I need the genius that resides on these forms to help with a recommendation on a network overhaul. I am doing a pfSense router from some hardware I have. I am looking at switches and I need some honest reviews and expertise on the two I narrowed down.
I own the 24 port version of the tp-link been solid since the day i put it in. Vlans are a little tricky to get going but once you figure out UI and such not to bad. Been running for almost 2 years now. Moving onto unifi but still a great switch
Check out Craigslist for some used Cisco gear if you wanna ball hard.
Cisco switches sound like something between a leaf blower and a mini turbo prop. I was looking at some of the sf200’s though lol. Not too much used network equipment on craigslist here.
How many ports do you need honestly the cheap switches work fine if you don’t need any special configs I have the cheap 4,8 port switches and a 24port Cisco for the devices that need the extra config
I was looking at a minimum of 16 port. i am using 7 wired ports right now, and I am going to be expanding soonish. How loud is your cisco switch? I was looking at a sf200 switch as well. You can find them for around the same price as these two.
I have a 3750g Poe but it’s downstairs in the basement in a server rack, they are a bit loud if you are right next to them sitting on a desk but not crazy imo. Honestly if you need vlans or the like just get more ports off the pfsense box and run the cheap switches they will do gigabit just fine
cool thanks for your input.
The TP-Link does the job, and is fanless, but the web UI is kind of meh and there’s no CLI/text backup.
Cisco are loud, but have good/easy CLI.
Netgear, not sure.
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I’d recommend you spring the extra cash for Ubiquiti ES-24-LITE , or if you already have or are planning Ubiquiti WiFi and prefer easy setup for guest VLANs and such, then US-24.
You can connect your pfSense box with a DAC / twinax over 10G to these.
You get a good CLI and a good Web UI.
They can do some basic IP/L3 switching and filtering for you, and things like DHCP.
Not all of them, and once they boot they tend to settle down.
Do you have any particular requirements?
I’d suggest as a minimum if you’re technically inclined you want
- VLANs
- Gigabit
- POE: meh, unless you need it, if you don’t its additional expense. Be aware not all POE is the same, some newer devices need more power than base level POE so in that case you may need a power brick anyway
- fanless if you can get it. fans get dirt in them and die.
- SNMP if you can find it in budget, so you can get graphing on your ports to find out who/what is hogging the network a lot more easily and get trends over time, etc.
I would like to have vlan support. POE is nice if I want to add an ubiquiti access point at some point but not a requirement. Gigabit is necessary. SNMP isnt something im looking for specifically. I was leaning towards the netgear or cisco sf200. Ive heard good and bad about the TP-Link and they are all within a similar price range.
If you get an ubquiti AP they come with power injectors