Recommendations for low power managed switch?


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I am looking to replace a cheap sitecom LN-120 https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/233298/sitecom-ln-120.html reason being the pins in the wall plug broke off and I kind of frakensteined the power lead so it would work, but it gets warm (did before too) and I am trying to be power conscious of things that are on all the time.

 

I am thinking managed this time because I may need to direct link 2 media boxes from my cable company through ethernet link, right now I have the main mediabox in my bedroom and a CI+ smartcard in my TV downstairs, but I am looking to replace that with a mediabox once my cable company allows customers to have a second one (they are on phase 1 rollout atm since May '19) they will be required to be connected as primary and client when that happens.

 

The old mediaboxes which also relied on LAN would not connect with each other over my LAN switch, I am thinking if it is managed I can ensure they are direct linked and my upstairs Xbox makes use of the internet through the switch too.

 

Downstairs I have an unmanaged Linksys SE2500 connected to my Internet router which is used for my home media setup (xbox one x, tv, philips hue) the upstairs Sitecom switch connects to this, The reason for this is because I have a direct LAN cable from the downstairs switch to my bedroom that goes through the old telephone points (bypassing where the router is). 

 

I am thinking the Netgear Prosafe Gigabit Plus GS105E it has some good reviews and is apparently light on energy use and doesn't get warm!

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  • Steven P. changed the title to Recommendations for low power managed switch?
8 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

I'm sure @BudMan can help, but what is your budget? You never mentioned that.

Was willing to go a bit more for managed and energy conscious but that Netgear is only €32 and I only need max 5 ports and 1gigabit :) so around there.

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That netgear will work, and is "smart" ie you can do vlans.. I have the 8 port model on my shelf.

 

Only thing I would suggest is maybe looking at the 8 port model vs the 5 if you have room, etc. And "any" possible use down the line.. The price difference is normally very small.

 

edit: Can you get the dlink dgs-1100-05 or 08 model at the same price point?

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1 minute ago, BudMan said:

That netgear will work, and is "smart" ie you can do vlans.. I have the 8 port model on my shelf.

 

Only thing I would suggest is maybe looking at the 8 port model vs the 5 if you have room, etc. And "any" possible use down the line.. The price difference is normally very small.

Thanks :) I only need 3 ports in my bedroom, my spare room actually has a direct linked cable to my router (because it is above the meter closet where my router is) so I already have internet sorted for that room.

 

This replaced the homeplug system I had, because my 2.4 and 5GHz WiFi works everywhere from the router (no need for homeplug wifi upstairs) which also doubled as ethernet over the electric grid. Plus I am only using wifi for my tablet and phone which works fine from the routers access point.

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Yeah, good point, BudMan. Get an 8-port if you "ever" want to upgrade.

 

I personally have a 16-port unmanaged switch. I'm only using 4 of the ports. If we ever wanted to setup some computers in the basement (where the switch is), It will be easy.

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Well if you don't need the extra ports in this location, and don't think you ever will.  Then yeah go with the 5 port, prob use a fraction less power and smaller as well.. The cost difference is only ever a few bucks though.. Is why I brought it up if you "might" have future use of a ports - and then you will kick yourself 6 months down the line ;)

 

The dgs-1100-5 might be a hair cheaper than the netgear.. See which one uses less power and go with that one.

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Well I have both the netgear and dlink model on my shelf.. They both work as far as vlans.. I liked the dlink interface a bit better. But haven't looked to see if any changes with latest firmware for a while.  I just have them there on the shelf in case if need a switch.. I do now and then for whatever.. See which one uses less power, if the more expensive uses "less" power then it will make the up the difference in cost in X number days/months/years ;)  But could be decades ;) sure they are pretty close in cost anyway.

 

Happy to send you one - but shipping cost make that cost prohibitive..

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The D-Link is rated at 3.35W and the Netgear at 4W so I guess I know what to get 😛 Thanks man!

 

€29.04 incl tax which is great :)

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I have the DGS-1100-05 in now, and I changed the default IP of 10.90.90.90/255.0.0.0 to one on my network, I gave the D-LINK 192.168.0.100/255.255.255.0 with a gateway of 192.168.0.1 which is my internet router (probably not needed?) I did this by connecting the D-LINK to my PC, changing it to the D-LINK's network and then altering it to fit my LAN.

 

Connected everything up upstairs (Xbox One S, Media box, LAN to D-LINK) and confirmed the mediabox could get on the internet (it could) it also had the correct 192.168.0.16 that I set for it via my router via DHCP reservation. But now when I go to my PC downstairs, which is 192.168.0.10 (so on the same LAN) I can't connect to the D-LINK switch upstairs at http://192.168.0.100

 

The connection goes like this My PC > ISP router switch (5 ports) > Unmanaged switch (downstairs) > D-LINK everything is configured to be in the 192.168.10 / 200 range of the LAN.

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Well its going to act as just a dumb switch out of the box.. So everything will be in vlan 1, and the IP you set it just management.. If your saying stuff you connect to the dlink is working and getting dhcp from your router.  My take is the IP you set it too didn't keep, did you make sure you saved it and could connect to its new IP before you moved it?

 

You can just run their little chrome app to connect to the switch and change its IP as long as its on your network.  dlink network assistance its called or something like that.. (DNA)

 

If you need me to, I can connect mine and give some screen shots..

 

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6 hours ago, BudMan said:

Well its going to act as just a dumb switch out of the box.. So everything will be in vlan 1, and the IP you set it just management.. If your saying stuff you connect to the dlink is working and getting dhcp from your router.  My take is the IP you set it too didn't keep, did you make sure you saved it and could connect to its new IP before you moved it?

