Seeking buying advice for a 48-port unmanaged switch

[rhimbo]

Hello all,

I am looking to buy a Gigabit 48-port network switch (or 2, 24-port switches) for my home. I've wired my home with Cat-6 cable to every room (well, not the bathrooms ) I'm pretty sure I only need an unmanaged switch. I think a managed switch is overkill for a house. Nevertheless, I'm happy to hear anyone's opinion on that matter.

I've been perusing the Internet for technical articles, reviews, network equipment sites (mono price.com, etc.). I see so many brands now... Netgear, TP-Link, D-Link, Linksys, etc....

Does anyone have any advice on which you prefer and why?

I've included a photo of my network rack in case anyone is interested. I plan to replace it with one or possibly two wall-mounted racks.

I will be re-cabling the patch chords with appropriate length cables. The ones you see are just stop gap so I could get basic functionality working. I am placing a second router in the center of the house for good WiFi coverage and I'm hardwiring it to my primary router and I just used the cables I had.

Many thanks in advance for advice, suggestions and explanations....

 

[abailey]

I really like TP-Link. I have 6 TP-Link switches in my house. 5 of them are managed switches and one is a non-managed POE switch. I have not had even an ounce of trouble out of any of them. I know some people have had problems with them, and maybe some of the early switches had problems, I don't know. My oldest TP-Link switch is the one I am using as my "core" switch in my rack and I purchased it in early 2014. As far as others I like for home use would be Zyxel, Netgear, and Cisco Small Business. For value/peformance, in my experience, it is hard to beat TP-Link.
Personally I would get one 48port over two 24 port switches unless you are getting switches with 10Gig uplinks. If you connect the two 24port switches with Gigabit you may one day have a bottleneck to deal with.
Also you may want to think twice about getting a dumb switch as opposed to managed. The price of managed switches have really come down. Being able to separate certain traffic from others may be helpful (like separating IOT devices from your regular LAN, or having a visitor network). Anyway just a thought.

 

[rhimbo]

Hey abailey,

Many thanks for the quick response. I appreciate it and your insight.

See I'm learning already. I hadn't thought about the potential bottleneck issue. Question on that topic. If I plugged both switches into my Gigabit router via the LAN ports, would that eliminate any potential bottleneck of throughout? I am just asking for my edification; I like the idea of one 48-port switch -- simpler is better!!

In regards to the managed versus unmanaged switch, you have a point about looking forward to possible future uses. In fact I do plan to have a PoE or PoE+ switch later. The current plan is to use these only for IP security cameras. However, I could also put some IoT devices on it potentially. And the guest network is a good piece of forethought. Same as a guest WiFi network which I will set up. [By the way, I just bought two Synology RT2600ac WiFi routers, which I'm trying to set up now. ]

I was mostly concerned with the learning curve of managing and configuring a managed switch. Otherwise, I have no qualms about it (not even the modest additional cost over an unmanaged switch). Do you find that one of the brands you identified has a more comprehensible, user-friendly or intuitive UI than others? Do any stand out in your opinion?

Thanks again..!

 

[microchip]

+1 for TP-Link switches. They're also less expensive than other brands. Never had a single issue with them

 

[abailey]

Question on that topic. If I plugged both switches into my Gigabit router via the LAN ports, would that eliminate any potential bottleneck of throughout? I am just asking for my edification; I like the idea of one 48-port switch -- simpler is better!!

I was mostly concerned with the learning curve of managing and configuring a managed switch. Otherwise, I have no qualms about it (not even the modest additional cost over an unmanaged switch). Do you find that one of the brands you identified has a more comprehensible, user-friendly or intuitive UI than others? Do any stand out in your opinion?

Thanks again..!

