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I’ll be starting a small IT Consulting business within the next couple of weeks and I need some recommendations. I’m working in an all-Dell shop, and it works great, except that Dell has some serious problems with their support site. Plus, just because I’m using Dell all the time, I feel like I may be a bit biased.

My clientele will mostly be small businesses and independent franchises, mostly in retail. I need a recommendation for brands for the following types of products. Please include a short reason why you recommend that brand. Remember: Cisco is probably out of the question as my area is quite rural with a lot of small ma-pa shops.

SOHO Routers

SOHO Wireless (VLAN-capable)

Layer-2 SOHO Switch

Budget small-profile server, RAID-capable. Xeon preferred, but educate me if there’s another option.

I’d rather not build custom rigs. There’s already a company doing that, and because they do it, finding replacement parts is just about impossible. I’d rather buy something off the shelf, even if I have to buy the drives/OS separate.

Any other tips you have would be greatly appreciated.

6 Spice ups
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I agree 100% about staying away from custom stuff. You wind up with too many variables. Best to stick with a brand you like and are familiar with. I say stick with Dell; desktops, laptops, servers and switches. The price is usually good, hardware is good and support, meh. Anyway, sit down and create a list of the vendors you have confidence/experience with and stay with those to start. At least you will be able to respond with first-hand experience when you get hit with the inevitable questions from clients. Sounds really bad when a consultant recommends a product and then has to say, “Let me find out and get back to you on that”.

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Routers : Draytek (Best in performance and easy on the pocket)

Servers : Dell T110s (Small Power Horse)

Focus on getting them secured with at-least and Antivirus

Get a Help Desk Right Away (Spice works :)) )

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While Dell does have issues with their support site, they have a lot less issues than everyone else. Try getting anything off of HP’s site without wanting to rip your fingernails out. And if you need to talk to a Dell representative, use the in browser support chat. It is a thousand times better than trying to call them and getting transferred 3-4 times before someone will talk to you. I use their chat a lot for warranty issues, and we always get it resolved one way or the other. HP on the other hand, has never managed to get me a viable solution through their support chat. I know I sound like a shill, but Dell is really pretty decent when you pull back and look at everything.

2 Spice ups
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Netgear switches tend to be on the low-budget but decent reliability range for Small Office Home Office setups, and their routers as also decent.

For wireless, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Ubiquiti devices (again I’m thinking small scale, budget options), though I have not tried one myself. Some of the Netgear routers also do wireless.

If you want to stick with Dell products, you’re probably looking at Sonicwall wireless devices. The Dell PowerConnect switches are may be out of your clients’ price range.

For small servers, I’m going to pass to somebody with more experience with newer server technology. Though you can get Dell PowerEdge 1950’s fairly cheap online with warranties for around $800 - $1200.

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Ubiquiti for

  • Switching
  • Routers
  • Wireless

They are really good pieces of kit.

Dell, HP and Lenovo are all terrible in different areas.

Dell is the best of the worst, that does not make them great, it just makes them better than the other guys, resellers make dealing with Dell much better though.

HP, Oh my life their sales & support is abysmal. I still support/help with HP gear but always try to get through a reseller, direct is just asking for pain and suffering.

Lenovo, I would not suggest anyone buys, consumer or business. Too many big mistakes from them.

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Routers: Ubiquiti (very reliable and inexpensive)

Switches: Netgear Smart Managed (Great SOHO switches)

Wireless: Ubiquiti Unifi (easy to manage and priced for SOHO)

Servers: Dell (either purchase directly or another great source is xbyte)

I’ve been deploying most of the Ubiquiti line going on 6 years now and I couldn’t recommend them any higher. Right now we managed about 75 AP’s across multiple clients. And Dell has always been rock solid for us both the new and used equipment that we have deployed. I have 2 PE 2950 still running strong 24/7 for the past 8 years only in the past month have we experienced a single drive failing. We also have a large recycling facility and more often then not the Dell equipment is more reliable then HP when it comes in. And as it’s been said above HP sales and support is horrible. Anytime we have to get HP equipment now we just go to CDW.

@Dell_Technologies @xByte_Technologies @Ubiquiti_Inc

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Just to get some clarification, are you looking at just getting some networking equipment as well as a server, or are you looking into possibly getting some user-facing products as well, like desktops and laptops? Outside of the equipment, if you’re interested in partnering with Dell as an IT Service Provider, here’s a little more info about our Dell PartnerDirect program: http://partnerdirect.dell.com/sites/channel/en_us/ValueAddedReseller/Pages/ServiceProviders.aspx

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Take a bit of advice from Brittany. If you can build a relationship with Dell as a service provider, you will get much better service and sales support. Pricing will also be better.

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We’ve been running Dell Power Connect switches ( about 40 48-port PoE) for about 4 years and have had exactly 1 of them that has had an issue. My experience with Cisco switches has been far worse (as far as actual hardware). HP, about the same. Ubiquiti does produce some pretty good stuff (we only use their AP’s, not switches) and their prices are very reasonable for what you get.

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Routers: Zywall USG series or Cisco ASA when the customer can afford it … both offer solid no-reboot performance, nice responsive web-based GUI on the Zywall’s, not junk like the Linksys/Netgear/Dlink’s of the world

Wireless: EnGenius EAP series …although beware the firmware pitfalls, newest doesn’t always mean better

Switches: Cisco small business series, when the customer can’t afford real Cisco

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Dell.jpg

Dell partner website = Different pricing to what the reps quote and sometimes it is higher than list price on the business website for identical items.

@Dell_Technologies