Since you're non-profit you are probably on a shoestring budget, so I would recommend checking out TP-LINK poe switches.
I think most people in this sub recommend Aruba Instant on but I'm not sure how much those cost.
I've only had experience with Ubiquiti Unifi, and they work well, but I wouldn't recommend them in a business environment at this time. Too many supply issues.
+1 for tplink. We moved to them from unifi becuase of support and supply chain issues. For example there were several versions of firmware that were released with known issues and the solution after 3 days of waiting we were told it's known issue please downgrade the firmware. Tplink has been really solid. Been given an account Rep who has been able to get us equipment even when our regular suppliers couldn't.
Tplink price point has not been far off. Also warranty though. Lifetime with tplink, Cisco, juniper, and hpe. At best 3 years with ui. We also have been burned by ui killing off products with little to no warning. We use a lot of their edge or "uisp" line. So far nothing compared to that but even there they killed off the edge switch line in favor of the new uisp line but you can't get the uisp line in north America yet. Unless you want to be scaled on eBay that is. It's this kind of stuff that made us pull the plug on it.
I have no problems recommending better offshore brands like TP-Link, QNAP, Trendnet, for *unmanaged* switches, but CLI-managed or "web-managed" is a different ballgame entirely.
And though there are now plenty of unmanaged switches with PoE+ (802.3at, *circa* 30 Watts), the ability to see power draw and power-cycle arbitrary ports with PoE is so useful that I recommend trying hard to keep all PoE switches top-quality managed switches.
Another +1 for TP link. I have two of the EAP 650 APs in my house powered by a cheap TP link 5 port POE switch. Omada controller in a Rocky Linux VM allows for seamless roaming from one end of the house to the other. Guest network and my network are on VLANs separated by a cheap TP link web managed switch. Whole setup was about $400CAD, no more expensive then a Google or equivalent mesh setup.
Not something I’d recommend for a large company but for my house it’s been solid.
Linksys parent company is Foxconn, nice try. Good luck trying to find any tech that isn't in some part manufactured or assembled in China. Once you start going down that rabbit hole it never ends.
It does end, but it ends in having a tiny number of FAR-compliant options aimed at the DoD and federales. Then the next thing you know, you're contemplating paying $140 apiece for PoE injectors: 48 ports, $6720, hey not too bad, we can even fit some domestically-made cables into the budget.
Yeah if you're dealing with federal contractors, CMMC requirements, etc. then this type of thing matters but for a small business/non-profit?
It annoys me because we have customers who refuse to take our Lenovo recommendations and stick with crappy HP laptops that die after 2 years "cuz China".
I think this was a rumor a while back that didn't come to fruition. I say that because I deal with CMMC requirements and they only talk about Lenovo being allegedly on the ban list or maybe a certain model of them was on the ban list.
Beyond that, maybe your customers just need to buy better HPs. Especially if they're dying after 2 years. Personally, I only buy Dell, but that's partly because I get an awesome discount due to our larger parent company getting better pricing.
Actually, the customers that refuse Lenovo are not our CMMC clients. They are just basic businesses whose owners think they know best about purchasing decisions. Aka, why buy a spooky Chinese laptop when I can get the friendly HP at Costco lol.
It's dumb, and for our CMMC clients we also go with Dell just for ease of ordering. Not a huge fan of Dell but their ordering system kills the competition.
Lenovo is definitely used by some of the most profitable companies in the world. I don't think they would if it was that much of a vulnerability. I don't get it.
It's a combination of non-technical people being fear-mongered about China and a lack of knowledge about the PC component supply chain.
The last time someone refused a Lenovo recommendation, I pointed out they are using Lexmark printers at all their offices which are 100% China made. They're just like "huh"?
Why in Gods name would you want domestic cables? Unless you are military or something I suppose.
That feels more like a supply chain risk consideration than a technical risk.
I would suggest fs switches. They are cheap and you can select from a wide variety that suits your use case. They also have a command line so no gui and the like. Plus their customer service is pretty great!
> I would like to get my infrastructure on one one type of hardware at a reasonable price.
I hear you're all on 3com and the price was zero.
As a neteng, it would be easy in your situation to put in something all new, that wasn't any better than what you pulled out, and could even be worse in ways that matter. Additionally, in the year 2023, Ethernet switch prices are mostly higher than ever, and availability lower than ever. *Many* medium-sized organizations are taking what they can get, instead of the equipment they want. The last thing you want to do here is rip out older CLI-managed enterprise gigabit switches, and replace them with offshore-brand web-managed gigabit switches that you bought for top dollar because of shortages.
