Recommendations on 8 port gigabit switch

[Jared_1]

Last November, I bought a TP-Link TL-SG1008D 8 port gigabit switch. I mainly bought it for the number of ports as well as gigabit switch. Since I've installed it, I never can get anywhere near gigabit speeds out of it. Network transfer speeds between computers are about 25MB/sec or lower, remote desktop sessions using the switch are slow and unresponsive and Steam can not download anything while using switch. Plugging my computers straight into my AT&T 5268AC modem/router will produce speeds anywhere from 50-75MB/sec as well as Steam being able to download updates. At this point, I'm looking for a new switch. I didn't spend $25 only to get terrible speeds. If I wanted that, I would have gone back to my 5 port 100 megabit switch.

 

Does anyone have recommendations for an 8 port gigabit switch? Management features would be a plus but not a must. I don't want to spend over $50 if possible.

[Jarsky]

Can't really go past the Netgear ProSafe GS108 for a fast, compact switch.

[Jared_1]

3 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

Can't really go past the Netgear ProSafe GS108 for a fast, compact switch.

Would the managed version support teaming even though it only has 8 ports?

[luigi90210]

18 minutes ago, Jared_1 said:

Last November, I bought a TP-Link TL-SG1008D 8 port gigabit switch. I mainly bought it for the number of ports as well as gigabit switch. Since I've installed it, I never can get anywhere near gigabit speeds out of it. Network transfer speeds between computers are about 25MB/sec or lower, remote desktop sessions using the switch are slow and unresponsive and Steam can not download anything while using switch. Plugging my computers straight into my AT&T 5268AC modem/router will produce speeds anywhere from 50-75MB/sec as well as Steam being able to download updates. At this point, I'm looking for a new switch. I didn't spend $25 only to get terrible speeds. If I wanted that, I would have gone back to my 5 port 100 megabit switch.

 

Does anyone have recommendations for an 8 port gigabit switch? Management features would be a plus but not a must. I don't want to spend over $50 if possible.

i have the 5 port version of your switch and i dont have issues pulling gigabit speeds through my network, have you tried contacting TPlink about the issue and seeing if it might be covered under warranty, this also might sound stupid but you could buy 2 of the 5 port TPlink switches and link them together. it wouldnt look as nice but it would give you 8 ports

 

you could also try this http://www.bestbuy.com/site/netgear-8-port-gigabit-ethernet-switch-white/7451964.p?skuId=7451964

[Jarsky]

7 minutes ago, Jared_1 said:

Would the managed version support teaming even though it only has 8 ports?

 

I know the GS108T supports LAG's (I have that switch in my home theatre setup) - doesn't look like the GS108E does (its not a fully managed switch)

[Jared_1]

Just now, luigi90210 said:

i have the 5 port version of your switch and i dont have issues pulling gigabit speeds through my network, have you tried contacting TPlink about the issue and seeing if it might be covered under warranty, this also might sound stupid but you could buy 2 of the 5 port TPlink switches and link them together. it wouldnt look as nice but it would give you 8 ports

 

you could also try this http://www.bestbuy.com/site/netgear-8-port-gigabit-ethernet-switch-white/7451964.p?skuId=7451964

Hm. Good point. I never thought of contacting TP-Link.

[luigi90210]

Just now, Jared_1 said:

Hm. Good point. I never thought of contacting TP-Link.

ya thats the first thing i would do, you could also check and see if you accidently hooked up a cat5 cable to the switch instead of a cat5e or cat6 cable

when i hooked up my NAS to my network i accidentally did that and ran into similar issues(would burst to 50Mbps but then slow down to 10-12Mbps), i only caught it when i was inspecting the cable for possible damage

[Jared_1]

9 minutes ago, luigi90210 said:

ya thats the first thing i would do, you could also check and see if you accidently hooked up a cat5 cable to the switch instead of a cat5e or cat6 cable

when i hooked up my NAS to my network i accidentally did that and ran into similar issues(would burst to 50Mbps but then slow down to 10-12Mbps), i only caught it when i was inspecting the cable for possible damage

Oddly enough, my desktop uses Cat5e and my laptop was using Cat5. However, when I switched my laptop over to Cat5e, the speeds remained about 50MB/sec. I also tried using the Cat5 again on my laptop and the speeds were still in the realm of 50MB/sec. One of my goals is replace all my Cat5 and Cat5e with Cat6 or higher sometime.

[luigi90210]

3 minutes ago, Jared_1 said:

Oddly enough, my desktop uses Cat5e and my laptop was using Cat5. However, when I switched my laptop over to Cat5e, the speeds remained about 50MB/sec. I also tried using the Cat5 again on my laptop and the speeds were still in the realm of 50MB/sec. One of my goals is replace all my Cat5 and Cat5e with Cat6 or higher sometime.

you should build your own cables, 1000ft of cat6 or cat6a cable is pretty cheap now and is perfect if you are redoing your entire network

i plan on scrapping all my cat5e and cat6 cables for cat6a when 10g switches are more widely available and cheaper

[Jared_1]

3 minutes ago, luigi90210 said:

you should build your own cables, 1000ft of cat6 or cat6a cable is pretty cheap now and is perfect if you are redoing your entire network

i plan on scrapping all my cat5e and cat6 cables for cat6a when 10g switches are more widely available and cheaper

That may be overkill for me. All my networking is within a 5 foot radius of the switch in my computer room.

