3Com 5500-EI models equivalent to HP/H3C?

[paulgear]

Hi folks,

Is anyone familiar with the 3Com side of things able to tell me whether the 3Com-branded switches such as 3CR17162-91 and 3CR17181-91-US are identical hardware to the H3C-branded models of the same name?  The specs seem very similar, but talk about XRN instead of IRF, and they seem to be 10/100 on the main access ports instead of 10/100/1000.

Any thoughts?  I'm looking to add some gear to my test lab.

Thanks,

Paul

[Fredrik Lönnman]

Hi,

The 3Com/H3C modell numbering in that series was quite confusing, but here goes:

H3C 5500 == 3Com 4800

H3C 5600 == 3Com 5500

As you say they differ in the h3c 5600 beeing 10/100 and also runs comware5 whereas the h3c 5500 is 10/100/1000 and runs comware5, and is a newer hardware platform.

[paulgear]

So let me get this straight: a 3Com 5500-EI is much less capable than an H3C 5500-EI and is non-IRF capable?

[Fredrik Lönnman · Accepted solution]

Correct.