[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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