[ale] Server Hardware

[Horwitz International, LLC]

Motorola / Symbol's Wireless switch is a very good solution if you are
looking for an end to end single vendor solution.  If you are open to a
"best of breed" solution, I'd recommend using a BlueSocket appliance with
virtually any wireless infrastructure.

If you really need micro control the AP's, BlueSocket also make a range of
AP's that are controlled by the appliance. I have yet to find an application
that truly needs this. As I indicated above, the Motorola solution is
preferred.

Give us a call if you'd like more help - this is one of our specialty areas.

Roland Horwitz. 
Horwitz International, LLC 
Office : 678-323-1477 
Cell    : 770-329-5000 

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Benjamin Franklin

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of jimmy
halbert
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2008 11:21 AM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] Server Hardware

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