Napera Indigo Beta

M

MrMike

Supreme [H]ardness
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I just received my switch today at work and will be setting it up today or tomorrow after-hours. What I received is the N24 valued at $3495 according to their web site. A white switch is going to look out of place on my rack.

AFAIK all my desktops and notebooks should be NAP-ready since they're XP SP3 or Vista SP1.

Has anyone else received and/or setup theirs? Any thoughts?
 
Hmmm, looks interesting. I just filled out the questionnaire, hopefully I'll get one. I could use a gigabit switch and this might be something my clients are interested in.
 
we're testing one of those were I work, unfortunately we had a few cables in our plenum go bad for some reason, that or they were never gigabit quality.
 
I was chosen too.. along with a buddy at the office. It's scheduled to be delivered today so hopefully get to hook it up soon. The feature set looks awesome. built in hardware based certificate, built in radius server, nap enforcement, active directory authentication, etc.
 
I set it up with three test machines today. I had some issues with initial setup and I'm having some issues with the NAP actually.

When I took the first survey I filled in my issue in the comments, and they opened a support ticket. Apparently they consider it not recognizing the network's router/gateway while set to DHCP an issue. :p Static IP worked fine after I set it and rebooted the switch. I was testing with a Sonicwall TZ170.

The NAP issue I ran into is that one computer appears to think it's not updating properly. So everytime I log on it flags it as in probation for being 'not configured to receive security updates from a source approved for this network' when it downloads from WSUS fine, and it's up to date. I'm going to try a Vista machine tomorrow and troubleshoot some more. I don't think it's an issue with the switch. It's just WSUS 3.0 on a Server 2003 R2 x64 Standard box. Nothing special.

Initial impressions are that I really like the device, though.
 
I am in the beta as well. Got my switch earlier this week.

Overall very neat technology and I like the reporting features and such. Does seem the beta device is lacking some of the features of the full production device though (most importantly VPN and Firewall abilities which I was looking forward to trying out so it could really be its own router as well). I wonder if we will ever see these?

I think the health stuff is cool though and it has been working pretty good from what I have seen. The ability to allow internet but no other network activity is also neat through the portal.

I would like to know more about how they are using the amazon hosted services in combination with the device itself for reporting/management. Seems kind of confusing and there is no way to reset logs or see the file sizes, etc. Seems to just keep everything. Also no external access that I can find to the management even though it is through the amazon hosted services.

Issues so far:
-Loud as hell...yes it is a rack device, but it could be useful for smaller offices and is extremely loud for that type of environment
-With the gateway set as a DHCP server as well it does not find the internet properly, soon as I take "DHCP Server" role off of my gateway in the device list though all works fine.
-Have not gotten emails for the other beta sections like they say, has anyone gotten these yet?

It is very cool stuff though and beats the hell out of any other wireless security, I would like to see someone mooch into the network when the port is set to authorize only :p I think the white was also an idea to differentiate it from other products and so people when looking at others setups will ask what it is. There really is nothing else like it on the market today.
 
Grentz said:
I am in the beta as well. Got my switch earlier this week.

Overall very neat technology and I like the reporting features and such. Does seem the beta device is lacking some of the features of the full production device though (most importantly VPN and Firewall abilities which I was looking forward to trying out so it could really be its own router as well). I wonder if we will ever see these?

I think the health stuff is cool though and it has been working pretty good from what I have seen. The ability to allow internet but no other network activity is also neat through the portal.

I would like to know more about how they are using the amazon hosted services in combination with the device itself for reporting/management. Seems kind of confusing and there is no way to reset logs or see the file sizes, etc. Seems to just keep everything. Also no external access that I can find to the management even though it is through the amazon hosted services.

Issues so far:
-Loud as hell...yes it is a rack device, but it could be useful for smaller offices and is extremely loud for that type of environment
-With the gateway set as a DHCP server as well it does not find the internet properly, soon as I take "DHCP Server" role off of my gateway in the device list though all works fine.
-Have not gotten emails for the other beta sections like they say, has anyone gotten these yet?