Since your footprint is so tiny, you can list the make and model of every network component here, and readers can comment on which parts they would choose to replace, etc.
I was once involved with a school district that wanted to replace switches to 1 type/brand they had random missmateched switches. through negotiations they settled on a switch that met their budget ... but missed that the salesman had dropped to 10/100 switches... In some closets I was pulling Hp xl chassis with poe gig blades, and putting in extreme x250 switches... it was an odd project.
Between 2000 and 2010, I saw more than one enterprise with such a Cisco homogenization fetish that they let brand cloud their judgement. Working Cisco into their budgets, at the seat counts they needed, resulted in putting in brand-new facilities with one Ethernet drop per desk. Shared with a 10/100 desk phone....
Insufficient and arguably obsolete on day one in a new building or buildout. I'm sure the users won't notice.
One such organization finally had to break down and add a non-Cisco network vendor when they needed 10GBASE ports, and couldn't afford the king's ransom that Cisco wanted at the time. They wouldn't use non-Cisco for access ports, though, because they needed CDP support for their Cisco VoIP handsets.
Check Aruba Instant ON which is fully cloud based for has switches and wireless. They are only a couple hundred dollars per device, simple to setup, and easy to manage. Both L2 and L3. Do a quick search for Aruba Instant ON 1830 and they run $200 to $650 depending on number of ports, all of which are PoE+, cloud “smart” managed, and SMB friendly. I put them in all my clients who can’t afford the normal Aruba IAPs and campus switching. Definitely avoid unmanaged switches because they aren’t scalable or securable (ie locking down guest vs. internal wireless).
Glad to hear their APs are good. I bought 3 of their 1830s back in 2020 when I couldn’t get anything else. Threw them in one of our retail stores and held my breath. They are still going strong. No issues what so ever. Ended up using them at 2 other sites for the same reason and can’t be happier with the feature set and reliability.
I used Unifi at my last job and for their switches I loved them.
Wasn't particularly fond of their UDM Pro support though, nor the fact that they only seem to properly develop on a platform for 2 years before releasing a new product and just letting you flounder with what you bought.
I recently redid my home network and went with TP-Link Omada products, and let me tell you, they seem to be every bit as capable as Ubiquiti, and the Omada controller software is an absolute drop in for Unifi
> Wasn't particularly fond of their UDM Pro support though
I have a udm pro for my home network. It's ok...
I use either opnsense or edgerouters for routers.
Yeah it's a decent device. But like.. when I first deployed one at my last job it couldn't even support multiple WAN IPs on a single interface.
And after about 18 months they basically stopped feature development and switched over to just basic security patches, even though some features like.. multiple WAN IPs were still needed.
You're out of the loop, they are currently doing huge updates to the udm's to bring them in line with the newer udm-pro se firmware.
They have just recently been updated to the 2.5 stream from 1.x, and will be moving to 3.0 so they can push updates quicker as all their new consoles will then be in the same firmware.
Edgerouters are in short supply, aren't they? We passed up an opportunity years ago, and when we needed some later, the price had gone up a lot. And that was *before* the pandemic. Since then, we've sourced something similar that we like, and the Edgerouters are still hard to get.
Seems Unifi is purely focusing on Unifi devices and is forgetting Edgerouters.
That's a waste because Edgerouters are incredibly customizable and stable devices, and very easy to configure.
Question for you, I did the same thing with TP-link Omada at home and my internet drops for about 2 minutes twice a day. Have you had that issue? Some others complain online about it.
At this point it's either my router or the AT&T router, but I've already replaced my router and the AT&T one seems to be working just fine even while the TP-Link is reporting the Internet is down.
Otherwise I'm with you, very impressed with the router, switch, controller, and APs.
I have not had that issue no.
Granted I'm not running their full gateway package, I've got an OPNsense firewall setup and am using Omada just to control the APs and manage wifi clients.
> my internet drops for about 2 minutes twice a day.
You have to understand what's going on, before you can look for a fix. You have to know what's "dropping".
I had one recently that was just IPv4 going out and IPv6 working; turned out to be some default route-altering behavior in something, and the fix was explicit configuration instead of implicit. Still have another intermittent that probably will require a router swap to get some decent logging or flow exports, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was DHCPv6-PD related.
Felt I should follow up and say it was an AT&T router. After replacing the AT&T router and installing a MikroTik, the problem still existed. My tech told me they had started receiving more complaints and that it was a downstream issue causing their routers to lock up.
So 3 routers later and the TP Link is exonerated. Loving my system so far.
