[ale] Server Hardware
Horwitz International, LLC
info at horwitzinternational.com
Tue Sep 23 09:00:27 EDT 2008
Jimmy,
A network will only be as good as the end user's experience; these factors
are the major hurdles.
Roaming - If your user community will require the need for mobility, you'll
need to select a hardware platform that has a proven roaming algorithm.
Those that do this well, do it outside the standard...
Bandwidth - If the user community access any form of steaming content on a
large & continuous scale, role based and not individual client based
bandwidth management at the WAP through a centralized management console is
what will make this system manageable...
It almost goes without saying that the normal RF design criteria needs to be
taken into consideration:
Noise, Interference, Multi Path, Frequency Congestion, Fresnel Effects,
Geography, Structures, Mobile inhibitors (Trucks, Cars, Roach Coaches,
Bluetooth etc), Static inhibitors (Microwaves, lighting, transformers etc).
Regardless of how much you spend or save, be sure to spend enough to ensure
a good to excellent experience - I'm sure you know how ruthless people are
when it comes to the blogs & message boards.
-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Jim
Kinney
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 6:01 PM
To: jimmy_halbert at yahoo.com; ale at ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] Server Hardware
Hi Jimmy!
User access will only be issue #2. Issue #1 will be bandwidth. Or more
correctly, lack. Better plan on multiple (10-30+) access points. The
suggestions of coova are very valid. Placement becomes a challenge with a
large number of WAPs installed as well. They must be close enough to the use
points but far enough apart that the connection doesn't flip-flop is the
user shifts in their chair all while being close enough to have good signal
everywhere. Signal strength is a big factor in user bandwidth. Sharing a 10
Mb pipe with 20 people surfing youtube would painfully slow.
2008/9/21 jimmy halbert <jimmy_halbert at yahoo.com>
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.
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James P. Kinney III
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