[GlenR]

I have a Netgear GS605 gigabit switch which has begun to act flakey. Ports occasionally drop back to 100mbps for no reason and only resetting the switch brings them back to 1000mbps, so I'm thinking a new switch is coming due. Since my network has grown since I bought the netgear I'm also going to go to an 8 port switch, but I'm not sure which brand is best. My usual supplier stocks TP-Link, Asus, Netgear, D-Link and Linksys - or is there another brand I should look at?

[logifuse]

I've actually found the TP-Link stuff pretty good. At the prices, you're not buying it for life, but I haven't seen any issues with the 8 & 16 port switches of theirs I have. I'd suggest the TL-SG1008 metal cased one over the cheaper plastic one. Been running my office (3 servers inc web server, 5 PCs, printers, a WD TV Live) on a TL-SG1016 for 2-3 years now & it hasn't missed a beat.

I run a 4 port gigabit/wireless N TP-Link router at home (after having heaps of issues with a Linksys that was 2.5x the price) & it's been excellent.

I've found Netgears not to be too robust. Dead ports after minor power-surges, blackouts, that sort of thing.

The low end D-Link gigabit stuff I wouldn't touch - had major issues in a couple of small offices where they had them. Swapped them, all good. Something about the "green ethernet" business I suspect. And their power plug-packs die at the drop of a hat.

I haven't dug deeply in to it, but I suspect TP-Link is the OEM for a number of the name brands & have decided to market their own range on top (or below as the case may be).

For proper commercial grade work, I've been using 24 port HP Procurves lately. Seem good.

Justin

[skypilot]

logifuse, on 25 January 2012 - 03:35 PM, said:

[snip]

The low end D-Link gigabit stuff I wouldn't touch - had major issues in a couple of small offices where they had them. Swapped them, all good. Something about the "green ethernet" business I suspect. And their power plug-packs die at the drop of a hat.

[snip]
Justin

I agree - I had (still have it as an emergency spare) a D-Link 8 port gig switch and it stopped working - all the port lights were flashing which was obviously a maintenance code. I email D-Link tech support and they were clueless - absolutely no idea what it was and of course they said it was my network causing the problem. The best advice they could offer was if I had a friend with another switch to try that. As it turned out I did have a friend with a switch. The friends name is Linksys/Cisco and their switch is working wonderfully well!

D-Link could not tell me that it was the plug pack or to even offer to sell me a new one! After much surfing the net I found it was a common problem and a 16v 1000uf capacitor fails in the power/plug pack (there is only a transformer and capacitor in the plug pack) so I replaced it with a 25v 1000uf capacitor and away it went but as said previously, I keep it now for an emergency spare or for fiddling.

This post has been edited by skypilot: 26 January 2012 - 03:24 AM

[Dean1M]

My Netgear GS608 got fried during a flood just before Christmas. I replaced it with a TP-Link TL-SG1008D which has been perfect thus far.