[ale] Server Hardware

[jimmy halbert]

I am looking for a open source wireless networking solution. I have an organization that is going to have 450 wireless users of which half of these users will be online at a time. I am looking for a solution to control the access points, and provide some measure of security. Any suggested would be helpful. I have looked at Aruba,Foundry and IronPoint...all of these solutions are way out of budget. 

--- On Fri, 9/5/08, hbbs at comcast.net <hbbs at comcast.net> wrote:
From: hbbs at comcast.net <hbbs at comcast.net>
Subject: [ale] Server Hardware
To: ale at ale.org
Date: Friday, September 5, 2008, 1:38 PM

In more recent years, I've advocated buying servers from manufacturers who
use high-quality standard-issue motherboards to include the same manufacturers
who make the motherboards themselves as opposed to the typical Dell/HP/IBM
sourcing that's so prevalent in industry.

My experience has been that even though the Dell/HP/IBM warranty, support, and
field service are supposed to be the big compelling draw and are supposed to
justify the cost, in reality:

* Field service is often slow, ineffectual, and/or incapable of making sound
technical evaluations of situations yet won't take your word for anything
* Parts - from cooling fans to motherboards - are not typical COTS items, so
you're dependent on the manufacturer and/or field support for even the
slightest issue
* Shoddy workmanship, poor QA, and shipping damage run rampant

On the other hand, manufacturers that integrate and produce servers out of COTS
still give you a decent enough warranty but leave you able to source parts from
where you feel like it for the sake of expediency or post-sale modification, and
you can easily buy and store extra power supplies, RAM, mobos, drive sleds, and
power supplies so that a server that has gone dead and won't POST can be
brought back to life by on-hand staff in a few minutes' time.  

1.  Is this valid today?  Was it ever?
2. What manufacturers have you had a good history with?  What vendors sell
their products?  

I personally bought a Supermicro SuperServer from HL Computer locally a while
back, and once I replaced its dodgy power supply it's been fine, running
without a reboot up at QTS for over 500 days.  HL does not ordinarily carry such
equipment so I'd like to find a vendor who has a good history of selling
this sort of equipment.

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale



      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20080921/d79cd56c/attachment.html