It is very cool stuff though and beats the hell out of any other wireless security, I would like to see someone mooch into the network when the port is set to authorize only :p I think the white was also an idea to differentiate it from other products and so people when looking at others setups will ask what it is. There really is nothing else like it on the market today.
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The middle item in your list interests me. I'm using the TZ170 as a router and DHCP server. It works fine with the switch set to static, but not dynamic.

I agree I would like to see a quieter unit or perhaps even a different form factor unit for smaller offices. I wonder if the expansion unit is loud or not though.

I haven't received any emails about the other beta sections yet either. I suppose we'll see.

Authorize only is pretty awesome. It just seems like this device could make life so easy on a network of any size. Obviously it needs a bit more time in the oven, but it is beta.
 
Well I just tested it again, and now it is working with my gateway (which is the network DHCP server) set as DHCP Server on the device details. Before it was not though. I have my napera switch setup as a static device right now as I like to keep network devices static if possible, but in the beginning had it running as DHCP and it worked fine (although not with the gateway set as DHCP Server in the device settings). I did find that if the mangement port is in the same range as your network that can cause issues, initially that was my problem and a quick change of the management port IP fixed that.

I have a feeling the other units are loud as well, they are using little 40mm 5v fans that do blow a TON of air for their size, but are noisy (as is the case with small fans most of the time).

I must say the most impressive thing IMO is the device detection. It is very quick and awesome to see what port things are on and such, and then be able to lock it down.

One other quirk I found is that you cannot have a port set to just authentication, it needs to have health set as well to throw up the portal login page.

As I said though, the main thing I wish they would let us beta testers at now is the firewall/VPN as well. I know it is not their core idea, but it is awesome to have one unit that can do all this AND function as the firewall/gateway. If you look in the release notes on their site, the full N24 implemented this in the latest firmware. Cool stuff IMO.
 
Grentz said:
One other quirk I found is that you cannot have a port set to just authentication, it needs to have health set as well to throw up the portal login page.
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That's weird. I just tried flagging my port 4 as auth only, connected a laptop not joined to the domain to it, and it popped the portal page right up. Was the computer already authenticated by chance? I did notice that if you log off of the computer, the device still holds the auth even through someone then logging onto the computer with a local account.
 
Nope, it wasnt authorized, checked in the device list as well.

I might mess with it again, I have changed around my network a bit and need to do some more testing.

EDIT: Ok, working fine now....odd, before it would not work except when health was checked too. Might have been a stray cookie or something though from earlier testing.
 
I got one at work I will be playing with this week.

I cracked it open for shits n giggles.

There is a 1gb stick og ddr2 in it, its an Altus Switch. Looks like there are 2 banks of dip switches, a jtag header, some other header, and 2 small reset? buttons on the PCB.

I am wondering what it would take to flash it to something like endian or untangle when the beta is up...
 
sc0tty8 said:
I got one at work I will be playing with this week.

I cracked it open for shits n giggles.

There is a 1gb stick og ddr2 in it, its an Altus Switch. Looks like there are 2 banks of dip switches, a jtag header, some other header, and 2 small reset? buttons on the PCB.

I am wondering what it would take to flash it to something like endian or untangle when the beta is up...
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I looked inside mine as well. It is a proprietary board for sure, I was shocked that it had 1GB of DDR RAM though, obviously plenty beefy to handle lots of users and devices.

If you look up Altus Networks it is actually a company that was created and then turned into Napera, so it is all their own design and creation. These guys have obviously put a lot of work into the whole project.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/archives/112422.asp
 
What are ya waiting for sc0tty! :p

I have now had a run with their support and I must say that it is superb. I had a small issue and they worked through it with me very quickly ;)
 
Grentz said:
What are ya waiting for sc0tty! :p

I have now had a run with their support and I must say that it is superb. I had a small issue and they worked through it with me very quickly ;)
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I agree. They're very on the ball, even when I was a dodo and didn't manually reboot the device to see if that would fix it.
 
