[ale] [Semi-OT] Networking Equipment

[David Tomaschik]

All,

I consider myself a pretty good system administrator and a decent
developer.  What I am not is a networking guy.  At the risk of
spreading myself too thin, I want to learn more about the networking
side of things.  (It helps as a system administrator to know what is
going on on the stuff your servers are connected to.)  While I know
the academic/general side of things like VLANs and STP, I haven't had
any opportunity for practical experience.

I'd like to get my hands dirty, so I'm looking for one (or more) cheap
managed switches.  Cisco probably preferred, since they have the
lion's share of the gear out there, but I'm open to other suggestions.
 I know there are some switches for around $50 on eBay, but most of
those seem to be ancient and I'm not sure how relevant they are to
what's out there today.  (i.e., devices that went end-of-sale a decade
ago.)  Of course, the basics might not have changed too much.  I'm not
looking to go CCNA or really work as a network guy, just to know
enough to have a good grasp of the network side and maybe to do some
small business scale tasks.

Can anyone suggest a source for cheap used networking gear?  Or
alternatively, suggest models of switches worth looking at on
eBay/other?

-- 
David Tomaschik, RHCE, LPIC-1
System Administrator/Open Source Advocate
OpenPGP: 0x5DEA789B
http://systemoverlord.com
david at systemoverlord.com