[K12OSN] Recommendations for gigabit switches?

Jim Kinney jim.kinney at gmail.com
Tue Feb 28 22:46:52 UTC 2012


All switches in this install were managed switches. For our purposes, we
didn't need managed in the classroom. We had to use switches in the
classroom as there was only a single connection per room.

We needed managed in the server closet so we could find the printers and
each client in individual rooms. Too bad the switches only had web gui
tools. Command line is easier to script with than having to craft a pile of
screen scrapers.

Note: what ever switch goes in the classroom it should be SILENT! The
rackmount monsters we had would horribly loud and I felt they disrupted the
classroom.

I had scripts that required knowledge of where each client was to set
things like default printer. Also wanted to do some hacking on the
teacher-tool and make it useable in the large-scale environment so teacher
A could not accidentally (or otherwise) observe or control a student in
room B. Was also looking at things like having teacher set "preferred
application sets" so floating teachers could get their specialty app and
block distraction apps by loging in and requesting their "setup" in their
new room. The system would then unset automagically when that teacher
logged out of that classroom.

Stuff like that.

with a managed switch you can track what mac is on what port plus other
stupid network tricks.. That lets finding a wayward client easy. The
clients on my project had a bar code with the mac address so we had a list
of all them.

On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 5:12 PM, Joseph Bishay <joseph.bishay at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello,
> On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 5:02 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
> > server w/ x4 1Gb nics bonded -> 24 port switch w/ each port to a
> classroom
> > (20) -> 1Gb uplink port in classroom switch with 10-12 clients plus
> teacher
> > and printer
>
> So this is a very similar setup we have, except that every network
> jack in each classroom has been "run home" back to the network room so
> there's no need for the switches in each classroom.
>
> In your example, is the switch a managed or unmanaged switch? I guess
> this is where I'm stuck.  It appears to me in that case you described,
> there is not a need for a managed switch.  Or am I missing something?
>
> Thank you
> Joseph
>
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III

As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to
consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they
please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
- *2011 Noam Chomsky

http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
*
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