Grentz said:
What are ya waiting for sc0tty! :p

I have now had a run with their support and I must say that it is superb. I had a small issue and they worked through it with me very quickly ;)
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Time. I am setting it up at work, the computer thing isn't my primary responsibility there. I am planning on doing it today. Hoping that it doesn't take long.
 
Eh...too bad. Looks like the beta is over. The application page says the questionaire is closed. I emailed them anyway though.
 
Got mine a week ago. Great switch, love the features. The interface is nice, but could use a little work. Also, on 2 XP SP3 machines and 1 Vista, I would not receive the notifications that I expected, machine-wise. Getting into this beta for a 24-port gigabit managed switch for $30 was pretty great in itself...
 
Mine has been "offline" since the 21st. Its stilling sending me emails and im actually posting this message while I'm behind it. I got an email from them about it because I didn't know. That was yesterday, and they haven't responded to my reply, so I just called them. I'm sure they'll help me out, they've has great tech support so far. My firewall settings haven't changed, and it fails at trying to connect to indigo.mynapera.com. I'm sure it'll get resolved.
 
OmegaAvenger said:
Mine has been "offline" since the 21st. Its stilling sending me emails and im actually posting this message while I'm behind it. I got an email from them about it because I didn't know. That was yesterday, and they haven't responded to my reply, so I just called them. I'm sure they'll help me out, they've has great tech support so far. My firewall settings haven't changed, and it fails at trying to connect to indigo.mynapera.com. I'm sure it'll get resolved.
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set a static ip and reset the switch. That's what I had to do.
 
I got mine fired up at work. I am having some issues thought.

How I got the network mapped from the top down...
ISP Modem
D-Link DIR-655
Servers/Dell 8 port gigabit switch
24 port HP Pro Curve 10/100

The servers are on the router. The wire runs from router to dell 8port. From 8 port to the Napera switch.

I CAN NOT get an RDP session to hold for more then 2-20min before it disconnects. This is from multiple servers. I do have a test server on the Napera switch. I can hold a session for hours w/o issue.

I have a trouble ticket in, and was told to capture some packets and send them to them. Tomorrow I am going to mess with it some more. Prob try moving the servers to the switch. If that don't work I am done with it. I spent about 6 hours fucking with it today.
 
Beta is for testing...it was not meant to be perfect or go into mission critical stuff yet...there definitely are bugs.

If you can, I would just put it on a less critical segment of your network.
 
Grentz said:
Beta is for testing...it was not meant to be perfect or go into mission critical stuff yet...there definitely are bugs.

If you can, I would just put it on a less critical segment of your network.
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It already is. If I can not RDP with it, it's worthless for us. We use terminal servers at work, so, if we can't connect or maintain a connection, we might as well go home.
 
Is it logging that it is blocking anything? Are the servers set as exempt?

RDP should work through it.

You might also try contacting their support, they can tunnel in and work with you through the issue. I had a problem and they worked with me and we found that editing the config file solved the issue in my case.
 
disable everything on the port the rdp server is on and try again. reboot the switch afterwards if you have too. just to see if it works. I have it running fine on my server.
 
i just got mine today, going to be setting it up next week in my work lab :)

sounds like a pretty cool device, but $3500 for a 24 port switch is pretty steep when trying to convice the people with the money lol
 
I did find you can get it for around $2500 from some of their partners.

Still expensive, but cheaper than switching to Server 2008 in some cases to get NAP.
 
I took mine off the network today. They have the logs and told me I will have a fix for the issue on Monday, engineers are on it.

I told them I was just frustrated with it and will try again. It randomly drops RDP sessions, which is not good. We don't run anything funky. 4 terminal servers, a mix of laptops/desktops, and 4 different varieties of thin clients. No issues until I tried the Napera. Our internet was also down for about 2hrs today, even with a desktop right to the modem. I don't think it was anything caused by the Napera, but, I was kinda pissy...
 
Thanks for all the positive comments on the Napera Indigo beta. Most folks have completed the beta testing and we are grateful for all of your testing and feedback.