 

You can just run their little chrome app to connect to the switch and change its IP as long as its on your network.  dlink network assistance its called or something like that.. (DNA)

 

If you need me to, I can connect mine and give some screen shots..

 

LIFESAVER! :D the app let me connect to it, and yes the IP changed back to the default 10.90.90.90 I changed it back and now I can login :D

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If I recall you with those switches you have to make sure you actually save the config.. Kind of like a cisco writing the config to start vs just running. Haven't done anything with that switch for a while.. Just on the shelf..

 

BTW when you get around to actually wanting to do vlans.. The vlan switch needs to be upstream of dumb switches, dumb switches can be downstream of vlan switches where all devices that switch are just in 1 vlan..  But the other way around you have tags flowing over a dumb switch that doesn't know how to keep them isolated so all ports on the switch will see any vlan broadcast/multicast traffic, etc..

 

Not sure but looks to me you have this "media box" connected downstream?

 

If you have this..

 

setup.thumb.png.b7d1686950215587dc063f4eb9325fc3.png

 

I am not sure exactly where you going to split out vlans at?  Normally if you want to say isolate say TV from ISP traffic you would put the vlan switch between the isp and your network.. something like this

 

vlansetup.thumb.png.8e6ddd706381e8373f77ffa23c443c0f.png

 

If you need help later when you want to actually isolate vlans - just let me know, happy to help..  But vlan switches need to be upstream..  If in your setup a vlan tag will flow over your dumb switch, you are not actually isolating the vlan traffic over that switch..

 

What exactly are you looking to isolate with vlans?  Sounds like to me just your IPTV signal from your Network (Internet) signal from your ISP?  And we can make sure its all connected correctly for proper isolation.  This is quite common where IPTV signal is on vlan X and internet is on vlan Y... So you want a device from the ISP to split those tags up and only send the IPTV vlan to your STBs and the internet vlan to your router

 

 

 

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Thanks Budman, yeah I was able to save the config to flash, but I also entered the MAC address in my router and enabled DHCP so it is always assigned 192.168.0.100.

 

Hopefully the mediaboxes won't require a dedicated vlan because these new ones also require an internet connection and you can configure them to whatever local IP you want, so it might just be a case of them being able to "see" each other.

 

My config works like this though router > dumb switch (where the downstairs mediabox would connect to as well) > smart switch > mediabox upstairs.

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4 hours ago, Steven P. said:

enabled DHCP so it is always assigned 192.168.0.100

There you go - good solution.  Such a solution allows you to hand out different info to the device, and a big plus allows you to actually change your whole address space to something else without having to actually touch all your devices.. All of my devices have reservations vs static on the device.

 

But if you not going to vlan, there is no need of a "smart" switch you could of just gotten another dumb one..  Now that being said, the cost difference between a dumb switch and a smart is pretty small if any.. I have seen smart switches cheaper than a dumb one with the same speed and ports.. If ever in the market for a switch, you should always look to get a "smart" one that can do vlans.. Since at some point you prob want to do them.. As the age of iot devices are upon us, and their security practices are questionable at best most of the time.. It would behoove pretty much everyone to isolate such devices onto their own network via vlans..

 

Glad its working out for you - don't come back in 3 months and say you should of gotten the 8 port model ;) heheh we just going to tell you we told you so - hehehe ROFL..

 

I am not sure on the operation of your devices and how they are doing tv, etc.  But many of these devices spew out a huge amount of multicast - that can good to make sure doesn't get on your normal network, especially wifi.. Multicast going over your wifi can for sure kill its performance.

 

One of the reasons I run more feature rich managed switches the ability to filter with acl specific multicast.. Some devices just spew it out.. Some times you can disable it if you don't need it at the device, other times not.. Plex for example, I can not seem to find a way to turn off it sending out nonsense every 10 seconds.. So I just filtered it at the port its connected to from going out to the rest of the network.  Might be a bit anal - a multicast packet or 2 every 10 seconds isn't going to do any real harm - but I detest any sort of "noise" that serves no function on the network ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

As it happens I failed to consider I needed an extra port downstairs since the new mediabox also requires an internet connection and all 5 ports of my Cisco unmanaged switch were already taken. For now I have unplugged my TV and connected it to the Wi-Fi, but I prefer to have it wired in permanent state, so I have ordered this https://shop.buyitdirect.com/product/product.aspx which is the 8-port version of the one I bought two weeks ago 😛

 

It also gives me a reason to do some much needed cable management for my TV cabinet (and behind it) this weekend.

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That didn't take long heheheh - told you so ;) heheheheh

 

You can never have too many ports.. I thought my 28 port, how could I ever use them all up.. Yeah that didn't take long ;)

switchports.thumb.jpg.b5f0e17c6899d36ab07977223fcebfac.jpg

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7 minutes ago, BudMan said:

That didn't take long heheheh - told you so ;) heheheheh

 

You can never have too many ports.. I thought my 28 port, how could I ever use them all up.. Yeah that didn't take long ;)

switchports.thumb.jpg.b5f0e17c6899d36ab07977223fcebfac.jpg

Wonder how long it will be before I use my 16 port switch... ;)

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It goes faster then you think, especially when you start using 2x1gig for a device so you can use smb3 multichannel.. So my nas has 2, my old nas has 2, my pc has 2..  Then use multiple interfaces as uplink to the router (has 6 interfaces) vs putting all your vlans on 1 trunk so you don run into hairpins on your intervlan traffic, etc. etc.

 

And then running your modem through the switch, so if you want you can mirror/span off the ports for sniffing on the wan.  So that is 2 ports on the switch vs just running modem straight to router wan interface.

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