Any reason not to use a D-Link Layer 2 switch?

Over on WHT this switch was mentioned in one of the posts instead of using a CISCO, it includes dual gigabit ports and some interesting features.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=2&pid=298

I doubt anyone mentioned using that instead of a Cisco. Those (DLINK, Netgear, Linksys, Dell even) are all very bad choices for datacenter infrastructure. Stick to whats tried and true and dont suffer downtime.

Cisco, Foundry, HP

Magg, could you give more arguments to your reply ?

I doubt Dlink would give 3 years warranty (lifetime if you exept fan and power supply) on switches that die after a few months.

I also know many hosts using Dlink managed switches without any problem.

[mdf]

We have some D-Links switches running for more than a year now and it didn't gave us any problems. The price is dar better than a cisco and it has the same features.
We have them running under a 30Mbit continuous load and no problems so far.
But....a Cisco 'looks better' for clients.

[Jatos]

I have some d-link hardware though not switch's including a old BNC adapter which still works fine.

Not to contradict Magg's position, but Nap of the Americas (NOTA) just switched all of it's managed bandwidth customers from Foundry Switches to D-Link Managed L2 switches. At first we were horrified to learn we were going to be switched to a vendor synonymous with Linksys. But the performance is better from our (customer) point of view than the constant packet loss issue under the Foundry setup (though NOTA isn't particularly known for it's breadth and depth of technical skill, so it could have been something else.)

Personally, I use Riverstone. When you know how to use them, they really rock.

We use the cisco 2950 and are very happy with it, D-link may work great, but not sure how it would deal under large amounts of traffic.

[Rob T]

Both D-Link and Netgear make some decent stuff in their "Enterprise" level gear. As long as you aren't pushing serious traffic, you would probably be ok using it. Linksys doesn't make anything i'd ever use in a datacenter, but I see little 5-port Linksys switches inside cabinets all the time when I walk around in our DC and look at other people's cabinets. Kind of scary, really.

We currently use Cisco and 3Com, but I'm thinking we may move away from some of the 3com gear and go to HP. I've also heard great things about Foundry, Summit, and several other makes that seem to be up to datacenter level usage.

I think the main thing is to consider what you plan to do with it - if you are pushing 100+ mbit through the switch, it's probably worth it to spend the cash on a Cisco or Foundry switch. If you are pushing 5mbit, you can probably get by just fine with a Dlink or Netgear.

I have used the Dlink 3226L in many situations and it is a good performer and priced well for a basic L2 switch with Gig-E uplinks. I'm running about 20Meg 24x7 through several of them for well over a year now.

They are not cisco 2950's, but they do fit the bill where budget is tight and you need a L2 switch with basic managment/SNMP abilities.