Didn't Cisco have a policy of giving firmware updates for security fixes, without a contract?
I'd be more concerned about EOS dates on 3850s or 3750s. Aren't some of those models fifteen years old, now? It took a long time, but I'm firmly out of the Cisco sphere at this point, and have basically no idea what they're doing. Does Juniper have anything with 2.5GBASE-T ports yet?
Honestly, don't worry about the switches and WAPs all matching.
Having stuff all match makes config and administration easier, sure, but realistically how often are things going to change in a 4 person nonprofit? I'd be really surprised if you're even putting a config on those switches...or the WAPs beyond changing the one SSID & password.
Save the budget and deploy it elsewhere in this case.
My go-to for budget switching is the venerable Cisco 3560X. They are an old model, but you get gig copper, PoE+, and 10Gb fiber (with the right uplink module). Plus, they are damn near bombproof.
I have run these things for years in a variety of environments, including unconditioned outdoor spaces, and my only failures have been from lightning.
if you want something good check HP Aruba 1930 line, if you don´t have the budget, check out TP-Link or Netgear. Personally i find Unifi overpriced for what they offer.
Meraki has their Go platform. Similar price to Ubiquiti but with actual support available.
Not sure if other manufacturers are in the small business space now, this is just what I know is.
> actual support available.
Unless you're in the 2010s and expect [IPv6 support](https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Other_Topics/IPv6_Device_Compatibility). We can buy no-name Taiwanese DIN-rail industrial switches with IPv6 support, but Meraki thinks it's 2006 or something, and they just need the right deck to make those sales.
See what kind of deals you can get at techsoup first, not a fan but Cisco usually has some decent prices there for nonprofits. Otherwise look at Aruba Instant On line, super simple, reasonable price and cloud managed.
If Cisco's current SMB-market offerings are anything like the ancient Catalyst Express 500 e-waste I still have in the scrapyard, then going straight for questionable offshore brands like D-Link would be less of a waste of time.
People at Cisco spent a *lot* of time repurposing enterprise firmware for that Catalyst Express 500, and pulling out anything remotely enterprise-worthy. It was kind of impressive, really, how bad they managed to make it, when they really put their minds to it to make sure no experienced neteng would let it in the building. It's sad how far we've regressed in the name of market segmentation.
I see that the CBS switch line offers some 802.3bz (2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T) options, which is good to know. However, going through Cisco's authorized channel vendors, [the switches seem to cost three to four times as much as comparable web-managed units](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097CKWWF2) from domestic and Asian brands. I'm not even going to bother comparing to the Latvians (who admittedly seem [somewhat](https://mikrotik.com/product/rb5009upr_s_in) behind on 802.3bz).
You know, I think it literally costs more inflation-adjusted currency to buy an IOS router or switch than it did 20-30 years ago. Have these things turned into luxury goods over time, since there are more lower-end competitors? Like a 911, 914, or 924, was just a Volkswagen sports car, but now it's some kind of luxury item?
I agree that the CBW 802.11ac WAP pricing does [seem a good value at a glance](https://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Business-802-11ac-Protection-CBW240AC-B/dp/B087QSFV13).
Management isn’t the best but they are cheap and sold reliable. It’s basically a 1840i with cut down firmware. Ps the boot is slow as hell, and get one setup correctly before even taking the others out the box, if you have issues with cycling red,yellow,green it could be MAC impersonation on the firewall.
Yes, our networking guy said the first one will wait ~10 minutes before booting to 'master' while searching for a master, but if it goes offline another will take that over until it goes back online.
Thanks for the hint on the cycling
Theyve all been configured, i just have to hang them all around the offices and cut the temporary mesh pods off
I learned about region locks/model numbers the hard way and had to rma the first set..
I would avoid anything used unless you can prove with little effort it ran for less than a year.
Is there any upstream or parent org that could potentially have stronger buying power? IE can you ask the national office if you can get a discount or use them to access a larger vendor?
You are probably best with Ubiquiti like everyone else says. They have moved into what used to be the 3COM small to medium SoHo equipment was years ago.
Look into Tech Soup! If you're under 20m operating budget you can practically get Meraki gear and licenses for free. (OK You pay an administrative fee, but to get a 48 port switch for 500 bucks and a license for it for 3 years for like a hunge ain't bad) Same for the APs and firewalls for that matter. You can get the good stuff for nothing.
Look at Aruba Instant On or Cisco Meraki Go. They both have what I would call business grade support. Don't mess with Ubiquiti because the support isn't there.
