I’d appreciate any advice about unmanaged Ethernet switches, picking a good, compact and secure 10G or 2.5G model for a home. 10G seems best with current Macs supporting it and faster I guess, but older Ethernet devices would be limited to 1G like the Internet router and a few Macs. Everything will plug into this to transfer files between computers.
Picking a good brand is important for security or firmware updates, but maybe that’s not a factor with switches. QNAP seems to be the main choice for 10G, their $120 model with two 10G ports and four 2.5G ports looks good. Opinions please about QNAP, or other brands I should consider? D-Link and Netgear just have 2.5G models around that price point. Thank you.
To my use cases, 10G is way overkill. I don’t move gigabyte video files between machines over my network. I barely move anything between my Macs at home! I am far more limited by the WiFi than the ethernet.
I have 1 gigabit Internet service so I chose this cheap and simple switch to connect my house’s Ethernet network to my ISP’s signal:
For me, I didn’t see much point in spending the $$$ for a faster or more configurable switch because a 1 gigabit switch matches the maximum bandwidth provided by my ISP and I don’t run servers or networked storage on my home network. The 3-year warranty was attractive too.
Bottom line, the switch does its job and I would buy it again.
I agree. Unless you have a NAS then 10GB ethernet isn’t necessary…and unless you have multiple (like more than 3 or 4) users requiring access to that NAS (and they’ll all need 10GB as well)…then a Thunderbolt connected DAS will be faster than the NAS. And that DAS can be easily shared to other computers but unless all of them are connected via 10GB as well then just sharing from a single computer is low overhead and less things to need management than a NAS. If any of the clients to the share are on wifi…then 10GB makes no sense at all.
It’s a managed switch, but I have never configured any of its management capabilities. I got it because it was the least-cost option back in a year when gigabit switches were still very expensive. (IIRC, this unit cost about $120, whereas all other 16-port switches cost $200+).
One port connects to the LAN port of my router, and 8 more ports connect to various things in my office, with 7 spares. It also has two SFP ports (which can be used in lieu of two RJ45 ports), should I ever decide I want fiber connectivity in the future.
Sadly, USR no longer makes Ethernet switches, so there is no current model for me to recommend.
A while back, we went to 1G Internet connectivity, connecting up all four “smart TVs” in the house streaming-only – along with everyone’s computers (Macs, Windows + tablets and smart phones) … and a variety of different gaming gear. With a various gaming gear, tablets, and smart phones gear running on multiple WiFi networks (eero 5+ WAPs, 1Gbit upstream, 2.5Gbit downstream).
Since then we’ve used an 8-port unmanaged TRENDnet TEG-S380 2.5GBASE-T “Gaming switch” with 40GBps aggregate switching capacity downstream of the ISP’s router (with its 2.5Gbit interface). $90 from Amazon.
That switch effectively takes care all the to/from the Internet, as well as most of the even greater intra-house traffic. No NAS, but a lot of casting from computing gear to TVs for gaming, etc.
If at some point we need to go to a greater than 1G Internet connection, I’m hoping that we won’t need additional, faster unmanaged switches.
Of course, if you do, you may not need them everywhere, since it is unlikely that every device will need that kind of bandwidth.
For example, you might get a single high-bandwidth (2.5, 5 or 10G) switch in a central location, with links running from there to wall jacks in different rooms. And in each room, using switches that have one or two high-bandwidth ports and the rest being lower speeds.
For example, the D-Link DMS-106XT has one 10G port and 5 2.5G ports.
In the past, switches like this (with one or two “uplink” ports running faster than all the other ports) were much more common, but they’re still a good idea, especially as Internet bandwidth grows beyond any single device’s capability.
Thanks for everyone’s feedback, it’s helpful to know what others are thinking. I like the idea of future-proofing a little at 2.5G or 10G like David suggested, that’s exactly what I was thinking.
This brings back significant memories - when I ran a bulletin board service back in the late 80s through about 2000, USR was the gold standard (for me at least). I still have my two Courier V.34 (upgraded to V.Everything) modems because I just couldn’t bear to get rid of them - even though you can’t even really get residential POTS anymore (they aggregate it into VoIP even though they deliver the copper to your house). Those were the days…
To answer your original question: 10G, obviously. There’s really no point in the tiny incremental jump to 2.5G, when it’s pretty clear you’ll have to make the jump to 10G again soon anyway because your end devices are going to be 10G equipped when economies of scale make it easier to fab at reasonable prices and customers become less price-sensitive to the idea of upgrading for faster networking. 2.5G is already looking like the new low-end, and while there’s nothing at all wrong with that, the cost of an upgrade to 10G is low enough now that making a one-time investment in your network will pay dividends. So just do it.
