Use Case
I crawled around and put about 6000ft of Cat5E witing into my old house, but there was one attic that I only ran two lines to. As a temporary measure I put an 8 port switch up there and used a bunch of individual PoE injectors. The purchase of the TL-SG1016PE is meant to replace all of that, and act as a more permanent solution.
Build Quality
The TL-SG1016PE is standard fare when it comes to SOHO networking products. It's in a metal housing that seems durable enough. The unit it 1U in height, and includes flanges to mount into a 19" rack. The case has hexagonal perforations for ventilation, along with 40mm fans. Thankfully, the power supply is internal, and the power hookup is a standard C13 jack. A straight C13 cable is included.
Setup/Performance
I bought a cheap 4U 19" bracket to mount to a stud in the attic, but it's one of the shallow wiring type brackets for punchdowns. The TL-SG1016PE's mounting brackets support the switch being mounted vertically (where the flanges are rotated 90 degrees). I mounted the switch in the lowest U position, and a punchdown block will go in the top position. The fit is good, and there were no surprises. I think this is a really good mounting option for newer homes that have structured wiring coming back to a closet (usually a master bedroom closet), as it can significantly reduce the practical space/footprint consumed.
The PoE ports of the device work fine, but it's worth noting that the total power budget of the device is 110W. While I will not end up using anywhere near this, it's still good for you to know that the limitation exists. This switch supports 802.3at-2009, which can max out the power budget at 4 devices (even though there are 8 ports). For reference, the 5 cameras that I have on the switch consume about 24W total (and that's at night when the IR consumes more power). When I have the full complement of 8 cameras on the device, I still won't be anywhere near the power budget.
There isn't much to the setup of the hardware portion of the switch, but that still leaves the configuration of the "smart" management of the switch. While the TL-SG1016PE is not a full L2/L3 managed switch, it does have some limited extra functions. In order to access the switch, you can use a TP-Link software application to set the IP address of the switch - it's included on CD, but you can use the one you have installed already if you have any other TP-Link switched already. I prefer to assign static addresses, but DHCP is available, too. Once you've assigned the IP, you can access the web management interface. While I was able to log in with Microsoft Edge, I wasn't able to change the device password unless I used Chrome; Edge seemed to work for all other functions.
The first thing I did was change the device password. I then created a link aggregation group (LAG) for the two lines that I'd run to the attic, which creates a higher bandwidth connection back to a switch (or computer) on the other end, provided that the other end supports it as well. The last thing I did was to create a VLAN for the cameras, which I think is a smart idea for anyone that has externally mounted cameras. Some of my cameras are mounted high up on the house, but others are low enough that someone could access the ethernet cabling with a stepladder... if they do, the VLAN limits the LAN access that the person would have.
The web management includes PoE configuration and usage details. You can set a switch-wide power limit, as well as per-port power policy. I just left everything at auto. The usage details are comprehensive, displaying exactly what the negotiated power level was, along with the instantaneous usage.
Something worth noting is that the TL-SG1016PE, like the switch I was using before it, will be operating in environmental conditions that are out of spec for the unit. The switch has an operating temperature limit of 40C, and the attic routinely gets hotter than that. The robust cooling of the unit, along with the relatively low power draw I will have (compared to the 110W max), should give me at least a few good years of operation. I'd consider that to be a great result.
Conclusion
There are a few things I would change about the TL-SG1016PE:
1. It would be nice if the unit shipped with the current firmware (it doesn't). There are a couple notable differences between the 5/18 firmware and the 5/17 firmware that ships on the device. I recommend loading the new one ASAP
2. I would prefer foam filters on the vents. This is not something that most people wouldn't want or need, but I've got my unit in an attic...
3. It would be nice if the unit (which uses temp-controlled fans, I think) would have hall-effect RPM monitoring of the 40mm fans, and could notify the admin of fan failure
4. It would be nice if there was some syslog or SNMP support
Ok, so that's out of the way... none of the items above are absolutely necessary. As it is, the TL-SG1016PE is performing flawlessly. The VLAN and LAG are functioning correctly, and the PoE hasn't had any faults with my cameras. I highly recommend this item.
This is the average joe review for people who doesn't have much background in networking. Are you one of those people who purchased a Velop mesh wifi unit and found out it only has 1 lan port? Well get this switch and problem solved. There is no software or complicated set up. Just plug this unit in and let it do its thing. Do you need to set up POE security cameras and you need more ports? This switch will solve that problem too, provided you have a power injector for your camera. Does your wifi router have problem streaming 4k content and you want to switch to a wired option? This switch offer peak rate at 2000Mbps. If you are like me and have your movies on a hard drive connected to your router, this lan switch will let you access and play 4k movie super smooth on a wired connection. The best part of this switch is the plug and play feature with minimal or no tweaking necessary. Thank you to you smart people out there who made this switch idiot-proof for people like me.