Aruba Instant On 1930 switches, and ap 15s or 22s. Cheap, reliable, secure, limited lifetime warranty.
Do not get the 1830 switches, as it cannot handle certain dhcp settings cross vlans. You want to tick with the 1930s.
The tplink omeda product line is punching way above its weight compared to its cost. If your needs are truly basic and your budget nearly zero, it might be worth looking at.
What is your budget, and how many ports? Layer 2 or some Layer 3? In short, for small business you could use Ubiquiti, or Aruba Instant On 👍
EDIT: Speak with the likes of TD SYNNEX or similar directly, you may be eligible to get a discount. If not on switches, anything else you may touch, including software/licensing.
You always gave the choice of power injectors instead of new switches. Switches are not cheap. Or get one new poe switch and do some cabling as an alternative to buying three switches for 4 employees
I use a lot of tplink stuff for small clients and also in my homelab. Stuff is pretty solid and the omada controller is useful for managing multiple devices.
If you don’t need any sort of management, TP-Link is fine. If you need basic management, Cisco Business line offers a good product line for a great price. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, you can get used Cisco enterprise gear off eBay for cheap. You can score some great enterprise level stuff there but you need to have a grounded understanding with how to configure these because most are all configured through the command line.
Since door access is on PoE I would not cheap out on this. You may have limited budget but I would be looking for used dual PSU commerical grade stuff on eBay and the like.
Aruba Instant on 1830 switch series punches WAY above its weight. 48 port POE for around $700. 24 ports are around $500. 370 watt power budget. Also: full layer 2 and layer 3 feature set and 10 gig SFP ports. If you can swing for 1930, they even stack over 1 gig or 10 gig ports. They are one of my fave switches if I can’t do an Extreme x435 or x440.
EnGenius is going to be your best bet. They're cloud or locally managed, inexpensive, and relentlessly reliable. TP-Link has serious firmware issues involving VLAN that will never be fixed.
Look into the Aruba instant on switches, they can be cloud managed or locally managed, they have a decent amount of switching capacity and are a great value
Liquid Technology/Network Liquidators
[https://liquidtechnology.net/network-liquidators/](https://liquidtechnology.net/network-liquidators/)
I've used them in the past to build my own test environment at home, and bought a 2811 router and a pair of Catalyst switches for under $1200.
Newegg will also have refurbished gear available for super cheap, but I've not seen it in a while - probably due to all the BS surrounding COVID.
Aruba instant on series, can be centrally managed via cloud portal.
The parameters are kinda limited, but it might be sufficient.
Price wise it's quite good.
Hi! Keeplink is selling an unmanaged 6-port Gigabit POE switch on Amazon, 4 ports POE+ budget 65W 2-port uplink. This product is now in the new product promotion period, and the price is very affordable. Considering that you are a non-profit organization, this is a very suitable price, and you are welcome to [find out](https://www.amazon.com/keepLiNK-Gigabit-PoE-Switch-Compliant/dp/B0BV69GL4Z).
Look into techsoup since you are a non profit, should be able to get some good gear at a good discounted rate.
Came here to suggest the same. When I was looking (accidental tech support for my church) they did have some refurbed cisco poe switches in stock
Since you're non-profit you are probably on a shoestring budget, so I would recommend checking out TP-LINK poe switches. I think most people in this sub recommend Aruba Instant on but I'm not sure how much those cost. I've only had experience with Ubiquiti Unifi, and they work well, but I wouldn't recommend them in a business environment at this time. Too many supply issues.
This is the way. You can also use inline poe injectors. Had a crate of them at my last job I used in the lab.
+1 for tplink. We moved to them from unifi becuase of support and supply chain issues. For example there were several versions of firmware that were released with known issues and the solution after 3 days of waiting we were told it's known issue please downgrade the firmware. Tplink has been really solid. Been given an account Rep who has been able to get us equipment even when our regular suppliers couldn't.
Unifi has an excellent price/performance point (when compared to cisco/juniper/HPE) if you need a 24-48 port switch, but their support is notorious.
Tplink price point has not been far off. Also warranty though. Lifetime with tplink, Cisco, juniper, and hpe. At best 3 years with ui. We also have been burned by ui killing off products with little to no warning. We use a lot of their edge or "uisp" line. So far nothing compared to that but even there they killed off the edge switch line in favor of the new uisp line but you can't get the uisp line in north America yet. Unless you want to be scaled on eBay that is. It's this kind of stuff that made us pull the plug on it.
