3Com Corp. this week released three Ethernet switches – two managed, one unmanaged – aimed at connecting enterprise workgroups to a LAN backbone.
The SuperStack 3 Switch 4225 and 4250 include 24 and 48 ports of 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet, respectively. Both boxes also have two auto-sensing 10/100/1000M bit/sec ports for connecting to a network core or aggregation switch over copper cabling. The 10/100/1000M bit/sec ports can be used either for network uplinks or for stacking switches in a wiring closet. The SuperStack 3 Baseline switch is the company’s newest unmanaged workgroup box.
The 4225 and 4250 Layer 2 switches include IEEE 802.1Q virtual LAN (VLAN) traffic tagging, as well as 802.1p traffic prioritization, which are commonly used to segregate time-sensitive traffic types into their own subnets and give priority to applications such as IP voice or video. The switches also come with 3Com’s Network Supervisor software, which can be used to map IP devices attached to the switches and to monitor traffic utilization on the devices.
The SuperStack 3 Switch 4225 is priced at US$1,000, while the 4250 costs US$2,000. Both switches will be available in mid-July. Separate software for managing stacks of multiple 4200s together will be available later this year. The unmanaged, 48-port SuperStack 3 Baseline switch with two 10/100/1000M bit/sec uplinks costs US$1,200 and will ship in mid-August.
