My Netgear JGS516PE PoE switch died. It was still providing PoE, however, it was not routing and all the lights were lit up amber. As a temporary solution, I was able to set up one AP on a PoE injector and plug in the Switch Flex Mini using USB-C. This allowed me to get the network up and running while looking for a replacement.
Since newer wireless access points are coming with 2.5Gbps port and requiring PoE+, I wanted the replacement switch to support those 2 things as well as preferring a rack mountable solution.
Options
- Unifi Pro Max 16 PoE
- https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/all-switching/products/usw-pro-max-16-poe
- $399 + $49 rack mount kit
- 2 x 10 Gbps SFP+
- 4 x 2.5 Gbps PoE++
- 12 x 1 Gbps PoE+
- PoE max: 180W
- Unifi Flex 2.5G PoE
- https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/all-switching/products/usw-flex-2-5g-8-poe
- $199 + $79 power adapter
- 1 x 10 Gbps SFP+/RJ45 combo port
- 8 x 2.5 Gbps PoE++
- PoE max: 196W
- Not rack mountable
- Sodola SL-SWTGW0108P-D
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D5QFMZW3/?th=1
- $95.99 - $119.99
- 1 x 10 Gbps SFP+
- 1 x 2.5 Gbps PoE++
- 7 x 2.5 Gbps PoE+
- PoE max: 120W
- GiGaPlus GP-S25-0802P
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DDB3LHPX?th=1
- $86.89 - $109.99
- 2 x 10 Gbps SFP+
- 8 x 2.5 Gbps PoE+
- PoE max: 130W
- Not managed
- Used Netgear JGS516PE
- $40 - $70 on eBay
- 8 x 1 Gbps PoE
- 8 x 1 Gbps Non-PoE
- PoE max: 85W
Decision
I went with the GiGaPlus because it wasn't much more expensive than the used Netgear and came with significant upgrades. It also was not managed so it has less of an attack vector and you don't have to worry about firmware updates from a smaller company.
My Experience
My original unit worked well and as expected until I tried switching the uplink to sfp+ using a 1 meter Sodola DAC cable. Then I started getting weird behavior like slack taking forever to load. I then tried speed tests and was not getting my expected speed and having large swings in speed during the test. I thought it might have to do with flow control, so I tried switching that on, but it did not help. I then tested the other sfp+ and these issues all went away.
Armed with this information, I contacted support. They asked me to test with iperf instead of an external speed test. I did this and sent them the results which were even worse than the external speed test. They then confirmed it was defective and asked if I wanted my money back. I then replied asking if they wanted their unit back and if they would provide a shipping label. I never received a response. I waited a few days and then went through Amazon returns as I was still in the 30 day return window.
Review
Pros:
- Low cost
- Provides everything I need now and future expandability
- 2 x 10 Gbps SFP+ ports
- One for Uplink
- One to Daisy Chain or connect to server
- Plug and play with no configuration necessary
- Forwards VLAN tagged traffic (No ability to add/modify tags though)
Cons:
- No management interface
- cannot see how close to PoE budget max you are
- no ability to cut power to a port without unplugging
- LED Status Lights are rather lacking
- Power LED and Ports 9 and 10 activity are on the far right
- No light to indicate which ports are supplying PoE
- Green light indicates 2.5 Gbps
- Orange light indicates 1 Gbps / 100 Mbps / 10 Mbps
- No light indicates no connection
- The original unit only had one functional sfp+ port, the replacement works perfectly
Other Thoughts:
- Support is only via email and only responded once a day to my emails likely due to the time difference
- I would make sure that everything works in the 30 day Amazon return period so that you can go through Amazon returns instead of support.
Appendix
Research- Non-PoE version: https://www.servethehome.com/gigaplus-gp-s25-0802-8-port-2-5gbe-and-2-port-10g-review/
- https://www.servethehome.com/gigaplus-gp-s25-0802p-poe-8-port-2-5gbe-and-2-port-10g-review/
- https://www.servethehome.com/nicgiga-s25-0802p-8-port-2-5gbe-and-2-port-10g-poe-switch-review/
Flow Control
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