[luigi90210]

1 minute ago, Jared_1 said:

That may be overkill for me. All my networking is within a 5 foot radius of the switch in my computer room.

lucky you lol, i get the honor of rewiring my entire house when i want to upgrade my network

[Jared_1]

12 minutes ago, luigi90210 said:

lucky you lol, i get the honor of rewiring my entire house when i want to upgrade my network

Thankfully, my house isn't wired. I do plan on running an ethernet cable from my basement computer room to my bedroom on the second floor. Fun.

[luigi90210]

Just now, Jared_1 said:

Thankfully, my house isn't wired. I do plan on running an ethernet cable from my basement computer room to my bedroom on the second floor. Fun.

try power line before running cables, i know a direct connection is better but you might be happy enough with powerline, i can tell you first hand that its a total pita to wire a house with ethernet, my house wasnt wired for ethernet originally and now every room is so....

if you are gonna do it though, use an outdoor cable and run it along the side of your house, thats the easiest way to wire a room that isnt wired imo

[Jared_1]

Just now, luigi90210 said:

try power line before running cables, i know a direct connection is better but you might be happy enough with powerline, i can tell you first hand that its a total pita to wire a house with ethernet, my house wasnt wired for ethernet originally and now every room is so....

if you are gonna do it though, use an outdoor cable and run it along the side of your house, thats the easiest way to wire a room that isnt wired imo

Lucky for me, my room on the second floor is right next to the furnace closet and from the furnace closet to the basement, it's a clear opening with only a gas line and AC lines. I plan on running the wire through the there.

[luigi90210]

4 minutes ago, Jared_1 said:

Lucky for me, my room on the second floor is right next to the furnace closet and from the furnace closet to the basement, it's a clear opening with only a gas line and AC lines. I plan on running the wire through the there.

you are lucky, im jelly now lol, for my master bedroom i had to run a wire from my garage into the attic and then into the bedroom from outside(my TV location was closer to the outside wall and it was too much cable to route it around the room to where the TV would be)

[Jared_1]

Just now, luigi90210 said:

you are lucky, im jelly now lol, for my master bedroom i had to run a wire from my garage into the attic and then into the bedroom from outside(my TV location was closer to the outside)

Well, the issue is getting the wire fed down. The holes in the sub floor are wide enough for the furnace connections but not for the ethernet cable to easily fit. I'm going to have use a fish tape to get it through. After I get it through the floor, it's a straight shot.

[KuJoe]

If you want a cheap layer 3 switch that handles gigabit speeds without any issue for cheap I personally use a Dell PowerConnect 5324, it's a 24 port switch though so it might be overkill but the power usage is low and the performance is there. You can pick them up on eBay for around $40 shipped and if the fans are too loud you can pick up some new fans for roughly the same price as the switch. I got my 5324 for around $20 shipped a while back and picked up these last year which are impressively quiet. 

[Jared_1]

I got the speed issues resolved although I'm still getting speeds of 70MB/sec.

[Jarsky]

43 minutes ago, Jared_1 said:

I got the speed issues resolved although I'm still getting speeds of 70MB/sec.

 

Have you tested it with something lik iPerf?

It allows you to test pure network speed (by loading the files into RAM) which takes your disks performance out of the equation.

 

 

[luigi90210]

40 minutes ago, Jared_1 said:

I got the speed issues resolved although I'm still getting speeds of 70MB/sec.

are you transferring to a NAS or something? there are a lot of variables that can affect network speeds and disk performance is one of them

transferring to my NAS reading i can get full gigabit but writing i will get anywhere from 60-90Mbps

[Jared_1]

19 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

 

Have you tested it with something lik iPerf?

It allows you to test pure network speed (by loading the files into RAM) which takes your disks performance out of the equation.

 

 

I did but I don't remember what the results were. :\

 

17 minutes ago, luigi90210 said:

are you transferring to a NAS or something? there are a lot of variables that can affect network speeds and disk performance is one of them

transferring to my NAS reading i can get full gigabit but writing i will get anywhere from 60-90Mbps

I was writing files but even reading was only 70MB/sec.

[luigi90210]

3 minutes ago, Jared_1 said:

I did but I don't remember what the results were. :\

 

I was writing files but even reading was only 70MB/sec.

that could be a disk limitation in your system, im running 2 480gb ssds in raid 0 so i might not have a limitation that you might have if that makes sense

[Jared_1]

26 minutes ago, luigi90210 said:

that could be a disk limitation in your system, im running 2 480gb ssds in raid 0 so i might not have a limitation that you might have if that makes sense

That also may be the issue.