On 08/07/14 13:53, Russell Coker wrote:
Are there any cheap GigE (or even 100baseT) switches that support STP? One of my clients that is likely to create an Ethernet loop needs some new desktop switches.
I've seen affordable switches advertised with "loopback protection", what does that mean? Presumably that will deal with the situation where a switch is connected to itself, but what about when (not if) 2 switches are connected via 2 cables in a loop?
Used Cisco 2960's (2950's are getting rather long in the tooth) and just buy a few spares perhaps. They're also pretty quiet. If you want new, the higher end Linksys, Netgear and D-Link units are all perfectly acceptable for simple L2 work. You want what's often called "managed", "web smart" level normally isn't enough. If it was my choice I'd buy new Juniper EX (2200 for simple L2), or Cisco Catalyst (2960-X), I'm long past the point of wanting to burn time to work around crap gear, or even "ok" gear that requires effort to get going and manage.