Stephen Krujelskis

In late 2019, ServeTheHome  reviewed  the MikroTik  CRS309-1G-8S+IN . TL;DR  it's an 8x SFP+, 1x 1G RJ45 managed switch that retails around $350 CAD. When these came out, nothing else on the market came close on cost per port, even unmanaged. STH called it an "absolutely great buy". In 2021 I picked the CRS309 as the 10G backbone for my new home network and vSphere lab. Out of the box, running RouterOS 6, it did everything I needed at the time: I wanted a 10G switch to play with VSAN, upgrade my NAS to 10G, and a few ports for future projects. I set it up and basically forgot about it. The CRS309 was a slam dunk then and I'm still happy with my decision. Is the CRS309 still a good buy in 2023?   There are now at least two other affordable fanless ~8 port 10G managed switches: TP-Link TL-SX3008F : 8 SFP+, works with or without their Omada controller. $299 CAD Ubiquiti  USW-Aggregation : 8 SFP+, requires a UniFi controller. $359 CAD They'll do VLA...

When we moved into the house, the coax entrance was upstairs, so for 2 years we ran the network out of one of our offices. We finally got around to stringing some cables, which let me tuck away the bulk of my gear in the basement. The next thing I wanted was a switch that would power my cameras and APs, and let me segregate the equipment I manage from our work and IoT devices. I probably spent too much time looking for the ideal switch. My initial needs were basically: Managed 8 or more 1G RJ45 ports PoE+ with at least 100w power budget There are a lot of older datacenter switches that fit that bill - the Cisco 2960X and 3750X come to mind. The problem with datacenter gear is it's loud and consumes a lot of power. The 2960X has a PoE budget of 740W and uses something like 44W with nothing plugged in. No, I wanted something quiet, and at least one 10G SFP+ port would be a big plus.  While I'm sure there are more switches that meet my criteria, here's what I came up with afte...