You are absolutely right - also, there is typically less bloatware installed by the manufacturer that you need to fight through for the system to be usable.
My advice to my non-technical friends and family is "Don't buy a PC without a Touchpoint"
-matt
VTP is a wonderful easy to use method of propagating vlans, and pruning them from trunks, but it has some serious security moments:
As an example, lets say you have a switch that is connected to your network, and you detach it to do some QA/Testing on it, create and delete a bunch of VLANs (which increments the revision number), and then put it on a shelf and forget about it.
A year later you need a switch, and connect it into the network - provided that the revision number on your test switch is still higher, that VLAN information will propagate out and overwrite the rest of your VLAN database.
Cisco VTP best practices: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_white_paper09186a00801b49a4.shtml#cg1c
-matt
procurve is a good place to start. if they didn't make you license features like L3 or routing protocols like OSPF or had actual QoS it would be much better. Good luck if you need to run anything better than best effort DSCP 0. Another option, buy refurb Cisco Hardware.
They changed that last fall - all the A series stuff comes with routing, and much of it comes with MPLS, BGP, etc.
On the E series gear (the old Procurve line) most of the routing switches now come with OSPF, VRRP, better QoS. Next code release will also include MPLS and BGP.
-matt
HP networking expert here:
Hey look! HP routers from SMB through carrier class: http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/products/routers/index.aspx
Wow, firewalls and IPS too: http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/products/network-security/index.aspx?tab=3
They acquired a lot of neat stuff from 3com a year ago, and at this point probably have almost as wide a portfolio of networking gear as Cisco.
-matt
I live in Weare, and this is certainly not how I wanted to see my town end up on the front page of Slashdot.
The Town Selectmen are having an Q&A session tomorrow, and I'll be attending to ask questions. I do have to say that this surprises me; Weare is a particularly independent town in NH, which is a particularly Libertarian leaning state to begin with. I've met the police chief on a number of occasions, and he's always struck me as community minded, and relatively benign.
-matt
And of course, Mr President. After all, what a faux pas it would be to call President Obama "Mr President" here in the US.
Oh wait..
Today is a good day for information-gathering. Read someone else's mail file.
