Get 100Mbps fast
Written: Feb 09 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to setup, good performance.
Cons: No redundant power supply
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for a decent, manageable switch and it's OK to spend a few bucks, you should consider this switch. It's almost plug-and-play - depending on your configuration.
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| adp's Full Review: Cisco Catalyst 2950 (WS-C2950-12) 12x10/100 Mbps N... |
We're a shop who runs mainly on Enterasys switches, but for a certain project we wanted to have other switches due to some internal reasons. After looking at a few switches we decided to choose the Cisco Catalyst 2950 switch and we're really happy with it. It's easy to setup, relatively easy to configure and has excellent performance.
The configuration we're talking about was quite easy: one switch was needed for connecting a few computers together, no fancy stuff needed. This was the most easy part. Unpacking the switch, installing it into the 19" rack with the material that was provided, connect the power cord and off you go. Last thing to do is to connect the computers and you're done. The switch does good work of speed & duplex sensing, so within seconds, all machines were running at 100 MBps full duplex. So far, so good, but the story continues...
The next few switches were a bit different. We wanted to setup VLAN's to make sure only a few computers could talk to each other. Well, you should know a bit about configuring Cisco equipment, but with a bit of browsing in the manuals (5 minutes, top) you're ready to roll. First you create a VLAN (for Cisco techies: just like an interface) and then you'll put the various machines to the VLAN. No sweat at all. Hooked up the machines and ready to go.
So far the configuration of the switches. There is actually also a web interface to do the configuration, but we like to do it hardcore. Anyway, as for the hardware part of the review, all I can say is that it's Cisco standard stuff. The unit measures 1HE and fits in a 19" rack. It comes with enough material to put it into a rack as well. The leds on the switch can be used to show connection state, speed and duplex state or can be used to show the throughput. One strange thing is that the switch is always set back to the default setting of viewing connection status after 10 seconds. It's not possible to let it show e.g. throughput all the time.
Because the switches are relatively small, it comes with only one power supply. However, it does also feature a connector to a Cisco device on which you can connect more devices (6 or 7 as far as I can recall) and this external power supply can be attached to various power sources.
As far as the performance is concerned, I'm really happy. We're not doing any big tricks with the switches, but I'm able to get a throughput which lies close to wirespeed on these switches. With the switches we use normally we get less performance for a much higher price.
One other nice thing is that the switch can be monitored over both RMON and SNMP. So, get your MRTG up and running and you can create some nice statistics.
If you're looking for a decent, manageable switch and it's OK to spend a few bucks, you should consider this switch. It's almost plug-and-play - depending on your configuration.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 986
Driver Availability: Other
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Epinions.com ID:
adp
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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