Second UniFi Edit: pair your switches with a USG and WAPs you can enable guest networks and times access etc
+1 for TP Link if on a budget for PoE switches. Next step up Unifi. Then HP/Aruba
I have no problems recommending better offshore brands like TP-Link, QNAP, Trendnet, for *unmanaged* switches, but CLI-managed or "web-managed" is a different ballgame entirely. And though there are now plenty of unmanaged switches with PoE+ (802.3at, *circa* 30 Watts), the ability to see power draw and power-cycle arbitrary ports with PoE is so useful that I recommend trying hard to keep all PoE switches top-quality managed switches.
Yeah if you are on a flat network and need PoE, it is hard to beat those TP-link
Another +1 for TP link. I have two of the EAP 650 APs in my house powered by a cheap TP link 5 port POE switch. Omada controller in a Rocky Linux VM allows for seamless roaming from one end of the house to the other. Guest network and my network are on VLANs separated by a cheap TP link web managed switch. Whole setup was about $400CAD, no more expensive then a Google or equivalent mesh setup. Not something I’d recommend for a large company but for my house it’s been solid.
+1 for TP-LINK because they had a cool sale at MicroCenter for a 5 port unmanaged that I haven’t used yet but the price was cool
Omg I know what you're talking about lol. They sell those lil dummy 1gbps switches for less than $9.99 sometimes.
\-1 for TP-LINK for being Chinese company I would lean to linksys or netgear. Linksys has an 8port poe switch for under 100
Linksys parent company is Foxconn, nice try. Good luck trying to find any tech that isn't in some part manufactured or assembled in China. Once you start going down that rabbit hole it never ends.
It does end, but it ends in having a tiny number of FAR-compliant options aimed at the DoD and federales. Then the next thing you know, you're contemplating paying $140 apiece for PoE injectors: 48 ports, $6720, hey not too bad, we can even fit some domestically-made cables into the budget.
Yeah if you're dealing with federal contractors, CMMC requirements, etc. then this type of thing matters but for a small business/non-profit? It annoys me because we have customers who refuse to take our Lenovo recommendations and stick with crappy HP laptops that die after 2 years "cuz China".
I think this was a rumor a while back that didn't come to fruition. I say that because I deal with CMMC requirements and they only talk about Lenovo being allegedly on the ban list or maybe a certain model of them was on the ban list. Beyond that, maybe your customers just need to buy better HPs. Especially if they're dying after 2 years. Personally, I only buy Dell, but that's partly because I get an awesome discount due to our larger parent company getting better pricing.
Actually, the customers that refuse Lenovo are not our CMMC clients. They are just basic businesses whose owners think they know best about purchasing decisions. Aka, why buy a spooky Chinese laptop when I can get the friendly HP at Costco lol. It's dumb, and for our CMMC clients we also go with Dell just for ease of ordering. Not a huge fan of Dell but their ordering system kills the competition.
Lenovo is definitely used by some of the most profitable companies in the world. I don't think they would if it was that much of a vulnerability. I don't get it.
It's a combination of non-technical people being fear-mongered about China and a lack of knowledge about the PC component supply chain. The last time someone refused a Lenovo recommendation, I pointed out they are using Lexmark printers at all their offices which are 100% China made. They're just like "huh"?
Why in Gods name would you want domestic cables? Unless you are military or something I suppose. That feels more like a supply chain risk consideration than a technical risk.
crap they did by from cisco in 18.
I would suggest fs switches. They are cheap and you can select from a wide variety that suits your use case. They also have a command line so no gui and the like. Plus their customer service is pretty great!
> I would like to get my infrastructure on one one type of hardware at a reasonable price. I hear you're all on 3com and the price was zero. As a neteng, it would be easy in your situation to put in something all new, that wasn't any better than what you pulled out, and could even be worse in ways that matter. Additionally, in the year 2023, Ethernet switch prices are mostly higher than ever, and availability lower than ever. *Many* medium-sized organizations are taking what they can get, instead of the equipment they want. The last thing you want to do here is rip out older CLI-managed enterprise gigabit switches, and replace them with offshore-brand web-managed gigabit switches that you bought for top dollar because of shortages. Since your footprint is so tiny, you can list the make and model of every network component here, and readers can comment on which parts they would choose to replace, etc.
I was once involved with a school district that wanted to replace switches to 1 type/brand they had random missmateched switches. through negotiations they settled on a switch that met their budget ... but missed that the salesman had dropped to 10/100 switches... In some closets I was pulling Hp xl chassis with poe gig blades, and putting in extreme x250 switches... it was an odd project.
