Horaco 2.5GbE Managed Switch (8 x 2.5GbE + 1 10Gb SFP+)

[klosz007]

@sic0048 Moreover, to avoid out of order frame delivery, since there is no guarantee that all cables in a trunk are of equal lengths, frames between given pair of MAC addresses (or IPs - depending on implementation/setting) are always sent over the same cable. This is common misunderstanding of how trunking works. It does not simply multiply throughput between devices/switches. Thorughput is increased but when multiple device pairs are talking over the trunk - source/destination pairs are evenly distributed across connections in a trunk. But given pair utilizes one cable. So if only one device is talking to one other device, this will go over only one, same cable and it will see throughput of single connection, not multiplication.

 

[glassdoor]

Would someone please test, if Flow Control between two of these 8 + 1 Switches connected via DAC in SFP+ ports can actually be enabled?
When I connect two of my Sodola switches (v. 1.9) via 2.5G-Ports with Flow Control setting to "on", the "Actual" column switches to "on" too.

Doing the same via DAC in SFP+ Port 9 (attention: you have to select "Port 9" before applying) shows no effect in the "Actual" columns of both switches.

View attachment 38307

You have to manually fix the link speed to 10GFull and with flow control set to on. Then it will work.

 

[glassdoor]

Nope. Doesn't work for me. Tried different transceivers, DAC, connected to Mellanox, Brocade switch. Flow control never works on the SFP+ port.

Manually set link speed for SFP+ ports to 10GFull. then flow control will be enabled.

 

[jode]

Manually set link speed for SFP+ ports to 10GFull. then flow control will be enabled.

Confirmed.

Thanks!

 

[ncage]

Any of you had issues with the web interface? I setup everything months ago. I do remember it being quite slow but it was workable.

The other day (for a reason i don't remember) i tried to get into the web interface & was unable to. I tried doing the normal things. Pulling the power plug ect ect. In the end i end up resetting the switch to the factory defaults. Even after resetting the switch I was able to get to the web inteface but it was unbearably slow. A lot of time the page would partially load (for example the logo wouldn't load) but finally i was able to setup the settings I needed. I mean this is a cheap switch i don't expect it to be lightning quick but when it takes minute(s) for the page to come back after you log in that is unacceptable.

Now a few weeks later i'm unable to log into the web interface again. As soon as i got the switch I upgraded it to v 1.9 of the firmware. As far as i've read here that is the newest revision. The only thing i can think of is when i pull the power switch it reset the switch back to the default ip (which if i remember is 192.168.0.1) but it shouldn't have. This is beyond frustrating.

I almost was going to pull the trigger on a ubiquity/unifi switch until i looked a the price. The closest thing to this switch is the USW-Enterprise-8-PoE (which i don't need POE) which is about $500 for a 8 port switch. No WAY!!! At this point this switch is almost becoming an unmanaged switch with how unusable the web interface is.

 

[Shonk]

I have ordered an XikeStor SKS1200-8GPY2XF 8+2 (MaxLinear MxL86282)
Due to the broken SFP+ Port in one direction on **-SWTGW218AS
I have two RJ45 to SFP+ Transceiver's sitting idle (80m + 30m)

Will update if SFP+ 10G is good or not on this switch
In about a week when this arrives from aliexpress

 

[klosz007]

Any of you had issues with the web interface? I setup everything months ago. I do remember it being quite slow but it was workable.

That sounds very similar to what I'm experiencing and what I have described a few posts back. GUI starts to work "slow" after certain period of time (weeks ?) and when switch is rebooted then, it does not initialize - status LED is blinking quickly. If you connect serial console, it reports checksum error as the root cause of the boot issue. In multiple such cases in the past it automatically dropped into firmware recovery mode and I was able to recover it be reflashing firmware from recovery web interface (http://192.168.1.1).
Unfortunately recently it did not even switch into firmware recovery mode and just hang everytime (again - observed after connecting to serial console).
So I desoldered flash chip, installed ZIF socket (to avoid multiple solder/desolder actions in future), put the chip into programmer and reflashed the chip using firmware dump I created once from SPI console (on the serial console). Then it started to work again.

I suspect flash contents gets periodically corrupted but reason unknown - software bug or defective flash ? I'm trying to replace flash chip but so far no luck. I'm aware of the UID/OTP protection they have put into the firmware but even after programiinig OTP area with newly generated key, still switch boot-loops with non-orginal chip. So far I only used Winbond chips as replacements. I could find FUDAN FM25Q16 (that's the original one) but only in SO8 150mils case - smaller than originally installed chip and does not fit into the ZIF SO8 208mils socket I installed. FM25Q16's in SO8 208mils version (as installed in the switch) seem to be unavailable. I purchased some Gigadevice GD25Q16 chip and will give it a try.

 

[Shonk]

I suspect flash contents gets periodically corrupted but reason unknown

I would guess unstable voltage from the psu
when mine came it had an eu psu and i needed UK so i used a spare QNAP QSW-1108-8T psu
that i had in my spares draw

I have had zero issues with web interface speed and such

It was the same with my Firebat T8 Plus mini pc
kept crashing swapped out its cheapo psu it came with
fixed

It was the same with my H96 Pro+ Android box
kept randomly crashing swapped out its cheapo psu it came with
fixed

 

[klosz007]

Interesting, did not think about it at all ! Indeed switch was delivered with some "cheapo" no-name "made in China" PSU. Will try another (hopefully better) PSU then.