I have had this switch in my garage for almost two years for surveillance cameras and it gets hot in there (the garage is not cooled). I lost connection to two cameras yesterday when it was over 100 degrees outside and determined the switch was the issue. I went to my sweltering garage and that was when I saw that sunlight was shining directly on the switch through a window. I touched the switch and it was very hot. It was absolutely baking - I wish I had a thermometer. I could not believe it was functioning at all. I moved the switch out of the sunlight and let it cool overnight. I checked my cameras this morning and all were working.
I had expected this switch to fail the first summer it was in the garage because of the harsh conditions that it certainly was not engineered to tolerate. I am impressed it is still working. If or when it does fail, I will replace it with the same model.
These switches fit the bill perfectly: unmanaged, no fan, lots of ports, 2 Gbps per port. Also, although there are no photos or text to suggest this on the product page, they do come with an excellent pair of rack ears powder coated to match the slate gray of the switch itself.
I bought two of these to replace several 5-port Netgear switches I had scattered around the house, often daisy-chained. I've been having issues with my network, some of which have been cleared up by these switches; mainly not obtaining proper IP addresses, or machines connected to them not obtaining proper IP addresses. This TP-Link switch is incredibly fast and I've never had IP issues with them to date. After you turn them on, they only take a second or two to initialize and obtain an IP address; in other words, almost instantly. I've never seen a switch come online that quickly before. The Netgears often would take 30 seconds or more, and sometimes even then, as I mentioned, would fail to connect properly to the router if I turned them on too soon. This TP-Link switch doesn't seem to have any of those issues. You can power it on or off any time you like relative to your router; as soon as a link is available, it will connect. It works like a switch should, meaning hassle-free; you turn it on and it switches packets.
Something else I noticed, which I've also noticed when upgrading other network equipment like my wifi router, is that it makes everything on the network snappier. I'm talking about LAN, of course. For WAN, obviously it isn't going to speed up your Internet connection; but you will notice less latency, resulting in faster loading web pages, and shorter times for connecting to a VPN server, or any other WAN activity that requires establishing a connection. Just as your CPU will affect web-speeds, so will the equipment you use on your internal LAN. Everything from switches to the NIC, CPU, RAM and drive on your computer, to your router to your modem will affect your 'Internet' speed. None of this, again, will improve the speed of your Internet service; but the better your equipment in each of these categories, the snappier things will connect, cache, load, route, switch, et cetera. It all adds up - or subtracts if you have poor equipment.
I purchased two; one is in my garage server cabinet and feeds the house from the main router; the other is in my home office and disseminates connections to the various computers and devices in the office. My old Netgear switches were always full; now I have more ports than I will probably ever need for expansion.
These offer a big improvement over the small 5-port switches given the 2 Gbps dedicated to each port. I can do Steam in-home streaming from my home office PC to the livingroom while my wife streams videos from the wifi router and neither will affect the other; as they shouldn't, since one is a WAN activity and the other is a LAN-only activity. However, in the past, the smaller switches acted as a bottle-neck in the LAN, with the result that heavy LAN use could affect WAN use and visa versa. If you have these issues, this switch will probably clear them up for you.
I also opened these switches up to look inside. I'm no electrical engineer, but they appear to be quite well built: clean traces, good quality capacitors, solid components overall and well laid-out. They also didn't over-engineer the case: just a handful of screws to open it up. The case is well-ventilated and solid. The powder-coating is well done and the color is quite attractive. I know this is a minor detail, but I really like the LEDs on the front as well: they are small, rectangular and quite bright, and organized into both 10/100 and Gigabit categories so you can differentiate traffic quite easily at a glance.
Works great for my house
Feature Product
- 16 Gigabit Ethernet ports deliver up to 2000 Mbps of dedicated, non-blocking bandwidth per port
- 8 PoE+ ports (802.3at/af) providing up to 30w per port/110w total PoE power
- Configure VLAN, QoS, IGMP Snooping, Link Aggregation (LAG), Cable Diagnostics, Loop Prevention and Port Mirroring on the switch
- Desktop/1U Rack mountable form factor
Description
TP-Link TL-SG1016PE 16-Port Gigabit Rack mount Easy Smart Web-Managed PoE+ Switch with 8-Port PoE+ Port, 802.11at, 110W.
These TP-Link 24-Port Gigabit unmanaged switches are great. Just plug them in and walk away. Come back a few years later if you need to upgrade. Mine are in a very small wiring closet, vents but no fans, conditioned space but not chilled, i.e., office temperatures. I do power them through a pure sine wave UPS, but that's the only "special" thing I do with them. I've been using these for year and never, ever, had a lick of trouble. Not once. I have bought them before and I will continue to buy them as long as they work and preserve the price-value they currently enjoy. Great product!
2018-01-05 UPDATE
I'm 2-years in on my first unit and 1-yr+ on my second one. I have these arranged in a bridge fashion with xx-ports going to unit #1, xx-ports going to unit #2, and a patch cable linking the two switches. I have had Z-E-R-O problems with these systems. They are fast and they work without any worry or maintenance whatsoever. At this point I'd call these BULLET-PROOF.