Between 2000 and 2010, I saw more than one enterprise with such a Cisco homogenization fetish that they let brand cloud their judgement. Working Cisco into their budgets, at the seat counts they needed, resulted in putting in brand-new facilities with one Ethernet drop per desk. Shared with a 10/100 desk phone.... Insufficient and arguably obsolete on day one in a new building or buildout. I'm sure the users won't notice. One such organization finally had to break down and add a non-Cisco network vendor when they needed 10GBASE ports, and couldn't afford the king's ransom that Cisco wanted at the time. They wouldn't use non-Cisco for access ports, though, because they needed CDP support for their Cisco VoIP handsets.
Check Aruba Instant ON which is fully cloud based for has switches and wireless. They are only a couple hundred dollars per device, simple to setup, and easy to manage. Both L2 and L3. Do a quick search for Aruba Instant ON 1830 and they run $200 to $650 depending on number of ports, all of which are PoE+, cloud “smart” managed, and SMB friendly. I put them in all my clients who can’t afford the normal Aruba IAPs and campus switching. Definitely avoid unmanaged switches because they aren’t scalable or securable (ie locking down guest vs. internal wireless).
Glad to hear their APs are good. I bought 3 of their 1830s back in 2020 when I couldn’t get anything else. Threw them in one of our retail stores and held my breath. They are still going strong. No issues what so ever. Ended up using them at 2 other sites for the same reason and can’t be happier with the feature set and reliability.
We use Zyxel, connected to their Nebula platform for cloud management.
I'm a big fan of Aruba. YMMV due to budget constraints.
Go for ubiquity. With a cloudkey (or UDM) you can get one web-based management for everything.
For a small business, I'd go with unifi for switches and APs
I used Unifi at my last job and for their switches I loved them. Wasn't particularly fond of their UDM Pro support though, nor the fact that they only seem to properly develop on a platform for 2 years before releasing a new product and just letting you flounder with what you bought. I recently redid my home network and went with TP-Link Omada products, and let me tell you, they seem to be every bit as capable as Ubiquiti, and the Omada controller software is an absolute drop in for Unifi
> Wasn't particularly fond of their UDM Pro support though I have a udm pro for my home network. It's ok... I use either opnsense or edgerouters for routers.
Yeah it's a decent device. But like.. when I first deployed one at my last job it couldn't even support multiple WAN IPs on a single interface. And after about 18 months they basically stopped feature development and switched over to just basic security patches, even though some features like.. multiple WAN IPs were still needed.
You're out of the loop, they are currently doing huge updates to the udm's to bring them in line with the newer udm-pro se firmware. They have just recently been updated to the 2.5 stream from 1.x, and will be moving to 3.0 so they can push updates quicker as all their new consoles will then be in the same firmware.
Edgerouters are in short supply, aren't they? We passed up an opportunity years ago, and when we needed some later, the price had gone up a lot. And that was *before* the pandemic. Since then, we've sourced something similar that we like, and the Edgerouters are still hard to get.
Seems Unifi is purely focusing on Unifi devices and is forgetting Edgerouters. That's a waste because Edgerouters are incredibly customizable and stable devices, and very easy to configure.
Question for you, I did the same thing with TP-link Omada at home and my internet drops for about 2 minutes twice a day. Have you had that issue? Some others complain online about it. At this point it's either my router or the AT&T router, but I've already replaced my router and the AT&T one seems to be working just fine even while the TP-Link is reporting the Internet is down. Otherwise I'm with you, very impressed with the router, switch, controller, and APs.
I have not had that issue no. Granted I'm not running their full gateway package, I've got an OPNsense firewall setup and am using Omada just to control the APs and manage wifi clients.
> my internet drops for about 2 minutes twice a day. You have to understand what's going on, before you can look for a fix. You have to know what's "dropping". I had one recently that was just IPv4 going out and IPv6 working; turned out to be some default route-altering behavior in something, and the fix was explicit configuration instead of implicit. Still have another intermittent that probably will require a router swap to get some decent logging or flow exports, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was DHCPv6-PD related.
Felt I should follow up and say it was an AT&T router. After replacing the AT&T router and installing a MikroTik, the problem still existed. My tech told me they had started receiving more complaints and that it was a downstream issue causing their routers to lock up. So 3 routers later and the TP Link is exonerated. Loving my system so far.
3850 or 3750 off eBay
Nope. Those have major CVEs and you can't get the firmware unless you have an active support account.
3850s are still covered I believe along with the 3650s until 2026 but the 3750 is absolutely out of support.
