A few months ago, I upgraded all my network switches. I have a 16-port SFP+ switch and a 1GB switch (LAGG to the SPF+ with two DACs). These work perfectly, and I’m really happy with the setup so far.
My main switch ties into a remote switch in another building over a 10Gb fiber line, and this switch ties into another switch of the same model (on a different floor) over a Cat6e cable. These switches are absolute garbage: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084MH9P8Q
I should have known better than to buy a cheap off-brand switch, but I had hoped that Zyxel was a decent enough brand that I’d be okay. Well, you get what you pay for, and that’s $360 down the toilett. I constantly have dropped connections, generally resulting in any attached devices completely losing network connectivity, or if I’m lucky, dropping down to dial-up speeds (I’m not exaggerating). The only way to fix it is to pull the power cable to the switch. Even under virtually no load, the switch gets so hot that it’s painful to touch. Judging from the fact that my connection is far more stable when the switch is sitting directly in front of an air conditioner, that tells me just about all I need to know.
I’m trying to find a pair of replacement switches, but I’m really striking out. I have two ancient Dell PowerConnect switches that are rock solid, but they’re massive, they sound like jet engines, and they use a huge amount of power. Since these are remote from my homelab and live in occupied areas, they just won’t work. All I need is a switch that has:
- At least 2 SFP+ ports (or 1 SFP+ port for fiber and a 10Gb copper port)
- At least 4 1Gb ports (or SFP ports; I have a pile of old 1GB SFP adapters)
- Management/VLAN capability Everything I find online is either Chinese white-label junk or is much larger than what I need. A 16-port SFP+ switch would work, but I’d never use most of the ports, and I’d be wasting a lot of money on overkill hardware. As an example, one of these switches is in my home office; it exists solely so I have a connection between my server rack, two PCs, and a single WAP. I am never going to need another LAN connection in my home office; any hardware is going to go in the server rack, but I do need 10GB connectivity on at least one of those PCs.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a small reliable switch that has a few SFP+ ports, is made by a reputable brand, and isn’t a fire hazard?
Er…Asus RE-BE88 technically meets that criteria but that’s a router…I think it even does the VLAN stuff?
Not a bad suggestion, but it doesn’t really work for me. I already have a Unifi system for my WiFi, and I use PfSense for routing, so I’d be disabling half of the features. Plus, for the same cost, I can just buy another of my “main” 16-port SFP+ switches, which is kind of what I’m trying to avoid.
Yeah, it felt like a bit of a dumb suggestion for someone in your position. Might work for someone with a less…robust level of need? Works for me with a QNAP QSW-2104-2T (this doesn’t meet your criteria fwiw, unmanaged, not sfp+ but there is an sfp+ version that’s still unmanaged) does that really matter if you have a pfsense box?
Edit: QSW-2104-2S is the double sfp+ version.
I’ve used WiFi routers as switches in the past, but it just kinda makes sense to buy something a little more purpose-built if I’m already buying new hardware anyway.
Even using a PfSense box, managed switches do matter. While I’m not using any of the routing capability on the switches (if they even have it), I still need to be able to assign switch ports to a specific VLAN. I can connect a “dumb” switch to a VLAN-aware port on a managed switch, and every port on the dumb switch essentially becomes a member of the parent VLAN. In my case, though, the switches I need to replace each have multiple VLANs that need to be assigned to specific ports.
Thank you for explaining, as that’s really helpful for my own learning
The homelab community has always been one of the friendlier ones that I’ve been a part of, even back when I still used Reddit. I can’t speak for the whole community, but most of us are always happy to help if you ever have any questions about homelabbing, networking, self-hosting, whatever.