Use Case
My parents recently got an LG OLED TV set. The LG doesn't have the best wifi performance (despite the AP being in the same room as the TV), in terms of stability or throughput, and would require periodic hard cycling of the TV's power. Since there was already an Ethernet jack in place for another device, the plan was to get a cheap switch and some patch cables.
Appearance/Build Quality
The switch is pretty basic, with a small metal housing, a small power adapter, and some anti-skid feet. The power adapter is of the switching type, which is a plus. The metal housing is painted and stamped steel. The ports reuse the same LED for link status and activity (not my favorite). The anti-skid feet are a nice touch, but wholly inadequate for keeping the unit stationary if two or more cables are hooked up to the device. Think of it as protection for the desk/table surface, rather than something that will keep the unit put.
Performance
So, this is a basic, dumb switch - and it performs like it. Chariot runs were able to pass about 1820mbit/s full duplex and 940mbit/s half duplex traffic. There were no performance or stability issues. Aside from that there's not much to say. It works.
Special note: Metal vs. Plastic
Historically, I've always been a proponent of metal housings for my network equipment. That, incidentally would lead to me picking the TL-SG108 over the TL-SG1008D. However, it's 2019... the innards of the switch have been reduced to a switching or linear regulator, an integrated SoC, and PHY hardware. The whole thing consumes 4.5W, which means that the device is only shedding up to 4W of heat. That's nothing compared to the some of my old switches/hubs, which would pull 25+ watts. At this power level the case material is moot, but with the two devices being the same price the TL-SG108 seems like the better deal.
Conclusion
The TL-SG108 is fine... for my parents. I'm well past the time when a device like this would be welcome in my home. For that, I would take the TL-SG108E over the TL-SG108 EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE WEEK. The separation of the link/activity lights is a plus, but the limited L2/L3 management features are a must on my network. The TL-SG108E model costs more, so it comes down to a matter of features... if you don't need any, the TL-SG108 will be fine for you. Conditionally recommended.
This is a basic unmanaged 16 port gigabit switch with all the basic features needed for someone running a small home network (or possibly a small office network). The switch is fanless and thus 100% quiet, and all of the ports automatically detect what is plugged into them and will adjust accordingly. This means that not only do they auto-negotiate with devices operating at other speeds, but they also will detect which port is coming from your router (or another switch) without you having to use a specific port for that purpose.
There seems to be some confusion between this model (TL-SG1016) which is designed as a rackmount switch and the other version (TL-SG1016D) which can either be a rackmount OR a desktop switch. Functionality wise there is no difference between the two, however the "D" version is only 13 inches wide and if you wish to rack mount it, you'll use the included brackets which allow it to mount to a 19 inch rack. The non "D" version (the version I purchased) is 19" and does come with the rack mount ears that allow you to fasten it to the rack itself.
There is some misinformation out there that suggests this version doesn't come with the rack mount hardware and that is simply incorrect. It doesn't come with the rackmount "kit" that the "D" version includes because it isn't necessary as it is already the correct width, but it does come with the rackmount ears and the screws required to fasten the ears on to the switch. It does NOT come with screws used to fasten the switch to the actual rack, but that is likely because there are several different sizes of rack screws... so you're on you own there.
One interesting thing about the mounting ears is that they are designed to be rotated in four directions. This means you can mount the switch directly to a wall simply by rotating the mounting ears 90 degrees. You can also rotate them 180 degrees to allow the switch to sit in front of the face of your rack as this pushes the mounting position back around two inches. If you have a shallow mounting bracket rather than a full rack this may be useful, but keep in mind the power cord for this unit goes directly out the back, so depending upon how much space you have it could still pose problems. Each ear mounts with four screws (also included) and they are plenty sturdy.
They also include some rubber feet if you decide to sit this on a shelf. Not much else to it. If you want a rackmount option this is a good one. If you prefer something a bit smaller that you could leave on a desk or on shelf near your cable modem, you might find the "D" version is a better fit. The only real difference is physical size and how much air space is inside the case.
I finally ran out of Ethernet ports on my modem/router. With all the smart hubs, TV,s Fire TV, Shield, etc, the number of Ethernet ports on most modern combo is simply not enough! Once I had used all the ports, I had to use wireless to connect to the network. But you just can't beat being actually wired in. I sought to find a solution and this where it ended. Currently, I have this switch connected through my powerline adapter that was originally connected to my PC. I have another PC that was using wireless adapter but it keep going in and out. Now I can be wired in to both PCs, Hue hub, and Arlo hub without having to sacrificing any ports on the modem. I would recommend this! If you find this review helpful, please click 'helpful' button at the end of this product review. Thanks!
We finished our basement and because the wifi router is three floors away, I wanted to "hard wire" as many dedicated devices as I could down there. This worked perfectly. Just brought a Cat6 line down from the router on the second floor and then branched other Cat 5s off to the smart TV, XBox, Roku, and home office. Funny how those 8 ports start to fill up. I put this under the steps where it could sit on the stud blocking, keeping it out of the way. Everything hooked up through this is super fast. Way quicker than the wifi. Very pleased. Plan to tap into it for the main floor TV and Roku next it is so good and I have a couple of extra ports. Metal construction which is nice.