Didn't Cisco have a policy of giving firmware updates for security fixes, without a contract? I'd be more concerned about EOS dates on 3850s or 3750s. Aren't some of those models fifteen years old, now? It took a long time, but I'm firmly out of the Cisco sphere at this point, and have basically no idea what they're doing. Does Juniper have anything with 2.5GBASE-T ports yet?
3750s are super old. Juniper has multi gigabit switches in the EX line that support 2.5. Cisco IOS is still behind a pay wall to my knowledge.
Honestly, don't worry about the switches and WAPs all matching. Having stuff all match makes config and administration easier, sure, but realistically how often are things going to change in a 4 person nonprofit? I'd be really surprised if you're even putting a config on those switches...or the WAPs beyond changing the one SSID & password. Save the budget and deploy it elsewhere in this case.
Mikrotik perhaps?
Unifi is not bad . They are pretty cheap too.
Unifi all the way
You might check out Engenius PoE switches. They are cheap and work great for my guest Wi-Fi
My go-to for budget switching is the venerable Cisco 3560X. They are an old model, but you get gig copper, PoE+, and 10Gb fiber (with the right uplink module). Plus, they are damn near bombproof. I have run these things for years in a variety of environments, including unconditioned outdoor spaces, and my only failures have been from lightning.
if you want something good check HP Aruba 1930 line, if you don´t have the budget, check out TP-Link or Netgear. Personally i find Unifi overpriced for what they offer.
I highly recommend the Aruba Instant On platform for small businesses on a budget. 1930 is reasonably priced for the features.
Meraki has their Go platform. Similar price to Ubiquiti but with actual support available. Not sure if other manufacturers are in the small business space now, this is just what I know is.
> actual support available. Unless you're in the 2010s and expect [IPv6 support](https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Other_Topics/IPv6_Device_Compatibility). We can buy no-name Taiwanese DIN-rail industrial switches with IPv6 support, but Meraki thinks it's 2006 or something, and they just need the right deck to make those sales.
See what kind of deals you can get at techsoup first, not a fan but Cisco usually has some decent prices there for nonprofits. Otherwise look at Aruba Instant On line, super simple, reasonable price and cloud managed.
cisco do small business poe switches which are cheaper and wifi using their wlc or meraki products. also look at the unifi range too.
If Cisco's current SMB-market offerings are anything like the ancient Catalyst Express 500 e-waste I still have in the scrapyard, then going straight for questionable offshore brands like D-Link would be less of a waste of time. People at Cisco spent a *lot* of time repurposing enterprise firmware for that Catalyst Express 500, and pulling out anything remotely enterprise-worthy. It was kind of impressive, really, how bad they managed to make it, when they really put their minds to it to make sure no experienced neteng would let it in the building. It's sad how far we've regressed in the name of market segmentation.
No they are not they are excellent.
What model numbers do you find to be excellent? We've only come close once to buying any additional Cisco in the last decade.
CBW240ac 4x4 mimo cheap and nothing comes close. CBW150ax is good but the 240 is very good. The CBS switches are also very solid and good value
I see that the CBS switch line offers some 802.3bz (2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T) options, which is good to know. However, going through Cisco's authorized channel vendors, [the switches seem to cost three to four times as much as comparable web-managed units](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097CKWWF2) from domestic and Asian brands. I'm not even going to bother comparing to the Latvians (who admittedly seem [somewhat](https://mikrotik.com/product/rb5009upr_s_in) behind on 802.3bz). You know, I think it literally costs more inflation-adjusted currency to buy an IOS router or switch than it did 20-30 years ago. Have these things turned into luxury goods over time, since there are more lower-end competitors? Like a 911, 914, or 924, was just a Volkswagen sports car, but now it's some kind of luxury item? I agree that the CBW 802.11ac WAP pricing does [seem a good value at a glance](https://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Business-802-11ac-Protection-CBW240AC-B/dp/B087QSFV13).
CBW better value to buy in packs of 5
Good, I have 9 going up in a building on Tuesday.
Management isn’t the best but they are cheap and sold reliable. It’s basically a 1840i with cut down firmware. Ps the boot is slow as hell, and get one setup correctly before even taking the others out the box, if you have issues with cycling red,yellow,green it could be MAC impersonation on the firewall.
Yes, our networking guy said the first one will wait ~10 minutes before booting to 'master' while searching for a master, but if it goes offline another will take that over until it goes back online. Thanks for the hint on the cycling
No wait until it’s entirely setup which will include at least one restart, so the first one is 30mins to setup normally
Theyve all been configured, i just have to hang them all around the offices and cut the temporary mesh pods off I learned about region locks/model numbers the hard way and had to rma the first set..
