Launched in December, 3Com's SuperStack 3 4500 series of Layer 3 10/100Mbit/s stackable switches is aimed at firms wanting secure converged networks.

The 4500 range consists of 26- and 50-port versions with or without Power over Ethernet (PoE). They can be managed through a Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS)-like command line interface (CLI), or through a comprehensive web GUI, or via other 3Com network management software.

We accessed the CLI through an RJ-45 console port using an RJ-45/serial connector, and also connected to the web GUI and 3Com's Network Supervisor V5.1 running on a standard Windows 2000 desktop. For even more secure access we could connect using a KDE Secure Shell (KSSH) front-end client running Secure Shell (SSH) 2 on Suse Linux Professional 9.3. Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) version 3 is also supported.

The 4500PWR has 24 MDI/MDI-X auto-sensing 10/100Mbit/s ports. And for uplink connections to gigabit-speed network devices there are two user-configurable " dual personality" Gigabit Ethernet ports offering a choice of copper connectivity using 1000Base-T or fibre, 1000Base-X, using optional small form factor pluggable (SFP) transceiver modules. We had two 1000Base-T SFPs, which we used to uplink to our gigabit core switch.

Up to eight 4500 series switches can be stacked, which, using the 50-port models gives 384 10/100 ports, and all can be managed through a single IP address.

We could connect a variety of wireless access points and IP cameras to the 4500PWR, but companies wishing to connect IP phones to the switch are limited to models from 3Com, Cisco, Pingtel and Polycom. Network staff can access detailed information about PoE-connected devices and the specific ports the devices are connecting to, and can specify how much power the devices can draw.

The 4500PWR has a total of 300 Watts it can allocate to the PoE ports. The web GUI is the best option for IT staff to check how much power is free and how much power is being used by connected devices. For instance, our 3Com AP7250 access point was using an average of 6W, but we could specify the maximum power (in mW) that the device could draw.

In addition, protocols can be prioritised and filtered to give priority to time-sensitive applications such as voice over IP (VoIP).

For security the 4500 supports 802.1x network access combined with Radius authentication.

If extra security is needed for attached devices, Radius Authenticated Device Access (Rada) can be applied, which checks devices' Media Access Control (MAC) addresses.

Port-based access control lists (ACLs) can also be applied and the 4500PWR supports the recently announced 3Com Quarantining service to isolate suspicious network traffic.