Cheap 10g switch

[rookin99]

On offer alie express 8 port 10Gbit fully managed switch. Good deal?. Bought a 2.5 gb that works like a dream.


€89,99 around $99 | 8 10 Gigabit SFP+-port L3 Managed switch

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EuUJ5rw

 

[foureight84]

Use coupon USAFF5 to get $5 off. I'm debating whether to buy it or not. Live in the states and it's still cheaper than buying on Amazon even with the 34% tariff.

 

[jordantrizz]

Interesting, would be a great mixed media speed switch. Just need to find some cheap RJ45 SFP+ modules for non-fiber connections.

 

[Greg_E]

Just need to find some cheap RJ45 SFP+ modules for non-fiber connections.

And there's the problem, I'd like to get a few 2.5g modules for my CRS326-24s+2q+ switch to go with the a+e i226=v cards I installed in the lab system. The 10g modules are more money than I want to spend on 10 of them, and they run HOT (at least at 10g speeds). I've seen 2.5/5 modules, but the price on the ones I found was the same as buying 10g modules.

As far as the above switch, I thought about devices like that, went with a Mikrotik CRS309-1g-8s+ because it is a known quantity, paid a bit over twice the price and kind of grew out of it which is where the 326 came in. Keeping it for other situations I might need though, nice to have a small switch around with a bunch of 10g ports.

[edit] Are these any good? https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806617566600.html

[edit2]

Color:2.5G 2PCS
It is not compatible with Mikrotik. I tried auto negotiation in every possible way as well as setting the link manually and it did not work under any circumstances.

J***y | 01 Nov 2024

 

[tunatoksoz]

Be mindful of the upcoming tariffs which removes deminimis.

 

[Greg_E]

Also keep in mind that those tariffs may not be handled by the seller, UPS is a pain to deal with on this, at least the last time I had to do that. Hopefully the sellers will add the tariff onto the price at checkout.

 

[luckylinux]

In Europe (Denmark) UPS will also add something like 1% of the Value plus an Administrative Fee of 20 EUR (or possibly 30 EUR, 20 EUR is Postnord).

I can for sure say where they shall stick their Tariff ...

 

[frogtech]

forgive the tin foil hat for a moment but is it really worth putting these chinese switches on your home network?

i realize this is sort of a slippery slope considering we give major brand companies the benefit of the doubt simply because they command such wide industry "respect" - but it's worth wondering

 

[Greg_E]

i realize this is sort of a slippery slope considering we give major brand companies the benefit of the doubt simply because they command such wide industry "respect" - but it's worth wondering

That was partly another reason why I went with Mikrotik. My other choice was used Cisco, and I'm just tired of jumping through hoops to get firmware updates to keep my equipment "secure". Many/most of the "big" companies have made us less secure by putting firmware updates behind a paywall. Mikrotik and maybe Unifi, some Netgear products and our last hopes.

Also FYI, I really like the Netgear AV Line of switches, I have one for our Tricaster and Dante audio gear. Super easy for getting media streams together, but still fully flexible if you need to "get into the weeds". These do command nearly Enterprise prices though.

 

[luckylinux]

forgive the tin foil hat for a moment but is it really worth putting these chinese switches on your home network?

i realize this is sort of a slippery slope considering we give major brand companies the benefit of the doubt simply because they command such wide industry "respect" - but it's worth wondering

Some of them can be flashed with Stock OpenWRT (with varying level of Support).

I was going to ask if this one actually supported it. Somebody actually just posted about it on OpenWRT Forums but sure if he managed to get it running. Support for RTL838x based managed switches. I just asked him . Probably the L3 Feature will NOT work at any reasonable Speed though.


XikeStor SKS8300-8X is supported according to that Thread. I'll test my ONTI ONT-S508CL-8S (just received it) which apparently is just a rebranded XikeStor SKS8300-8X.

Important: get a Proper 12V PSU, the PSU shipped with the XikeStor/ONTI is a Safety Nightmare. VERY high Peak-Ground Voltages and IIRC the Chassis does NOT have clearance for ~ 200V peak to GND or so.

Not sure if this HICOMDATA is any better/worse.

 

[Greg_E]

That might be worth an extra $100 for better products. I've had too many cheapo products fail and do so at the worst times to mess around with some of this stuff anymore.

 

[pimposh]

Just buy nice or buy twice.