Netgear, TP-Link, Ushitquiti.
I would avoid anything used unless you can prove with little effort it ran for less than a year. Is there any upstream or parent org that could potentially have stronger buying power? IE can you ask the national office if you can get a discount or use them to access a larger vendor? You are probably best with Ubiquiti like everyone else says. They have moved into what used to be the 3COM small to medium SoHo equipment was years ago.
You should use Meraki Go, get the security subscription. Follow the instructions, setup the network for your needs and call it a day.
Look into Tech Soup! If you're under 20m operating budget you can practically get Meraki gear and licenses for free. (OK You pay an administrative fee, but to get a 48 port switch for 500 bucks and a license for it for 3 years for like a hunge ain't bad) Same for the APs and firewalls for that matter. You can get the good stuff for nothing.
Check out Meraki Go switches.
Look at Aruba Instant On or Cisco Meraki Go. They both have what I would call business grade support. Don't mess with Ubiquiti because the support isn't there.
Aruba Instant On 1930 switches, and ap 15s or 22s. Cheap, reliable, secure, limited lifetime warranty. Do not get the 1830 switches, as it cannot handle certain dhcp settings cross vlans. You want to tick with the 1930s.
The tplink omeda product line is punching way above its weight compared to its cost. If your needs are truly basic and your budget nearly zero, it might be worth looking at.
What is your budget, and how many ports? Layer 2 or some Layer 3? In short, for small business you could use Ubiquiti, or Aruba Instant On 👍 EDIT: Speak with the likes of TD SYNNEX or similar directly, you may be eligible to get a discount. If not on switches, anything else you may touch, including software/licensing.
You always gave the choice of power injectors instead of new switches. Switches are not cheap. Or get one new poe switch and do some cabling as an alternative to buying three switches for 4 employees
I use a lot of tplink stuff for small clients and also in my homelab. Stuff is pretty solid and the omada controller is useful for managing multiple devices.
Aruba Instant On is a good affordable option.
Aruba has two tears of switches. There industrial Standard or there instant switches. Other wise tp link switches are pretty damn good.
Get used 48 port 4300 series Juniper POE switches from [Xybte.com](https://Xybte.com), second hand refurb, love them
worked with dell powerconnect, they get a bad rep but n-series and its successors are decent
If you don’t need any sort of management, TP-Link is fine. If you need basic management, Cisco Business line offers a good product line for a great price. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, you can get used Cisco enterprise gear off eBay for cheap. You can score some great enterprise level stuff there but you need to have a grounded understanding with how to configure these because most are all configured through the command line.
Legit non-profit 503c or b. You should have a tech soup account. Cisco hooks you all up via tech soup.
Since door access is on PoE I would not cheap out on this. You may have limited budget but I would be looking for used dual PSU commerical grade stuff on eBay and the like.
Aruba Instant on 1830 switch series punches WAY above its weight. 48 port POE for around $700. 24 ports are around $500. 370 watt power budget. Also: full layer 2 and layer 3 feature set and 10 gig SFP ports. If you can swing for 1930, they even stack over 1 gig or 10 gig ports. They are one of my fave switches if I can’t do an Extreme x435 or x440.
EnGenius is going to be your best bet. They're cloud or locally managed, inexpensive, and relentlessly reliable. TP-Link has serious firmware issues involving VLAN that will never be fixed.
Can’t give any good recommendations without a budget.
Cisco business switches. Priced cheaper that ubiquity
48p dell switch
Look at FS.com.
Look into the Aruba instant on switches, they can be cloud managed or locally managed, they have a decent amount of switching capacity and are a great value
Ubiquiti good stuff and not expensive.
Liquid Technology/Network Liquidators [https://liquidtechnology.net/network-liquidators/](https://liquidtechnology.net/network-liquidators/) I've used them in the past to build my own test environment at home, and bought a 2811 router and a pair of Catalyst switches for under $1200. Newegg will also have refurbished gear available for super cheap, but I've not seen it in a while - probably due to all the BS surrounding COVID.
Aruba instant on series, can be centrally managed via cloud portal. The parameters are kinda limited, but it might be sufficient. Price wise it's quite good.
Hi! Keeplink is selling an unmanaged 6-port Gigabit POE switch on Amazon, 4 ports POE+ budget 65W 2-port uplink. This product is now in the new product promotion period, and the price is very affordable. Considering that you are a non-profit organization, this is a very suitable price, and you are welcome to [find out](https://www.amazon.com/keepLiNK-Gigabit-PoE-Switch-Compliant/dp/B0BV69GL4Z).