Home Switch recommendation? Managed, unmanaged?

[rahlquist]

It's time to start considering some upgrades just due to age of equipment. Attached is a simple network diagram.

I'm going to be replacing my R7000 soon with a Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite. I may also get adventurous and run 4 drops to eliminate my dependence on the DECA portion of my network for anything other than just DirecTv. I am debating if I need to or should go with a managed switch at this point.

Looking for any thoughts, opinions, or suggestions.

 

[thiggins]

Layer 2 smart/managed switches are cheap enough now. They provide options like VLAN, aggregation, rate limiting and reporting that can come in handy.

I've used both NETGEAR and TP-Link 8 port managed switches with no problems. NETGEAR's Pro series has limited lifetime warranty, if I remember correctly.

 

[Bilby]

Unmanaged PoE Switches:
1. Linksys LGS116P 16-Port
2. TP-LINK TL-SG1008PE 8-Port
3.TRENDnet TPE-TG81g PoE+ Switch

Managed Switches:

• Cisco SG300-10

• NETGEAR ProSAFE GS108E

• TP-Link 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Web Managed Easy Smart Switch

• ZyXEL 24-Port Gigabit Ethernet Smart Managed Switch

Managed switches are designed for intense workloads, high amounts of traffic and deployments where custom configurations are a necessity. So managed switches are highly recommended.

 

[Despacitomiko]

Managed switches have much more features than unmanaged ones, such as security, redundancy, Remote Access. A managed switch can seriously expand the long-range flexibility of your network and it can adapt to changing priorities. So I think 8-port or 24 port managed switch is enough for home use.

 

[Chumsacher]

If you have no special requirements for cost, managed switch is a better choice, as those guys said above. Unmanaged switch is plug-and-play, easy to use, but you may have less control of you network, depends on your need.

 

[Dave123]

Another vote for at least a Layer 2 managed switch. Even if you don't use features right away, it's nice to have them. Get at least 16 ports if you can. I have a couple of the 8 port TP-Links in the house, just as basic switches right now. Don't know how they'd perform with a bunch of features turned on, but they're very fast otherwise (I got rid of some D-Link "home" switches and noticed a difference).

 

[Engineer]

Another vote for at least a Layer 2 managed switch. Even if you don't use features right away, it's nice to have them. Get at least 16 ports if you can. I have a couple of the 8 port TP-Links in the house, just as basic switches right now. Don't know how they'd perform with a bunch of features turned on, but they're very fast otherwise (I got rid of some D-Link "home" switches and noticed a difference).

I tried combining a TP-Link 8 'smart' switch with my Zyxel 16 port 'smart' switch and it was a disaster. Link aggregation worked OK but everything slowed down. After looking around, I discovered that the half baked firmware wouldn't save anything after the first save from the GUI but would with the utility so I tried that. Still had issues and my Xbox 360 extenders quit working about 50% of the time with my Windows Media Center PC. Finally discovered that the TP-Link was dropping about 80% of the packets. After finally figuring out to turn off VLAN tagging on the Media Center PC's NIC (advanced settings), the packet loss stopped but the extenders would still not connect 100% of the time to the WMC system. I was not using VLAN on the TP-Link but other switches (Zyxel) didn't mind the tagging being on by default on the Intel NIC.

After tinkering with Beta firmware, new cables, config changes, I finally sent it back and got a Linksys 18 port smart switch from Amazon (Was listed as used for $59 but was new in box) and it worked like a champ no matter what. Might be the link aggregation but the extenders now connect faster to the media center PC than the dumb 8 port TP-Link switch that was before the TP-Link smart switch.

LGS318 has been solid as a rock so far.

Also, the Zyxel GS1900-16 has been rock solid. Found it on NeweggFlash sale for $29.99 shipped in 2015. Could have bought two at that price and wish I could go back in time and get the 2nd one, lol!

The TP-Link 8 port smart switch was purchased for $19.99 with free shipping from Fry's. It was hard to return it and spend more since it was so cheap (on sale).

The Linksys LGS318 - 18 port gigabit with 2 SFP ports is $59.50 and about $3.95 shipping in the "Used - Like New" condition. It's actually new in box with slightly damaged original packaging. I couldn't even see damage on the outside of the box. Still sealed with all manuals, CD and power cable.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J0N81WW/?tag=snbforums-20

 

[Dave123]

I tried combining a TP-Link 8 'smart' switch with my Zyxel 16 port 'smart' switch and it was a disaster. Link aggregation worked OK but everything slowed down. After looking around, I discovered that the half baked firmware wouldn't save anything after the first save from the GUI but would with the utility so I tried that. Still had issues and my Xbox 360 extenders quit working about 50% of the time with my Windows Media Center PC. Finally discovered that the TP-Link was dropping about 80% of the packets. After finally figuring out to turn off VLAN tagging on the Media Center PC's NIC (advanced settings), the packet loss stopped but the extenders would still not connect 100% of the time to the WMC system.

After tinkering with Beta firmware, new cables, config changes, I finally sent it back and got a Linksys 18 port smart switch from Amazon (Was listed as used for $59 but was new in box) and it worked like a champ no matter what. Might be the link aggregation but the extenders now connect faster to the media center PC than the dumb 8 port TP-Link switch that was before the TP-Link smart switch.

LGS318 has been solid as a rock so far.

My main switch is a Cisco SG-200, where I have LACP etc. on. I've only read good things overall of the TP-Link features etc., and only personally used the basics (which are great). I do know that TP-Link aren't known for good firmware, so if there's issues... best to return it.

 

[bitmux]

Depending on how "loud" of a switch you can handle as far as fan noise the older rackmount "datacenter" type switches are absolutely rock solid. I run a Dell Powerconnect 5424 which I picked up for under $50 on ebay - it enables a nifty vlan infrastructure and has been up since the day I put it in without a reboot. If the price wasn't so unbelievably cheap I'd have gone with a TP-Link FWIW.