To answer some of your questions. Yes, the Indigo beta is based on the N24 hardware and is a proprietary design. No, you can't run Untangle on it. :)

The RDP issue was caused by a bug which is fixed in our 1.5 release, out this morning. You can upgrade from the 'Status' page on MyNapera.com by clicking on 'Software Update' and then clicking 'Check for update'. Release notes are here. Please email support@napera.com if this doesn't resolve your problem.

Our plan is to deliver many of the Indigo features that you tested on a wide range of switches from popular networking vendors. Keep an eye out for it later this year.

Thanks,

The team at Napera
 
napera said:
Thanks for all the positive comments on the Napera Indigo beta. Most folks have completed the beta testing and we are grateful for all of your testing and feedback.

To answer some of your questions. Yes, the Indigo beta is based on the N24 hardware and is a proprietary design. No, you can't run Untangle on it. :)

The RDP issue was caused by a bug which is fixed in our 1.5 release, out this morning. You can upgrade from the 'Status' page on MyNapera.com by clicking on 'Software Update' and then clicking 'Check for update'. Release notes are here. Please email support@napera.com if this doesn't resolve your problem.

Our plan is to deliver many of the Indigo features that you tested on a wide range of switches from popular networking vendors. Keep an eye out for it later this year.

Thanks,

The team at Napera
Click to expand...

Yeah the update is on my to-do list tomorrow am at work, looks like it was just released per this email I got yesterday afternoon.

The email was:

Code: 
Hey Scott,

 

We just posted a pre-release of the new version, 1.5.100.

 

Instead of us putting in on your box, it is available for you to download.

 

From the Device page, go to Software Updates, and then click on “Check for New Updates”.

 

You should see version 1.5.100 available to download and install. 

 

Let me know when you complete the upgrade and if you have any issues.

 

Thanks!

Not sure who is posting on this account from the Napera end, but I never did get an answer back on my question in regards to the beta, deadline, and the issues I have had because fot he RDP issue. If I had not had the issue, I would have had the beta done hands down by now.:(
 
that's weird they were very proactive with my issues.
 
Wow, nice to see Napera posting here ;)

Just installed the new update myself.

magnetik said:
that's weird they were very proactive with my issues.
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Agreed, awesome support when I worked with them on some issues. Better than almost any other company I have worked with.
 
sc0tty8 said:
Not sure who is posting on this account from the Napera end, but I never did get an answer back on my question in regards to the beta, deadline, and the issues I have had because fot he RDP issue. If I had not had the issue, I would have had the beta done hands down by now.:(
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No need to worry - there are still plenty of people working their way through the last steps of the beta process. We look forward to your feedback.
 
I finished all the surveys the other day, its a very cool device... i think if the price points are like what was suggested in the surveys i think i could get work to get some of these... even not for all our desktops, it would definately make a great security addition to our wireless access points with the captive portal/authenticaion/rules etc

if you could pair this up with HP procurve equipment (lifetime warranty FTW) then you would have a pretty killer device
 
napera said:
No need to worry - there are still plenty of people working their way through the last steps of the beta process. We look forward to your feedback.
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Cool. I was given a reminder the deadline was March 16th but with the issues I was having, it kinda put me one step back. Today I am looking to get her back into the loop as a major part of the network:)

FLECOM said:
It would definately make a great security addition to our wireless access points with the captive portal/authenticaion/rules etc
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Agreed here. With guest only access for wifi, it would really help filter who can have access to network resources. I did not see anything in there to log who is using guest access?

I do like the fact that it integrates with AD, it clearly helps to identify who's who.
 
i really wish opera was a supported browser, having to open firefox every time i want to do anything with the switch is a bit irritating, if there is a techincal reason, then you know, ok, but if its a "people use opera?!" reason then fix it fix it fix it ;)
 
FLECOM said:
i really wish opera was a supported browser, having to open firefox every time i want to do anything with the switch is a bit irritating, if there is a techincal reason, then you know, ok, but if its a "people use opera?!" reason then fix it fix it fix it ;)
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It also doesn't like anything pre-explorer 7.0 either.
 
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