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Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

blog.benjojo.co.uk

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Re: Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

#31

Post by anonymousisme »

The Dell N1100 is a nice switch, but a relatively new product (Below is my survey response to their support feedback request:

1) The products should not have a built-in time-bomb that causes them to stop working after only a few years.

2) Dell should have informed us of this issue by email. Instead they left a very "phishing" like voicemail on a manager's phone. (Not the phone of the registered point-of-contract for the cluster.) Perhaps this was done to avoid leaving evidence of #1 above?

3) I spent over an hour on hold when I returned the call, and was then disconnected. After trying again (to an extension other than the one given in the message), I reached somebody who confirmed the issue. I spent another four hours on the phone resolving it.

4) Shortly after all of the above, I discovered a new issue that severely impacted the cluster. The n3048 switch would no longer auto-negotiate a 100Mbps Ethernet link. Our network watchdog device (iBoot) was continuously cycling the power on our Internet Ingress (ONT+ASA).

5) I spent even more time troubleshooting and resolving this issue (by locking the iBoot port to 100Mbps instead of leaving it on Auto).

6) I did not waste any more of my time by reporting this issue. The technician I worked with to upgrade these switches assured me that the firmware releases we used were "stable".

Re: Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

#32

Post by thecal »

caminante wrote: post #27

Off-topic, but I just learned about another, practical networking utility, yesterday. "powerline adaptors" [0] Basically, buy these adaptors and for ~$100, you can have create a "wired" LAN connection using power outlets in a home. [0] https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-powerline-adaptors

I've used these for over a decade with limited success. Their performance is very specific to your wiring and can be fouled up with lots of things. Mine was sometimes no faster than WiFi. MoCA (Ethernet over coax wiring like for cable/satellite TV) seems to work better.

Re: Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

#33

Post by severino »

techopoly wrote: post #28
caminante wrote: post #27

Off-topic, but I just learned about another, practical networking utility, yesterday. "powerline adaptors" [0] Basically, buy these adaptors and for ~$100, you can have create a "wired" LAN connection using power outlets in a home. [0] https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-powerline-adaptors

Can confirm, these are legit. Make sure you're aware of any outlets on the outside of your building though, as these could be plugged into with malicious intent.

> Make sure you're aware of any outlets on the outside of your building though

I guess this also means inside your neighbor's home, if you live in an apartment building, right? That's why those devices typically use AES for encrypting the signal between the paired ones.

Re: Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

#34

Post by tylerfontaine »

caminante wrote: post #27

Off-topic, but I just learned about another, practical networking utility, yesterday. "powerline adaptors" [0] Basically, buy these adaptors and for ~$100, you can have create a "wired" LAN connection using power outlets in a home. [0] https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-powerline-adaptors

I have had these jump outside of my house. I realize how crazy it sounds, but I had a pair (they were not encrypted - this was long ago, and I don't even know if encrypted ones existed) and my neighbor had a pair. I would, very occasionally, end up getting DHCP answered by the router in their network.

It took forever to figure out what was causing this, and I eventually figured it out by doing a (very slow) IP scan of every device on the network I was connecting to and finding a machine named with their first and last name. Unplugged the thing, and the problem went away forever.

If it hadn't happened to me, it's something I would have thought impossible!

(edited a small typo)

Re: Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

#35

Post by thescriptkiddie »

caminante wrote: post #27

Off-topic, but I just learned about another, practical networking utility, yesterday. "powerline adaptors" [0] Basically, buy these adaptors and for ~$100, you can have create a "wired" LAN connection using power outlets in a home. [0] https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-powerline-adaptors

These are useful, but they add ~16 ms of latency, and depending on the quality of wiring and appliances in your building they can be very unreliable. A better option if you have RG-6 wiring is MoCA.

Re: Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

#36

Post by dspillett »

benjojo12 wrote: post #16
rusk wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly since the majority of these [ONIE] switches are aimed at datacenter deployments they are generally unsuitable for use on my desk. ... On top these switches would be aggressively priced out of my budget ... That was until I found the Dell N1100 series, ... And I found a cheap vendor that sold refurbished ones for around 85 GBP. > did the author drop a zero in the price? Not far off ...

(Author here) These switches got a lot more expensive at the start of the pandemic, I think the chipsets became hard to source.

Some network devices and other kit became harder to find (or jumped in price) as people upgraded their home environments for working from home. While many buying for themselves would have stuck with even cheaper consumer-grade kit, companies that wanted to monitor/manage their remote workers' network would have wanted something that is possible to monitor/manage from afar (which a bog standard “dumb switch” wouldn't offer).

Re: Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

#37

Post by teh_klev »

rusk wrote: post #9

Minor Quibble: £85 is not a cheap ethernet switch. It's an entertaining and informative read, but it's more like low-end datacentre hardware than that cheap €25 switch I've got in my home office. A little disappointing as I was hoping I'd have a cheeky high-bandwidth raspberry-pi alternative on my hands ...

Well it's cheap'ish for a managed gigabit switch...and "managed" is where you begin to add $$$, even in cheapo world.

Also current price on ebay for a refurb N1108T-ON unit is 360 quid, so I reckon relatively speaking you could say it's cheap.

Re: Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

#38

Post by cma »

severino wrote: post #33
techopoly wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm, these are legit. Make sure you're aware of any outlets on the outside of your building though, as these could be plugged into with malicious intent.

> Make sure you're aware of any outlets on the outside of your building though I guess this also means inside your neighbor's home, if you live in an apartment building, right? That's why those devices typically use AES for encrypting the signal between the paired ones.

I would assume any neighbor's houses that come off the same transformer too.

Re: Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

#39

Post by WaitWaitWha »

caminante wrote: post #27

Off-topic, but I just learned about another, practical networking utility, yesterday. "powerline adaptors" [0] Basically, buy these adaptors and for ~$100, you can have create a "wired" LAN connection using power outlets in a home. [0] https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-powerline-adaptors

They are excellent solution where you cannot run Ethernet to, and do not want to use WiFi.

I used it in home automation (Thank you Home Assistant) for mostly sensors, and less important actuators, where I had power, but could not get Ethernet, or WiFi.

Anything else, very unstable and too much latency.

Re: Teaching a cheap ethernet switch new tricks (2019)

#40

Post by Lammy »

thecal wrote: post #32
caminante wrote: post #27

Off-topic, but I just learned about another, practical networking utility, yesterday. "powerline adaptors" [0] Basically, buy these adaptors and for ~$100, you can have create a "wired" LAN connection using power outlets in a home. [0] https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-powerline-adaptors

I've used these for over a decade with limited success. Their performance is very specific to your wiring and can be fouled up with lots of things. Mine was sometimes no faster than WiFi. MoCA (Ethernet over coax wiring like for cable/satellite TV) seems to work better.

I had a lot more success with them after popping my electrical panel open and rearranging the relevant outlet circuits to all be on the same AC phase (making sure not to unbalance the amperage load since some were 15As and some were 20)
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