Your Recommendation for a 48-port Gigabit Unmanaged Switch on the Cheap?

[Samir]

Our little 'home' network has expanded in the number of gigabit devices to the point we need to add more ports--and that's about it. No management, no vlans, no LAG, just more ports.

But it seems like a 48-port unmanaged switch on the cheap is becoming a rare animal. What would you get? Noise isn't a concern, so feel free to recommend an off-lease, obsolete, jet engine fan model, so long as it works day-in day-out.

I've found that Trendnet and Netgear both make a model in the mid $100s, but I've also seen the Quanta models out there for <$100. Thoughts? Thank you in advance.

 

[microchip]

TP-Link has some very decent (unmanaged) switches and cheap too compared to other brands. They may be cheaper but do their work with no issues (speaking from experience). You might wanna look into them

 

[Samir]

TP-Link has some very decent (unmanaged) switches and cheap too compared to other brands. They may be cheaper but do their work with no issues (speaking from experience). You might wanna look into them

I've found those as well. Was really curious about the second hand market and the Quanta switches if anyone has any experience with either.

 

[Xelas]

Yep. I wanted to get a different class of answers. Answers from enterprise computing folks differ from small business.

Many people giving you responses there are not enterprise guys. I, for example, manage about 200 or so SMB locations all over the SouthWest (typically between 2-20 devices, with a couple locations that have 200-300 devices). You asked for a cheap device that you "set and forget", and the overwheming advice there was to get a lower-end L2 switch, or a used Enterprise switch specifically because the big and cheap "dumb" switches almost always end up having, causing, or contributing to issues that cost much more time or hassle to resolve than they are worth.

Setting up an L2 switch takes LITERALLY 5 minutes - set a password, assign a static IP, turn on spanning-tree, and you're good to go. Many locations I set up don't have any VLANs, either - it's dumb to do when you have 5 users.

I've take it you've never had NICs go bad and crash networks (I have, it's HELL to troubleshoot), bad NIC drivers cause issues, virus-infected PCs cause issues, or even inadvertent loops cause issues. I'm a networking guy, and I've created loops a couple times by accident.

There is a very good reason you almost never see dumb switches with more than 16 or 24 ports.

I've also had so many issue with TP-Link switches that I warn people to stay away. I've had ports die randomly, and I've had switches die such that they crash the whole network. I've had it happen many times. When someone gives me free TP-Link switches (from old sites, or if I see an existing ones) I throw them away now. They also have unreliable power supplies and AC adapters. There is a REASON they are so cheap.

 

[Samir]

Many people giving you responses there are not enterprise guys. I, for example, manage about 200 or so SMB locations all over the SouthWest (typically between 2-20 devices, with a couple locations that have 200-300 devices). You asked for a cheap device that you "set and forget", and the overwheming advice there was to get a lower-end L2 switch, or a used Enterprise switch specifically because the big and cheap "dumb" switches almost always end up having, causing, or contributing to issues that cost much more time or hassle to resolve than they are worth.

Setting up an L2 switch takes LITERALLY 5 minutes - set a password, assign a static IP, turn on spanning-tree, and you're good to go. Many locations I set up don't have any VLANs, either - it's dumb to do when you have 5 users.

I've take it you've never had NICs go bad and crash networks (I have, it's HELL to troubleshoot), bad NIC drivers cause issues, virus-infected PCs cause issues, or even inadvertent loops cause issues. I'm a networking guy, and I've created loops a couple times by accident.

There is a very good reason you almost never see dumb switches with more than 16 or 24 ports.

I've also had so many issue with TP-Link switches that I warn people to stay away. I've had ports die randomly, and I've had switches die such that they crash the whole network. I've had it happen many times. When someone gives me free TP-Link switches (from old sites, or if I see an existing ones) I throw them away now. They also have unreliable power supplies and AC adapters. There is a REASON they are so cheap.

I'm not wanting to go into the area of managed switches. More crap to maintain and deal with. I need something dead stupid that does its job day-in and day-out--and that's an unmanaged swtich. I've never had an issue from an unmanaged switch as it does its job. If I plugged in something in the wrong place, that's on me and usually takes seconds to figure out--usually followed by an 'oops'.

I've dealt with bad NICs, bad drivers, bad on-board NICs, malware super-spammer systems and packet storms caused by wiring mistakes. And the good thing about diagnosing all of these is that it's not the switch 99% of the time because the switch is too stupid to do anything other than forward packets. Just in your L2 example if you get one of those things wrong (or inadvertently set something else on), the switch becomes the issue. This is impossible with an unmanaged switch and that appeals to me.

Your experience with TP-Link doesn't surprise me. I've seen about the same from a lot of the lower priced 'box' companies like Trendnet and TP-Link. But if you want to send me the next TP-Link gigabit unmanaged switch you plan to throw away, that will work for me for the time being.

