Zyxel 8-Port Multi-Gig 2.5G Switch | Cloud/Smart Managed | 2X 10G SFP+ | Desktop or Wall Mount [XMG1915-10E]

I am not an IT expert.In fact I bought this switch for one reason: I wanted to enable link aggregation on my ReadyNAS, my QNAP, and my Mac Pro. Each of these devices has two Gigabit Ethernet ports and supports link aggregation.Performing TimeMachine backups of an 800GB drive over a single Gigabit Ethernet cable to each of the two NAS units was getting tiresome, so I searched for a switch capable of LACP 802.3ad. I had a couple of other requirements as well:1. Overall width should not exceed 10 inches because it needed to fit inside a very specific shelf in my home office.2. The Ethernet ports should be on the BACK side along with the power cable. The status LED lights should be on the FRONT side. For my shelf mounting application, all Ethernet cables are fed from the rear of the shelf. **UNFORTUNATELY** this switch does NOT meet this requirement. I purchased it anyway because I simply could not find a 16-port *managed* switch with rear-ports and front-lights.3. The switch should be well made with ability to operate in warm temperatures.4. The switch should be relatively easy to use.5. The price -- it should be cheap, but cheap in price only.This item meets all of my needs *except* number 2, but I still give it 5 stars because I was able to rotate it 90 degrees on my shelf. This means Ethernet cables don't have to swing over the unit from the back side to the front side. Cables can run along the left or right sides depending on 90-degree left rotation or 90-degree right rotation.The first thing I did after opening the box and not finding a user manual was to go online and download the complete and well-written PDF user's guide. I read through all the pertinent sections of the manual before plugging the unit into the wall. This was a particularly good idea, because it introduced me to the ZON utility for basic administration of the unit such as IP address change, password change, firmware update, etc. More complex operations are performed from the on-board web page, which the ZON utility can open for you in a browser window.WIth the help of the manual I was able to configure 3 dual-port aggregated links, enable the links, and set each link explicitly to LACP. Note that there are several link aggregation protocols, and you must explicitly select LACP on each link. (MacOS only supports LACP.)After enabling bonded links on the two NAS units and the Mac Pro and connecting 6 Ethernet cables, everything started up perfectly! A total newbie like me was able to establish 3 working LACP connections on my first attempt. But this was no lucky happenstance -- I read the manual first (RTFM), which is written in remarkably good English.I might try some of the other features if I find them relevant, but for the time being I'm happy with my 3 aggregated links.The unit does run slightly warm and needs adequate ventilation room on the left and right sides. Unmanaged switches are often fan-less and run much cooler.

Wow. Let me start by saying I bought this switch to be my "core" switch at home. I will replace a simple unmanaged 8-port Gig switch I'm using now.I was very surprised by the build quality of this switch when I took it out of the box. It is much heavier than expected and they even include the rackmount ears in the box. The power supply is integrated as well, so no useless wall wart to deal with. Once I looked in the web interface, I was even more shocked at how many features this switch has. The manual is very spare on details about what each feature actually does (like one called "EEE" which can be enabled or disabled on each port. A quick Google reveals this is Energy Efficient Ethernet.) Anyway, if you have a need for things like QoS, Monitoring (spanning in Cisco speak,) Multicast/IGMP snooping, Port VLANs including tagging and trunking, link aggregation, LLDP, SNMP including traps, Logging via Syslog, management interface access lists, Spanning Tree, Loop guard, storm protection, port security including 802.1X, AAA/RADIUS/TACACS+ user management and so on, this thing has it. It even has a nice port reset feature so if a port is disabled for various reasons like storm control or port security (it lets you chose from a list) then it will reset the port after an amount of time you specify. You can name ports and manually specify the speed and duplex if you need to.Icing on the cake would be a command line interface but no luck there. It may have a serial interface internally but that port is not exposed. The WebUI is clean, logical and easy to use. It uses the Cisco way of having a "running config" versus "Saved config" -- just hit the "Save" button at the top of the UI. This means if you do things that might lock you out, like editing the management access lists, save before you change anything. If you get locked out (as I did) all I have to do was reboot the switch and I'm back in. I also notice it can hold multiple copies of firmware so you can pick which to boot off of.The included rack ears are sturdy but unfortunately cannot be attached in different orientations like to facilitate different mounting options to a wall board. (This is due to the fact it uses 3 screws in a triangle fashion unlike some others which have 4 symmetrical holes allowing you to mount the ears in different orientations.) It does have two holes on the bottom so you can mount it against a wallboard, but only with the ports facing up or down. (Due to the way the cutouts are on the bottom.) In the box is also included 4 rubber stick on feet and two screws for wall mounting. A standard IEC US style power cord is also included. The switch has a power switch on the rear as well and it's quite stiff so it is very unlikely to get knocked accidentally.I paid $99 and I'm shocked at how good this is! 16 gigabit ports and fully managed. Highly recommended, especially for the price.

My small home network was experiencing growing pains. The TP-Link wifi router "brain" of the house was dropping wifi devices and/or crashing multiple times/day, and getting slower through the day. 4 people home full time with various phones, consoles, computers and tvs was too much for the router, also for "dumb" (unmanaged) switches between wired user connections and the router.We were experiencing packet storms and I didn't want to spend hours identifying which parts of the network needed debugging, how to configure the devices causing them, etc. Removing 1 or 2 would work for a while, but they needed to be online, too.Switched (ha) to this managed switch and the solution was immediate and effective. No more router reboots, no more gradual speed slowing, no more thought given at all to "is the network doing ok?"If you're having networking problems, or just expanding your home network with more wired connections, don't think about it. This is cheap and it works. Just do it.