Mikrotik or Ubiquiti non-poe switches
I have not used Ubiquiti switches personally but a colleague says they are good if you don’t need all the fancy features of something like a Cisco switch.
They have the same easy setup as the APs and are well integrated into that system.
I’d second the used Cisco switch route. ebay is full of older cisco equipment, and for home use the lack of support won’t be an issue really.
You’ll get vlans, port channels, remote management, all the enterprise goodies (well… layer 2 anyway - at least up to the point where software updates for the switch were cut off) and if you’re in any way interested in getting into enterprise networking, having Cisco experience under your belt is a plus.
That said - as mentioned above, some of them are noisy. Anything with more than 48 ports (e.g., 4500s, 6500s, etc.) is going to be loud. IF it needs to be quiet, you definitely want to steer clear of switches with a 4000 model number or higher (mostly chassis based stuff and other datacentre focused models where noise is not a concern at all). 29xx series and 3xxx series are workgroup focused and MUCH less noisy (8 port 2960s are silent).
If you’re looking for 16 ports, maybe consider a pair of 2960G-8TC-Ls, if you can find them cheap on ebay.
They have 8 ports each, no fan (only the 8 port 2960s have no fan - the 24 and 48 port models arent too loud tho) and gigabit ethernet.
If you don’t need gigabit, the non-G model 2960-8TC-L is the same thing with 100 meg ports and 1 gig uplink port. POE model has a P in the model name but only available in 100 meg.
These things are pretty indestructible, i’ve had a few for over a decade and they’re still fine. They get powered off during power outages or to move house, otherwise they’d stay up forever.
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I would also support Cisco or Meraki as a valid option. Both are good. I found Meraki to be a bit easier to set up as a newbie, but cisco is pretty easy once you get the commands and all down. As Thro said, Ebay is lousy with slightly older equipment that will work fantastically.
Are these quiet? I’m looking for something similar, but it’s going to be in a place where I don’t want a leaf blower running 24/7. A quiet (think desktop PC fan) fan is okay, but one of those turbines is not so much.
@Eden, did you wind up making a decision? Primary needs are 802.3ad, 802.1q, quiet and 16+ ports PoE is a plus.
Not yet, i’m leaning towards the ubiquity just for the integration and ease of use. Plan to get something next month and will make a decision, but its almost certainly going to be ubiquiti or the Mikrotik
Yeah, I’ve got a nearly complete ubiquiti stack.
ER lite, 2x UAP-pro, UNMS in a VM. I guess I should complete the stack with a Ubiquiti switch (that 24p variant is calling my name in a creepy whisper)
ooh and it’s prime. RIP my wallet.
How do you find the various other ubiquiti equipment? At the moment mine is just their AP.
The ERL is good. Never really had a problem with it and it’s just got an update last month to be compatible with their cloud management software (UNMS), so that’s nice. Before that it was a bear to configure, but it’s just a good entry-level enthusiast switch. Don’t expect to do router-level VPN with it. It definitely doesn’t support hardware AES. I got a max of 7mbps on mine with PIA.
The UNMS is very nice. All my network thingeys in one place. Gives me analytics and lets me kick people off the wireless if I want. Also has a nice spectrum scan feature. Allows me to keep an eye on channel crowding and move around if need be.
UAP is really nice. The mesh is great for my house because we have a lot of signal blocking walls, so I just put another on the other side of the house (haven’t mounted it properly yet, it’s just sitting on my dresser) and the problem was magically solved when I registered it to the mesh.
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Yeah i’ve heard this, and heard that their high end models have much better throughput.
I can’t comment on the higher end models, but I’ve got 150mbps down and this thing will do that all day until my modem gives up. (after about 500gb of transfer over the course of a couple days, something happens with my modem and it craps out, needing a reboot)
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I’ve got a top notch VDSL modem for connection, draytek, it just goes on every day without issue.
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Hmmm, I’m on Docsis 3. That’s probably part of the issue.
the 8-10 port models are fanless but the higher end ones do have fans. I have the 10port so sound isnt an issue for me
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