and installed in 2005. I assume these were designed with older networking technology. Would there be any overall, significant performance benefit in replacing these switches with a newer switch such as the ProCurve 2810G or something similar? I only need layer 2 switching. Are there benefits in the newer switches, such as newer designs or technologies that increase handling of network traffic leading to significant increase in performance?

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brasso_42

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eeRoot

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TechND

ASKER

Ah, thank you very much for that. My duties have not required much experience with the internals of a switch until now. Would you be able to tell me what I'd be looking for with this example of data from 2 ports on the switch?

port: GigabitEthernet1/0/7

Input (total): 3386402695 packets, 715312872155 bytes
       9219141 broadcasts, 68022289 multicasts
Input (normal): - packets, - bytes
       - broadcasts, - multicasts
Input: 0 input errors, 0 runts, 0 giants, - throttles
       0 CRC, - frame, - overruns, 0 aborts
       - ignored, - parity errors
Output (total): 4285649369 packets, 1296073137022 bytes
       55379562 broadcasts, 661082715 multicasts, 0 pauses
Output (normal): - packets, - bytes
       - broadcasts, - multicasts, - pauses
Output: 0 output errors, - underruns, - buffer failures
       0 aborts, 0 deferred, 0 collisions, 0 late collisions
       0 lost carrier, - no carrier
----------------------------------------------------------
port: GigabitEthernet1/0/8

Input (total): 900883645 packets, 241113503833 bytes
       7859742 broadcasts, 268009512 multicasts
Input (normal): - packets, - bytes
       - broadcasts, - multicasts
Input: 0 input errors, 0 runts, 0 giants, - throttles
       0 CRC, - frame, - overruns, 0 aborts
       - ignored, - parity errors
Output (total): 1237919134 packets, 486883143983 bytes
       56738959 broadcasts, 463914161 multicasts, 0 pauses
Output (normal): - packets, - bytes
       - broadcasts, - multicasts, - pauses
Output: 0 output errors, - underruns, - buffer failures
       0 aborts, 0 deferred, 0 collisions, 0 late collisions
       0 lost carrier, - no carrier

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brasso_42

PRTG is another good free one

http://www.paessler.com/prtg

TechND

ASKER

I'll have to get in front of that switch and turn on SNMP. Thanks!