If expansion potential is high on your list of priorities, HP's ProCurve 4108gl could fit the bill. This chassis-based Layer-2 switch comes with no fewer than eight expansion slots.

It has 24 10/100BaseTX ports, six 100/1000BaseT ports and three Gigabit transceiver ports. The transceivers allow you to install 1000BaseSX/LX/FX/T modules as required. Power redundancy is also on offer as a second supply can be fitted into a spare slot at the rear.

The 4108gl uses HP's Fast Path Technology architecture. Normally used in higher-end switches, each hot-swappable module has its own processor and buffer memory, so any traffic bound for other ports on the same module is locally switched and kept off the chassis backplane.

The chassis itself has a 36.6Gbps backplane capacity. Each module is linked to it via two internal full-duplex Gigabit links.

The 4108gl delivered a faultless performance in the frame loss test and the tests were run twice with SmartBits linked to a single 10/100BaseTX module and then connected across three modules to bring the backplane into the tests. Latency for local switching was reasonable although there was a drop in speed when the switch was forced to use the backplane.

Management is through a web browser or the bundled copy of HP's TopTools. Both offer a high level of management and traffic analysis tools. Up to six fault-tolerant trunk links can be created, each with four ports. The 4108gl can also be linked to other switches that support Cisco Fast EtherChannel trunking technology.

The 4108gl can be placed in a virtual stack of up to 16 other ProCurve switches and managed with one IP address. MAC address lockdown prevents users accessing specific ports, and the 4108gl supports the use of Tacacs+ authentication servers.

Installation 4/5
Build quality 4/5
Features 4/5
Performance 3/5
Value for money 4/5
Overall 4/5

Contact HP 0870 241 1373
www.hp.com
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