Some new gear in the home lab!

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OVERKILL

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For the last while my home setup has comprised primarily of an ASA 5506W-X that I purchased on an NFR. This unit had integrated FirePower, which is Cisco's advanced IPS suite, and an integrated WAP/SAP702i access point, which supports AC. It was paired with a cheap Cisco SG200-18 gigabit switch. That setup replaced a previous ISR config with a 2960, which had replaced an ASA 5510. TLDR: I go through network gear regularly.

I just "upgraded" again, this time to a 2951 ISR G2 and another 2960 switch, which is actually a gigabit 48-port 2960S w/PoE, overkill in the port department, but I got a sweet deal on it. Wireless is now provided by an HP Aruba "Instant" AP, which I've become quite fond of, as they seem to be less finicky than the Cisco Aironet products.

So, some initial observations:

- The 2951 is no quieter than the 2921, of which I have a ton in service. They draw air through the back and blow it out the front and they aren't quiet in doing so, even on "low". Despite this, the unit only uses around 50W, so it isn't power hungry.
- The 2960S is massively quieter than the 2951, but louder than the SG200 it replaced which was passively cooled
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Luckily, both of these units are installed in the basement, so the noise is really of no consequence.
- The HP Aruba AP has better range and better throughput than the SAP/WAP702i. This is readily apparent, and it also imposes less latency. I would say, at a similar price point, it is by far the superior offering.

This isn't a demanding setup, three VLAN's, three subnets, all isolated (no inter-VLAN routing), no SIP or IP Phone traffic, no VRF's, primarily just your typical home stuff. Kids are on a more locked-down SSID.

So far, I'd say this is the most responsive setup I've had in the house.

Plans are, presently, to try and obtain a Cisco Compute Engine, which is basically a small server that goes into the ISR as a module, which can be loaded with a FirePower VM to give me back the Advanced IPS functionality I'm now lacking. They are expensive, so hoping to score one on E-Bay or an environment pull.

Fun times!
 
I was going to ask you in that other post if you had all of this in a rack or closet, but now I see basement. Makes sense as I bet no one would be a fan of hearing those switches run away.

The separate VLAN for kids is a good idea, really keep the junk filtered which is good. Nice setup. Going to be doing the following come spring when Dad builds his garage out back.

Already have a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X in service, house has residential cable ISP, should be 60 down 5 up or maybe even 100 down once Spectrum takes away Analog TV. EdgeRouter X -> UniFi 8 Port switch w/4 POE. UniFi Long Range AP on first and 2nd floors of the house. Direct burial Cat6 in conduit from the house to the Garage to another UniFi 8 Power switch with/4 POE, Long Range AP in the ceiling of the garage and probably an indoor/outdoor AP mounted outside to blanket the backyard between the house and garage.

May change equipment down the road but that is the rough plans.

I have a simple TP-Link AC router but an 8Port Gigabit Netgear ProSafe that does 802.3ad which is crucial for my NAS. Especially with two Macs doing TimeMachine backups.
 
48-port Sisco with PoE for home? We are talking some serious therapy here
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This beats my dumpster diving for SGI boxes
 
Originally Posted By: Y_K
48-port Sisco with PoE for home? We are talking some serious therapy here
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This beats my dumpster diving for SGI boxes


It was a real score, so I can't complain. I guess i have a lot of room for expansion? LMAO!
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Originally Posted By: Subdued
Username checks out

Oh, come on,
the guy just wanted more airflow in his basement....

The added number of ports and better net capacity is a double cherry on the cake :p

P.S. the preferred method of cleaning the switches from oil+dust bunnies at my place is to restart them couple times. Don't be near the output.....
 
Speaking of overkill, I just picked up a 140mm USB fan and placed it under my router. It dropped the CPU temp by about 15 degrees C. Not that it was really necessary. More of a "feel good" type mod.

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Yeah, yeah... rat's nest in the back. It's a temporary setup...
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Here I am still running a pfsense box on a Celeron G1610, a TrendNet 16 port gigabit switch, and a TP-Link Archer C8, and I thought my setup was overkill.
 
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