What to do with old 10/100 switches?

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RavinDJ

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I have the following switches that are fully functional but collecting dust:

Dell PowerConnect 3248 (48 port 10/100 switch)
3Com Switch 4400 3C17204 (48 port 10/100 switch)
3Com SuperStack 3 Switch 4250T 3C17302 (48 port 10/100 switch)

I just connected them and they work fine. Are they worth the electricity that they're running on? I'd love to set up some sort of a home lab either tied in or separate from my home network.

I don't have a rack but I wouldn't mind buying a wall-mounted 6U or 8U or 10U or 12U rack.

Thanks for any advice!
 

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If the Dell 3248 is fanless, it would be a good choice for a lab. And it looks to have 2 gig ports.

10/100 switches are also perfect for setting up a separate network for printers to live on. Keeping printers on a separate network avoids many of the security flaws printers seem to have. Or as mentioned donate the ones you don't keep.
 
I'll give them to friends/family to use in their "network environments" .. ie .. network printer or just wire in more computers to hook up to their 1 port cable modem ..etc
 
I keep a couple around that can be handy stop gaps 'when you need something now' till the gigabit arrives a couple of days later.

I've not bought one in years but I 'inherit' them as you do.
 
E-waste them to an electronics dumpster (dont put computer gear in regular trash) seriously those things are beyond ancient now. Had loads of similar gear in the special dumpster at work even years ago. A $20 8 port gigabit can handle whatever "random casual networking" needs and uses less juice with no noise, fished some of those out of the same dumpster ;)
 
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Throw them away, I was throwing away 10/100 switches like 15yrs ago.
 
Good ideas and good posts. They're definitely useful for "stopover" while Gigabit arrives. But any 8-port Gigabit will handle normal traffic.

Now... if I only I could turn these into 10Gbps :D
 
Donate or recycle them.

If you want to home lab with networking gear, you'll want to be looking at something like a Cisco 3750X or a Juniper EX3300. Those will last you some time and get you a lot more relevant and modern functionality.
 
I just have a stack of old routers with the newest on the top. I have a netgear FVS318, with a FVS 338 next, and my current Asus RT-AC88U on top. 20 odd years worth of routing.
 
Cmustang87 said:
Donate or recycle them.

If you want to home lab with networking gear, you'll want to be looking at something like a Cisco 3750X or a Juniper EX3300. Those will last you some time and get you a lot more relevant and modern functionality.
Click to expand...
you can do a lot with cisco 3560 which is fairly cheep those days.
 
Do what I do, stick them in a corner somewhere to collect dust and use an 8 port gigabit switch for your home network. I picked up a Dlink DGS 1100 managed 8 port on sale for $25
 
I still use a 10/100 switch, it even streams raw 1080p from network storage and streamed 4k video just fine. I'd upgrade, I've just seen no reason to.
 
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Equipment like this is still really great for places that need to purposely limit traffic, like hotels. These are perfect for hotel installations.

NEVER NEVER NEVER throw away working equipment!! Someone out there will take it off your hands. Working equipment still works to pass it on!
 
SamirD said:
Equipment like this is still really great for places that need to purposely limit traffic, like hotels. These are perfect for hotel installations.

NEVER NEVER NEVER throw away working equipment!! Someone out there will take it off your hands. Working equipment still works to pass it on!
Click to expand...

If we need to limit traffic we do it at a software/setting level. Not at a legacy hardware legacy limitation.

We recycle/throw a couple pallets of equipment away a month. Dealing with finding enough people to take it who will use it isn't worth the time unfortunately.
 
Easius said:
If we need to limit traffic we do it at a software/setting level. Not at a legacy hardware legacy limitation.

We recycle/throw a couple pallets of equipment away a month. Dealing with finding enough people to take it who will use it isn't worth the time unfortunately.
Click to expand...
That is one way to do it, but not every installation has the budget for managed 48 ports. ;)

Talk to anyone locally that deals with selling used hardware--they will take all of it off your hands for free. Hell if I was local I would. I'd love to have a warehouse of pallets of free inventory to sell. :D
 
Just dug one up from my storage bin to network my kids rooms for their virtual classrooms. :D
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It shocked me when I looked at the specs for a 4k IP camera and it has only a 10/100 port--these are still really usable for certain applications.
 
I took 1700lbs of old HardOCP stuff to the recycler. They picked it up and took it away for free. Guy that worked there was [H].
 
SamirD said:
Equipment like this is still really great for places that need to purposely limit traffic, like hotels. These are perfect for hotel installations.

NEVER NEVER NEVER throw away working equipment!! Someone out there will take it off your hands. Working equipment still works to pass it on!
Click to expand...
This is why I still have a working token ring segment. Nothing short of nuclear war,or a large hammer, will break an IBM 8228 so here it remains.
 
Nicklebon said:
This is why I still have a working token ring segment. Nothing short of nuclear war,or a large hammer, will break an IBM 8228 so here it remains.
Click to expand...
I've got mau's sitting with some older isa nics, lol. Ah, and the days when ATM155 was the shizzle...
 
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