There are a lot of little companies here in Utah that are run by
ex-Novell employees. One of them, run by some friends of mine, is
a company called MAS Computers. MAS Computers deals in a lot of used and surplus computer equipment, along with carrying some new equipment.
The other day I went to look for a used computer to replace an aging
system. MAS Computers usually has a good inventory of slightly
older Dell Optiplex systems for ~$200. While I was there, I ended
up talking with my friend Steve, and he indicated that they had a large
inventory of Cabletron/Enterasys equipment they had obtained. I
have a specific application where I am looking for a 10/100 Switch that
is capable of “port mirroring” so that I can use ntop
to monitor one of my wireless networks. I went with Steve back
into the warehouse and was amazed at the number of switches they
had. And these are not small cheap units … but the high-end
Enterasys solutions!
They had a whole shelf of the 2H252-25R “Workgroup” 24-Port Switches,
so I went on-line to see what the feature set included. As I read
through the feature list and technical specs on the Enterasys site, I
was floored. This is an amazing switch, with numerous high-end
features … being sold for next to nothing! MAS is charging $225
for each unit … I found similar units being sold for over $5000 at sites like this one … and yes … it does provide port mirroring.
What really hit me was that this is a model that is still listed on the
Enterasys web site product page. It is listed as “Legacy” on the current switching products
web page … but it’s there. This is a multi-thousand dollar
product … that is in fantastic shape … being sold for hundreds of
dollars.
In a matter of years, this technology has slipped to being sold at a
fraction of it’s price. Since MAS Computers is a such a great
bunch of guys, I was able to trade in an older “dumb” switch and pick
up one of these “new” ones for under $200. Even at CompUSA they
are selling brand-new 24-port switch – with none of the capabilities of
these switches – for ~$150 and up!
The power in used equipment is reaching astounding levels … it is amazing to me what is being made available …