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?
Check out mikrotik. I recently got their crs309 and it seems solid.
Their cli is horrible though. It does get warm but I have it in a location that can hit 40c and it’s been stable.
You can get 1gb or 10g base-t sfps, or they have other models with various port configs.
I just ordered two CRS310 switches. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W7WBQ77
Reviews say that it’s a bit loud, but I can do a fan swap if I need to. It’s otherwise exactly what I need and will still have a few ports left over for the future.
I’ve actually seen a few Microtik switches that meet my needs, but to be entirely honest, I’ve never used Microtik before, and I was a bit hesitant based on that. If you’re running one in a location that hits 40c, that’s already far above what I’d be dealing with. My hottest location only gets to about 30c (86f), and I’ve had trouble with my Zyxel switches even lower than that.
I’d actually prefer a switch with nothing but SFP+ ports. I’m going to wait and see if I get any more feedback, but if you’ve had good experience with Microtik, I may give them a try.
I can weigh in with my small experience with their hardware. Back in the day we used quite a lot of their hardware for VPN-clients, firewalls and things like that in small-ish offices on work and I’ve been running my router for 5(ish) years without any hiccups with 1 spf port and 8x1Gbps copper and a 1/1Gbps upstream (trough spf).
I still have a bunch of old hardware gathering dust in the bin from when we ran them at the office (around 2010-2014, give or take a few years) and all of them still work. Granted, an old 100Mbps router isn’t that useful today, but I still occasionally use them on my homelab for testing/verification of my ideas.
My current home office goes around 30C in the summer but that hasn’t been an issue at all. And their pricing is pretty decent. The unit I have isn’t available anymore, but vendor claimed that it can push up to 7,5Gbps trough and the price was something around 120€.
That being said, I don’t have that much experience with them (only a handful of models and none of them was pushed too hard), but personally I’d pick anything from mikrotik over zyxel/d-link/tp-link.
Mikrotik is big in the small isp space, they should be solid.
Mine is all sfp+ and I just use 1g/10g base-t sfps where I need copper.
My only complaint is the cli is horrible. I’m used to Cisco gear and mikrotik just made no sense to me.
I had no idea. Microtik is definitely new to me. For a long time, I always used surplus or recycled enterprise-level hardware, and that usually ended up being Dell, HP, or Cisco. When I did my most recent upgrade, I replaced most of that with Trendnet or TP-Link; it just made more sense, and I recognized the brand names.
The fact that Miktotik has a CLI at all is kind of a plus to me, even if it’s horrible. Regardless, though, my network setup usually consists of Factory Default Settings -> Assign a Static IP -> Configure port-based VLANs. It’s not particularly advanced. Most likely I wouldn’t even need to use anything other than the web-based management interface.
I really appreciate the suggestion. Microtik makes a few switches that would work perfectly for me, but I had written them off as a “random white-label brand.” I think I’ll probably be replacing my Zyxel switches with Microtik.
Regardless, though, my network setup usually consists of Factory Default Settings -> Assign a Static IP -> Configure port-based VLANs. It’s not particularly advanced. Most likely I wouldn’t even need to use anything other than the web-based management interface.
That’s pretty much what I’m doing with my Mikrotik switches too and I never had to touch the cli.
Got my two CRS310s, set them up, and they’re working well. I’m amazed with how configurable they are in comparison to my old Zyxel switches.
I’m not sure I’m setting up VLANs correctly, though. There’s an option to set up VLANS under Interface or Bridge. I have several ports that pass more than one tagged VLAN, and as far as I can tell, that’s only possible on the Bridge. So my Interface -> VLAN setup is completely empty, and my Bridge -> VLAN setup contains all my VLAN assignments.
I’ve researched this a bit, and it seems like I’m doing it the right way, but I’m a bit concerned I’m passing the VLANs off to the CPU instead of the switch chip. This is the first switch I’ve used with this kind of VLAN setup. Am I on the right track?
Also, my 1GB SFP modules only work if I disable Autonegotiation; then they show as “Up,” with all the lights on, even if no cable is attached. Not a big deal really, but strange. I don’t have this issue with my 10GB SFP+ modules.
I haven’t actually setup vlans on mine yet so can’t help there.
All my sfps worked without messing with autoneg though.
This TPLink switch has been pretty much invisible for my setup, using 5 of the 8 ports. https://www.tp-link.com/us/business-networking/managed-switch/tl-sx3008f/
Er…Asus RE-BE88 technically meets that criteria but that’s a router…I think it even does the VLAN stuff?
Asus RE-BE88
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.
Have you shopped eBay for used switches?
I have. The two PowerConnect switches I have were both ebay purchases, and I used them for quite a few years. The problem with buying “high-end” old surplus equipment for me is just the size and noise. It works great in my server rack, but not really in a habitable living room or office.
Have you looked into the TP-Link Omada switches? This 8 port has been working well in a home environment - https://www.tp-link.com/us/business-networking/omada-switch-poe/tl-sg3210xhp-m2/.
Fans are LOUD, but the fans can be swapped out for quieter ones if you don’t mind the fan error light. For example, see https://www.rootusers.com/how-to-fix-tp-link-tl-sx1008-switch-fan-noise.
I haven’t used the Omada switches, but I’ve had good luck with TP-Link in the past.
Switch fans are almost always going to have some level of noise. The smaller the fan, the faster it has to spin to match whatever the target airflow is. I did a fan swap on one of my Dell switches a few years ago, and while it did help, it took it from “profoundly annoying from behind a closed door” to “it’s not too bad if there’s TV or music on.” The Omada switches look like they might be a good solution, though.
If it helps any, the fan swap for the TP-Link switch TL-SG3210XHP-M2 was for the same size fan, so airflow and speed should be the same, it’s just a much quieter fan. I went with the Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX 40x20mm. I’m in the same room as the switch, about 5 feet away, and the 7200 rpm hard drives in the NAS sound louder than the fans on the switch.
