POE Switch - Larger than 24

1,706 Views | 30 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by UmustBKidding
dummble
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AG
Anyone have a preference on brands of POE switches?
We have a 24 port that our network lady says is maxed out with 22 ports filled and it is dropping printers. she said to get the next size up which I guess is 48 and since they are twice the size twice the cost? This is for a small office
UmustBKidding
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How many devices really need poe? What type of poe? Poe, poe+ poe++ 51w poe++ 75w or even passive? I seriously doubt you need poe on every port an dividing devices between a poe and non poe devices might be the most cost effective solution.
Ubiquity probably a good option. Also do you want a managed or unmanaged device? So dont know your infrastructure but just buy one with twice as many ports tells me person making the suggestion may not have a clue either.
DallasTeleAg
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That's not enough information.

What devices are plugged into the switch? What type of business?

You could just get another 24-port switch, unless your current switch is old and needs to be replaced. If you are looking at a 48-port switch, that pricing can range from $300 to over $4,000. It depends on what type of data traffic you have and therefore the type of performance you require, whether it needs to be POE or POE+, or whether it needs to be able to perform layer 2 or 3 routing. Does the switch need a 1Gig or 10Gig uplink to your firewall?

I'm a fan of Meraki, but there are cheaper options out there. What is your current 24-port switch? Are you having network issues with it?
FatZilla
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Does every device actually need POE that is on the switch? If not, just get a new regular 24p gig switch and move all non poe to it.
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Picard
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Slocum on a mobile said:

And yeah, guys... he could need power on every port for VOIP... again, old network guy.


Show me these PoE printers

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Picard
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You apparently know everything..except how to spot a joke

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UmustBKidding
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Not an old network guy until your recommendation involves vampire taps and aui cables. I lived and worked through the conversation from ncp to tcp/ip.
Really old network guy.
dummble
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14 voip phones, so 14 need POE, each phone passes through to the users PC, 4 networked printers. some offices have multiple lan plus so it depends on how the user set up their furniture

We added 4 offices in a remodel of our building and after the network people rewired everything we are having all sorts of issues.

We ordered a second 24 port POE switch.

We had our first zoom call since the new offices came online and it was choppy as hell even though our internet speed connection is blazing fast. so it has to be something internally. We are not sure if we call comcast, or the voip people, or the people who wired us up. the last time this happened they all just point fingers at the other one.
dummble
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Netgear and yes we seem to be having issue now printing, seeing the printers and general network bogged down feeling
nwspmp
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I'm a fan of HPE/Aruba switches personally, but also have had good luck with Arista (though, I don't know what their PoE offerings are).

That said, based on the numbers, it looks like you only need 14-18 PoE ports (14 current phones, one more each for the four new offices) and another 4-8 ports for network printers.

Does your current switch have any fiber uplink ports (SFP, SFP+, SFP28, etc...)?

If so, get a regular switch (preferably same brand assuming there are no problems) and trunk it to the PoE switch. Move any non-PoE devices to the new switch to free up PoE ports. There's no reason for printers to have PoE ports.

Also, only patch in the ports specifically used. So, if an office has four network ports, but only is using two (printer and PoE phone) then only patch in the two; no need to waste a port if it's not in regular use.

Check the phones to see if they're configured correctly for pass-thru network connection; I've seen some that reduce connection speed to 100Mbit or have other funky settings that affect network performance for the downstream devices.

Also, if you've recently had network maintenance done on the wiring plant, and it's having problems, get them back out to test and verify the cabling or ask for a report of the wiring tests. Any reputable company should have provided network cabling test documentation for anything they worked on.

What are you using for routing of the Internet connection? There are a LOT of questions and devices along the path that could affect a specific application from working properly.
dummble
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A few years ago when comcast upgraded our speed and switched us to voip they brought in a new modem/router that had the WAN and VOIP integrated along with another cable modem and voip router that were supposed to help the voip. Then we had to buy the POE switch to power the comcast equipment. The voip service and phones seemed to piss everyone in office and the outside sales people off since physical buttons were replaced with *55 codes that no one could remember. We switched to another voip provider who replaced the phones. I am not sure if we still need the second cable modem or arris box.

According to the new voip guys, comcast controls the router offsite and they limited the number of internal ip addresses which was messing the static ip's we were assigning to laptops. As we grow the whole things becomes more of a mess since the network is hodgepodged from different providers and serviced by employees (me) who barely understands home networks.
DallasTeleAg
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Why are you assigning static IP addresses to laptops?

Do you not have your own firewall, handing DHCP? Comcast will give you a static external IP, but internal IPs should be handed out using DHCP. If you don't have a firewall between Comcast and your network, I would make that investment.
nwspmp
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dummble said:

A few years ago when comcast upgraded our speed and switched us to voip they brought in a new modem/router that had the WAN and VOIP integrated along with another cable modem and voip router that were supposed to help the voip. Then we had to buy the POE switch to power the comcast equipment. The voip service and phones seemed to piss everyone in office and the outside sales people off since physical buttons were replaced with *55 codes that no one could remember. We switched to another voip provider who replaced the phones. I am not sure if we still need the second cable modem or arris box.