You mentioned Netgear; I’ve had reliable service from their unmanaged hardware in the past. Did you look at the XS505M or XS508M models? These will give you five (or eight) auto-sensing ports (1/2.5/5/10) except for the SFP+ (1/10). You can purchase an SFP+ module to use fibre, a DAC (direct-attach cable, from one SFP+ port to the other) or a copper (RJ45) transceiver (another copper port). I, FWIW, am still using my (managed) MikroTik CRS309, though honestly, if I were buying again today, I’d probably just go unmanaged, and in the foreseeable future too. It is clear that, as before, copper RJ45 is mostly winning the hearts and minds of consumers, and I see no reason to overcomplicate things; for an internal network at home, copper is just fine. (It’s your ISP connection that should be fibre, and even then, the ONT connected to your ISP probably has an RJ45 connector for your own routing equipment.)
As hinted above you need to be realistic about where you need (or want!) bandwidth. It is perfectly acceptable, and useful, to use 10G just for trunking (that is, downstream switches have a few or no 10G ports). You can always replace downstream switches as the need arises, and it’s rare that more than a few devices actually require 10G, even if they have connectivity for it. On my network, the four occupied ports on my switch are connected to my router (which is routing 3 GBPS from my ISP), the Mac Mini and iMac (so they can enjoy full-speed connectivity to themselves and the Internet) and the other switch and WAP next door. That switch only provides a single downstream 10G port, but it provides a further 4 1G ports, as well as the Wi-Fi connectivity. Everything else on here is 1G and even Fast Ethernet. I could have sacrificed 10G connectivity completely if it weren’t for the 3 GBPS Internet, by simply connecting a Thunderbolt cable between the two Macs. My heart was broken utterly when the MikroTik RB5009, which had been serving me well up until that point, could no longer be used because its upstream was 2.5 GBPS.
The surprising thing to me, is that I still have devices that don’t support 1GB. I just checked my Unifi console, and I have four devices still running FE (presumably 100mb).
Raspberry Pi running FlightAware’s PiAware for ADS-B flight tracking
Eufy Homebase2 for the security cameras (the eufyCam 2 Pro actually support HomeKit secure video, while their newer products do not)
Sonos Beam 2 (surprising as we just bought it at the end of the year, and it’s a new model)
Canon mf4890dw printer (old, but still works, and I don’t have to commit to paying a subscription fee just for ink - I print rarely, but still need the ability to do so).
So I’d need something that would be able to support 100mb. I’m slowly migrating from Ubiquiti to Firewalla (that would be another, longer blog post), and they will hopefully introduce a managed switch in the next year or so (the AP7 access point just came out). It’s possible that by the time they have switches available that I’ll have replaced most of the devices (and at least some of them -could- switch to wifi). The point, though, is that you need to be aware of the capabilities of your various devices - you can’t assume that they’ll support a minimum of 1GB (as evidenced by the Sonos soundbar).
I still have my last modem (an external Zoom 56Kx, which can connect to anything with an RS-232 serial port). I will never use dial-up Internet access again, but I kept it because the modem can also send/receive faxes - which I thought I might want to do. And the modem can be used as a generic audio interface to a phone line (advertised as voice mail capability).
Of course, I haven’t had a land line for 10 years and it’s been even longer since I sent a fax. So the device is completely useless today. But it sits in its box on a shelf anyway.
I’d say that if you’re constructing a new home, or are paying to run Ethernet wiring in your home, you should install Category 6A cable. This can support 10G Ethernet at up to 100m distances. (10G over Category 6 or 5e tops out at about 55m, or less, depending on the quality of the installation). You want to go all the way with premises wiring, because the work to replace it in the future is going to cost far more than the cable itself.
Once the wires are in the wall (and it’s all installed according to Cat 6A specifications, including the wall jacks), you can buy whatever switches (1, 2.5, 5 or 10G) your requirements and budget allow and upgrade them later if you need to.
I’ve seen that some >1GB switches can’t run a port at the old 10/100M speeds. So if you have devices at those speeds, you will probably need a basic 1GB switch to go between the devices and the faster switch. Fortunately, those are cheap and easy to get these days.
I became aware of this when watching a recent video on David Plummer’s YouTube channel. His most recent obsession has been resurrecting and running old DEC PDP/11 computers. He found out that their 10M Ethernet could not connect to his 10G LAN without using a slower-speed switch as an interface between them. Fortunately, after connecting such a switch, it all worked surprisingly well.
When I built my house in 2010, I put in 1-inch flexible conduit (“smurf tube”) for each wall box, leading to a central location in the basement where my server lives. Since that time I have run new wires through it five or six times, and having the conduit has been a huge time saver.