Likelihood to Recommend We work in the electric industry. These should not be used in a high-heat environment. We like to keep the temperature of the room in the low 60's so they are not suited for our Substation locations due to extreme heat and cold. However, they perform great in a server room.
Read full review Great for entry-level networking, and the cost-to-quality ratio is great for the average consumer. I've used them in a crawl space that is not climate controlled, and it just works and provides the switching capabilities I need. These are great for users that don't have a ton of experience and can simply try to troubleshoot with a simple power cycle.
Read full review Pros Reliable. Excellent hardware support from Dell including 4 hour parts/replacement. Excellent technical support from Dell on software, troubleshooting, and configuration. More affordable than its main enterprise competitors. Easy to use CLI. Read full review Manage extra connections in a switched network. Provide good throughput for those extra connections. Easy to add into an existing network environment. Read full review Cons Precarious graphical (GUI) mode, needing to be updated for more efficient technologies such as HTML5 Short support time, given how much these devices support in terms of use. I have owned the devices for years, but no longer have a warranty Read full review Better advertisement about advanced enterprise features. My experience is with smaller switches and not with the fully managed switches. Additional management tools to monitor multiple switches in the environment. Similar to Cisco Network Assistant. Read full review Support Rating Dell ProSupport is outstanding. Dell ProDeploy is likewise outstanding. I prefer them even over traditional Cisco support. I've had repeated cases where Dell immediately addressed or fixed an issue with US-based support, including firmware hotfixes. Not even Cisco can boast that.
Read full review Alternatives Considered I selected Dell mainly due to previous experience using them in a business environment. I've never had a unit fail on me and when my budget for equipment like network switches has been less than a training class on how to use those switches, it's incredible to be able to find quality equipment at the price point Dell offers and even more so when their enterprise support has been as excellent as I have been accustomed to dealing with. In all honesty, even if I had a larger budget, I would have bought these same switches since they were exactly what I needed to suit my needs. We looked into HPE/Aruba network switches, and while they would have performed everything we needed and more, they were almost four times the cost of these Dell network switches. That's a hard sell when it comes to planning a tight budget.
Read full review While the Ubiquiti are much easier to manage remotely through their cloud controllers, the Netgear is much more reliable in harsh environments than the other simple switches we use, as they seem less susceptive to high temperatures and humidity. (TP-Link and Zycel are the other major brands we use for simple switches.)
Read full review Return on Investment Reports are easily created and very useful. Quick creation of different network connections. Excellent and secure channels for multiple data management. Great data visualization options offered by Dell PowerConnect Switches. Read full review Keeps our investment in infrastructure connections low because they can provide those connections. A lower cost alternative to adding in wall connections. Sometimes they can cause collision issues due to traffic across them. Read full review ScreenShots