According to the new voip guys, comcast controls the router offsite and they limited the number of internal ip addresses which was messing the static ip's we were assigning to laptops. As we grow the whole things becomes more of a mess since the network is hodgepodged from different providers and serviced by employees (me) who barely understands home networks.
Completely agreed with DallasTeleAg above.

If you're not using the Comcast provided VoIP anymore, then you should have only a cable modem from them and your own router on your side of it.

Cable -> Cable Modem <--> Your Router (handles network routing, etc, DHCP/DNS if no ActiveDirectory) <--> Your switch/Network/Servers/Workstations/etc

At this point, you may want to find a decent MSP or network management company to come in and at least do a once-over on the configs and get a few things setup. There are many ways to do it wrong, and all it takes is one for some serious havoc to befall the network or your data.
dummble
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We were, no longer anymore. It started because the scanner would scan smb direct to a file folder on your PC, but the laptop people who take them home would get to work and be assigned a new ip by the router so the scanner wouldn't work. Everyone just has the scanner email things now.
dummble
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The company that does our voip also does networking so I am thinking we will have them out when the new switch shows up.

Getting rid of the comcast equipment is probably the best idea but no one has a stomach for down time around here and nothing ever seems to happen seamlessly.
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Tailgate88
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Slocum on a mobile said:

UmustBKidding said:

Not an old network guy until your recommendation involves vampire taps and aui cables. I lived and worked through the conversation from ncp to tcp/ip.
Really old network guy.



I'm old enough that made me cringe. I remember 10b2, AAUI connections and Banyan Vines, all that ball of fun.


Anyone have a spare token ring card with Novell Netware drivers I can borrow?
dummble
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Like physically separate them? Most of the offices only have 1 network port so the phones have to be pass through.

If we got our own router and WAN do we just get something off the shelf? We do not really have a network admin.
Tailgate88
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Slocum on a mobile said:

You need to get an overall picture of your network traffic. MRTG, ExtraHop, Kentik, something. If you're seeing a lot of collisions / rebroadcasts, etc. The VOIP stuff is pretty chatty. You need a managed switch that you can control things. Sounds like that's not the case at present.

Your best bet would be to separate the VOIP stuff from the regular network attached stuff like PCs and printers. Separate VLANs would effectively do this.
I've seen where an office has upgraded to VOIP, and the phone vendor came in, slapped in a POE switch, plugged the phones into the walls and the computers in to a spare Ethernet jack in the phones, and called it a day.
Oh Four Five
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dummble said:

Like physically separate them? Most of the offices only have 1 network port so the phones have to be pass through.

If we got our own router and WAN do we just get something off the shelf? We do not really have a network admin.
No, physical separation is not necessary. You should be able to logically separate the traffic using a voice VLAN and a data VLAN.

Sounds like you may want to consider getting a local IT shop to help out or find someone to do some 1099 work for you to get you straightened out and pointed in the right direction. They should be accustomed to working after hours/weekends to make changes, so unless you're running 24x7, downtime can be limited.
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dummble
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We have a company coming out in the morning. I will report back so you guys can tell me what they did wrong.
dummble
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It seems that even though the cradlepoint was wired correctly, the box was sending out ip addresses which was making everything else sad. We pulled it off the network and everything fixed it self. I am not sure we need to cradlepoint anyway.
rbcs_2
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I would throw that cradlepoint in the trash just for having a stupid name.
DallasTeleAg
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dummble said:

It seems that even though the cradlepoint was wired correctly, the box was sending out ip addresses which was making everything else sad. We pulled it off the network and everything fixed it self. I am not sure we need to cradlepoint anyway.
I've had a customer with a similar issue. They had some goofy wireless router inside their network for wifi. When they experienced a power issue and everything rebooted, the dinky little wireless router started handing out IP addresses, which caused some devices to lose internet connectivity.

You need a firewall/router in place to handle the routing effectively. All this chatter about voice VLANs is not necessary for a small office environment unless you are pushing CAD files across your network constantly or are a graphic design firm.

Invest in a proper network. A basic Meraki network for a small business with a Firewall, 48port POE switch (370W) and two WAPs would cost about $5,089 for hardware, licensing, and installation.

Look at what you can spend at the end of the year and put that in your IT budget. You could go cheaper, if you like. I just don't usually quote cheap network gear. I leave that to one-man IT shops.

Oh Four Five
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The only reason you would need a CradlePoint is if you were trying to use an LTE connection as a backup to your primary connection. They make a good product but you can get better value with their competitors.
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UmustBKidding
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I carry an old cradlepoint and aircard in my go bag and it has saved the day on multiple outings, they for sure have their place. But enterprise deployment save for a few high end models is not that place. On ships, in a conex box on an island, even to enable a credit card machine at a school carnival, my go to box.
I have been very successful with pfsense (community edition) for gateway purposes. Good VPN both client and server support., Effective traffic shaping, geo blocking and other advanced features built in. Would be what i would use in your situation.
I buy plenty of cisco and juniper from clients, but lots of bang for buck with pfsense(or open sense if you want)

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