 

[luckylinux]

That might be worth an extra $100 for better products. I've had too many cheapo products fail and do so at the worst times to mess around with some of this stuff anymore.

Just get a Good PSU and a 12V USB-C PD -> 5.5/2.1mm (or 5.5/2.5mm ? Unsure) Adapter for around 15 EUR Combined off Aliexpress.

 

[nabsltd]

forgive the tin foil hat for a moment but is it really worth putting these chinese switches on your home network?

Even completely ignoring security, the overall poor quality control of these switches is more than enough to not use them.

If you want an unmanaged switch more exotic than 2.5Gbps ports, then maybe you can find a better deal from <random Chinese company>, but most people are going for these because they are cheap and have a management interface. Good luck finding firmware updates if what you bought hasn't also been bought by somebody who speaks Chinese and has posted instructions on where to find the updates.

I've had too many cheapo products fail and do so at the worst times to mess around with some of this stuff anymore.

I've had one switch fail (in my home network) in over 20 years, and it was an unmanaged Netgear 16-port "desktop" switch that was at least 10 years old when it failed. I attribute this lack of failure to buying brands that have real support websites that didn't care if you weren't the first owner of the switch.

 

[dbram]

I ordered a similar device ONti a while ago, looks identical, got it on some black friday or singles day from ali. Onti 10Gb 8port sfp+

This device gets warm, no doubt about it, especially when using 10GBASE-T SFP+ tranceivers. I added a small heatsink on the rj45 tranceiver and a 'custom' cooling fan in a 19" rack. like this one 2u 19" cooler keeps the temps somewhat under control.
when using with dac or fiber tranceivers, it should be fine.

For what I'm using it for, seems to work fine. Yet another webui to get used to, not too different, but something else then Zyxel, Mikrotik and opnsense devices.

I have it connected to a Mikrotik CRS309-1G-8S+ and they get along allright. the reason i purchased it was to connect these 2 10gb switches where I have a CAT7 ethernet cable that cannot be removed without breaking walls and floors, so i went with the 10gbase-t tranceivers.
I do get 9.7-9.8gbits/s in iperf tests

 

[luckylinux]

I ordered a similar device ONti a while ago, looks identical, got it on some black friday or singles day from ali. Onti 10Gb 8port sfp+

This device gets warm, no doubt about it, especially when using 10GBASE-T SFP+ tranceivers. I added a small heatsink on the rj45 tranceiver and a 'custom' cooling fan in a 19" rack. like this one 2u 19" cooler keeps the temps somewhat under control.
when using with dac or fiber tranceivers, it should be fine.

For what I'm using it for, seems to work fine. Yet another webui to get used to, not too different, but something else then Zyxel, Mikrotik and opnsense devices.

I have it connected to a Mikrotik CRS309-1G-8S+ and they get along allright. the reason i purchased it was to connect these 2 10gb switches where I have a CAT7 ethernet cable that cannot be removed without breaking walls and floors, so i went with the 10gbase-t tranceivers.
I do get 9.7-9.8gbits/s in iperf tests

I ordered some small Heatsinks as well for the Mikrotik CRS309-1G-8S+ and the ONTI ONT-S508CL-8S that I outlined here

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/qotom-denverton-fanless-system-with-4-sfp.41331/page-39#post-464331

19x19x24 mm Heatsink is larger than the SFP+ Modules but should fit the Mikrotik CRS309-1G-8S+.
15x15x15 mm Heatsink is exactly the size as the SFP+ Modules so it should fit the ONTI ONT-S508CL-8S

 

[fishtacos]

Somewhat related question:

Do these el cheapo switches (Based on Realtek chipset) without support for priority flow control and datacententer bridging have any way to do RDMA over ethernet on VMWare ESXi or Proxmox/Hyper-V? I've come across some comments that say you can still have it working,, while most articles/documentation explicitly states those protocols must be supported by the switch?

The next least expensive Mikrotik 10G 5 port switch also doesn't have those protocols, but their 400/500 USD model does.

I'm running 2x2.5G in my homelab nodes and would like to upgrade to at least a single port 10G, or possibly 2x10G in a low power setup, but the nodes are 6 core 8th gen I7s so a little on the anemic side when it comes to processing heavy bandwidth. I'm thinking I could offload some of that processing for network storage, vmotion and possibly network virtualization.