 

[Xelas]

I don't agree - a L2 switch can make identifying the loop/broken NIC/etc really easy and fast. And there is no maintenance to speak of - I have switches with 1+ year uptimes that I haven't touched in years. My oldest install still in use now is 4.5 years old, and it has 4 or 5 VLANs on 6 or 7 switches that are in 4 buildings connected with fiber runs that are 20-30 miles long. I haven't been back there since I did the install, and I've had the user reboot the router maybe once or twice due to issues with the modem. Yes, I probably need to go back there in about a year to assess the health of the hardware and see if the fans are healthy, etc, but I've NEVER had issues with hardware like you describe with one exception where a network lost all connectivity until I had a switch rebooted. That happened ONCE, and I have 300+ switches deployed over a period of several years.

Most of my locations are at least 2 years old, and I haven't been back to the vast majority of them, and even in those cases where I did go back, it was not because of network switch failures.

It does get any less of a hassle than this. I think you are WAY overstating the maintenance aspect of a network.

On the other hand, I've had MULTIPLE instances of network issues where having access to log files on the switches and having STP enabled on switches has saved my hours of running around tracing cables and unplugging/pluggin trial-and-error troubleshooting. The switch can see the layer-2 issues that DON'T show up in a DHCP server or router's logs, such as loops. Having access to that info (or having a switch that can shut down ports pro-actively when weird shirts happens) is a huge timesaver.

Finally, L2 switches generally tend to have better hardware quality than the cheap dumb switches do.

Up to you - I'm signing out of this discussion.

 

[Samir]

I don't agree - a L2 switch can make identifying the loop/broken NIC/etc really easy and fast. And there is no maintenance to speak of - I have switches with 1+ year uptimes that I haven't touched in years. My oldest install still in use now is 4.5 years old, and it has 4 or 5 VLANs on 6 or 7 switches that are in 4 buildings connected with fiber runs that are 20-30 miles long. I haven't been back there since I did the install, and I've had the user reboot the router maybe once or twice due to issues with the modem. Yes, I probably need to go back there in about a year to assess the health of the hardware and see if the fans are healthy, etc, but I've NEVER had issues with hardware like you describe with one exception where a network lost all connectivity until I had a switch rebooted. That happened ONCE, and I have 300+ switches deployed over a period of several years.

Most of my locations are at least 2 years old, and I haven't been back to the vast majority of them, and even in those cases where I did go back, it was not because of network switch failures.

It does get any less of a hassle than this. I think you are WAY overstating the maintenance aspect of a network.

On the other hand, I've had MULTIPLE instances of network issues where having access to log files on the switches and having STP enabled on switches has saved my hours of running around tracing cables and unplugging/pluggin trial-and-error troubleshooting. The switch can see the layer-2 issues that DON'T show up in a DHCP server or router's logs, such as loops. Having access to that info (or having a switch that can shut down ports pro-actively when weird shirts happens) is a huge timesaver.

Finally, L2 switches generally tend to have better hardware quality than the cheap dumb switches do.

Up to you - I'm signing out of this discussion.

Thank you for the feedback from your experience. I understand what benefits you are stating for a managed switch, but I simply don't need the extra work.

 

[abailey]

My experience with TP-Link is much different than that of one of the commenters above. I have 6 TP-Link switches in my house. Five of them are managed L2 switches and one is a dumb POE switch. The POE switch is in the non air conditioned garage. I have never had any problem out of any of them. My main (or "core") switch had an uptime of almost 2 years before we had a loss of power at the house and the uptime was reset. Anyway for home use I would definitely recommend TP-Link.

 

[Samir]

My experience with TP-Link is much different than that of one of the commenters above. I have 6 TP-Link switches in my house. Five of them are managed L2 switches and one is a dumb POE switch. The POE switch is in the non air conditioned garage. I have never had any problem out of any of them. My main (or "core") switch had an uptime of almost 2 years before we had a loss of power at the house and the uptime was reset. Anyway for home use I would definitely recommend TP-Link.

Thank you for the additional feedback.

 

[microchip]

My experience with TP-Link is much different than that of one of the commenters above. I have 6 TP-Link switches in my house. Five of them are managed L2 switches and one is a dumb POE switch. The POE switch is in the non air conditioned garage. I have never had any problem out of any of them. My main (or "core") switch had an uptime of almost 2 years before we had a loss of power at the house and the uptime was reset. Anyway for home use I would definitely recommend TP-Link.

I have to agree. Been rocking TP-Link switches, both the home office models and business class rack-mountable ones, for many years and have yet to experiences any issues with them. Maybe the person with issues just got a bad batch or something. Even if TP-Link makes its equipment itself and doesn't outsource to ODM/OEMs, doesn't mean there won't be bad batches at times. I also have a few wifi routers from them which are even older than my switches and they still work and perform well

 

[Bilby]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004UBUJZG/?tag=snbforums-20 This one may suit, only cost $229.99.

 

[thiggins]

All my gigabit switches are TP-Links. Aside from a 16 port smart switch sent for review, I've purchased all the rest. Mostly 8 port unmanaged and PoE unmanaged. Haven't had one die yet and they do the job.

 

[Samir]

Found an old Dell Powerconnect 2748 locally for <$30. 48-ports gigabit and a managed mode at the flip of a switch if I want to start messing with that.

 

[G997]

Can u recommend some L2 switches?