If you plug both switches into your router then you will still be limited by the 1Gb link. For example if you had two PC's (each connected at 1Gb) on Switch_A trying to pull information from devices on Switch_B they would both be funneled through the 1Gb line. Thus basically they would each get 500Mbit (full duplex) instead of the 1Gbit each PC is rated at. If you use one switch then the backplane on the switch should be enough that all devices on the switch can run at 1Gb/s at the same time.
As far as managed switches most have the same feature sets in the same category. By category I mean Layer2, Layer2+, and layer3 managed switches. At my house I use layer2 managed switches. But you need a router that can route VLANs if you want to take advantage of some of the features I mentioned earlier. If you don't have a router that can route VLANs then you may need a Layer2+ or layer3 switch that can route. But there are other good things about a managed switch. You can see problems on your ports, most managed switches have troubleshooting tools, etc. Also some have ports you can name. This is one of my favorite things about the TP-Link Smart switches. They let you name the port so when you bring up the management webpage you can see what is connected on each port (as long as you labeled it). This can save a lot of time not having to trace down what the wire is connected to. Anyway on TP-Link this feature is not on the Easy-Smart switches but it is on the Smart and Layer2 managed switches.
All consumer managed switches that I have seen can be used like a dumb switch right out of the box. This way you can use it immediately and take your time about learning the management features.

 

[rhimbo]

Many thanks abailey and microchip. Goin' online now to get a TP-Link...!

I have a Synology RT 2600ac router which I believe can handle VLANs. I might have to download some module for it. I just got these routers so I'm not up on all they can do. But I believe one of the reviews I read said it handles VLANs and a bunch of other functions.

But, if I understand your last post correctly, abailey, it couldn't hurt to get a Layer 3 managed switch.....

 

[abailey]

But, if I understand your last post correctly, abailey, it couldn't hurt to get a Layer 3 managed switch.....

It would not hurt to get a layer3 switch. They are just more expensive. In fact most consumer layer3 switches are in layer2 mode out of the box. For home, a layer 2+ (static routing) would also be fine if your router cannot do VLANs.

 

[rhimbo]

I think I'll just go for the Layer 3 managed switch. It can't be that much more money and it will motivate me to play with it and learn more...!


Thanks again, abailey....

 

[System Error Message]

just avoid dlink and you'll be fine. Go for semi-managed (smart) switches as they only cost a little bit more. Fully managed switches are out of your price range unless you wanna deal with mikrotik/ubiquiti learning curves.

Did you wire the house yourself, drilling through walls and such?

 

[rhimbo]

OK. Thanks, System Error Message. That's helpful insight.

 

[sfx2000]

For unmanaged switches - pretty much any brand - even D-Link (had good luck with their unmanaged switch line, very reliable) - they're pretty much all the same price per port at that level, as they are commodity items.

I would go with two 24-port switches vs. one 48-port - bit more flexibility and better offerings from the vendor space.

two 24's also give a bit of flexibility with router based VLAN's for future consideration if one goes into a more advanced router...

For lightly managed - take a look at Netgear and their ProSafe line - fairly easy to configure, WebUI so one is not locked to a desktop app (they do have a desktop app).

 

[rhimbo]

Gentlemen,

I decided on the TP-Link JetStream 48-port Gigabit Smart Switch T1600G-52TS:
http://www.tp-link.com/us/products/details/cat-40_T1600G-52TS.html

I think it is a reasonable price for the features, has many features to keep my busy learning, and has very impressive reviews on Amazon.

It should arrive in a week....

 

[Bilby]

TP-link and D-link switches are both good switches. But TP-link are more cost-effective with a good reputation. They are good choices for 48-port Gigabit smart switches.

 

[Despacitomiko]

Since many managed switches can also work as a "dumb" unmanaged switch as well, I'd say take a look into the HP V1910-48G's. They're like ~$70 on eBay right now and are relatively modest when it comes to power usage (and seems to be the one of the cheapest on there as well).

 

[Johno]

I recently bought a new Cisco SG300 20 port L3 managed switch on eBay for less than half the retail price in the UK. A few days later I saw another new SG300 on eBay which eventually sold for just over half what I'd paid for mine, so I was a bit peeved, but I'd still got a bargain.

I haven't used the switch in anger yet but I did plug in into my router, connected my laptop/tablet to it and configured it for how I intend to use it, then did an internet speed test and found that download/upload performance was increased by 10% compared with plugging the same laptop into the main home ethernet that's fed into a small Netgear 5 port gigabit switch.

I've since seen new Cisco Sg300 52 port switches on eBay so that may be worth conisdering.

 

[Chumsacher]

I know you have got your new tp-link switch, but what I want to say is NETGEAR is also a good choices if you want to get a simple switch for your home network. (￣▽￣)