Frankly I had similar issue with my EPYC AsrockRack board recently - BMC flash was getting corrupted and I had to reflash it periodically from EFI level. It all went away when I replaced Seasonic Focus GX850 PSU (which I had used previously in another PC for 3 years with ZERO issues) back with brand new "testbench" Corsair HX850 PSU I used for inital testing of this board (it all started when I switched from Corsair to Seasonic so was easy guess). So I should myself guess now that flash corruption may have something to do with PSU...

Thanks for this suggestion.

 

[Shonk]

The QNAP psu i used was 12V 1.5A so higher spec if i remember right

 

[klosz007]

The no-name one is 12V/2A. Problem is to find a "quality" 12V PSU - all on the market are no-name or cheap-brand. Laptop ones are usually quality ones from renowned brands but these are 18V+. Sadly I have no 12V PSU from renowned brand device (such as QNAP, Synologu, TP-Link etc.)

 

[Shonk]

I think the one that came with mine was 12V 1A

I have a whole draw of Branded PSU's from Shucking so many Hard drives for my server
Buffalo,Seagate,WD,Toshiba etc etc from 12V 1.5A to 12V 3A

 

[switchfan]

I have a ZX-SWTGW215AS with a similar issue: After a day or latest after a few days, it loses connectivity to the WebUI entirely.
PowerCycle brings back the WebUI into operation.
Now I just replaced the original 12V/1A PSU with a different one (12V/1,5A) which I found in my spare parts box...
Will report if this changed anything.

 

[klosz007]

@Shonk - you reminded me about 8x 8TB WD's in my home server. They were all shucked from WD MyBooks. Their 12V PSUs are still kept in original boxes - which I completely forgot about. Will have to find these boxes in the basement to get the PSUs

 

[Shonk]

@Shonk - you reminded me about 8x 8TB WD's in my home server. They were all shucked from WD MyBooks. Their 12V PSUs are still kept in original boxes - which I completely forgot about. Will have to find these boxes in the basement to get the PSUs

they are 12V 1.5A i have about 10 of them

 

[klosz007]

@ncage - I feel your pain. UTP 2.5G-capable switches from major brands are either PoE ones (=expensive), support 1/2.5/5/10Gbit - not just 1/2.5G (=expensive), or have too many ports (e.g. TP-Link TL-SG3428X-M2) (=expensive). While 1/2.5G NICs are already ubiquitous, 1/2.5G switches are not. Each possible alternative to these cheap Horcaco&friends 1/2.5G UTP switches I could think of is 250USD+. 1/2.5/10G SFP+ switches out of question - add 2.5G RJ45-SFP transceiver cost + compatibility issues.

 

[ncage]

@klosz007 Thanks for your feedback. Least I know I'm not the only one. What I think I'm going to do at this point is order a :
TPLink SG3210X-M2

I ordered it from aliexpress. I haven't ordered that much from them, but I will attempt a return & see how it goes. If they make me ship it back to China (at my own cost), it might not be worth it in the end. Maybe i'll ask them to send me whatever firmware they have and reflash it (after i reset everything) & see if it fixes it even with that being said i'm going to buy the tplink switch. While much more than this switch it's not crazy expensive like the ubiquity switch is for home use. I'd prefer the ubiquity/unifi unit because i already have some unifi gear but for 2x the price nope. I would expect unifi to be more but not 2x more maybe its because it has POE (which i don't need)

I have left a message for the seller on aliexpress. We will see what they come back with.

 

[klosz007]

I have left a message for the seller on aliexpress. We will see what they come back with.

Not sure how it works in your area. In my area (Poland) Aliexpress offers free 90-day returns. Just check if the item is marked as free-return eligible and if 90 days have not expired. If it's not eligible for such return, it makes wely little financial sense to ship back to China on own expense, it costs a lot. I have returned a couple of Ali items with no issues but this was very soon after receiving. It can take quite a time if you want to get a money return though. If you want money back as a coupon for next Ali purchases then it's much quicker.

Nevertheless I would attempt to recover Horaco switch first. Solder in goldpins, connect serial console and see what's going on there. If it enters recovery mode by itself then it runs simple webserver on http://192.168.1.1 and allows reuploading firmware (note - this recovery IP may easily go into conflict with your router if you are using 192.168.1.0 subnet). Check up-n-atom's Github site - it contains a lot of useful info about these devices.

TL-SG3210X-M2 costs equiv to 250USD (with taxes) in local computer shops here. TP-Link TL-SG3428X-M2 is 500USD... Horaco 8+1 from Ali costed me around 100USD and now it's even cheaper.

 

[blunden]

they are 12V 1.5A i have about 10 of them

I have a few of those as well. I'll have to keep them in mind if I end up buying a non-PoE switch like this.

Come to think of it, I do have a HiSouce 4 * 2.5G + 2 * 10G switch that I mainly keep as a spare (it was only $30) that's 12V 1A if I recall correctly. If I end up deploying that one more long term somewhere, I'll keep the WD PSU in mind.

 

[ncage]

Not sure how it works in your area. In my area (Poland) Aliexpress offers free 90-day returns. Just check if the item is marked as free-return eligible and if 90 days have not expired. If it's not eligible for such return, it makes wely little financial sense to ship back to China on own expense, it costs a lot. I have returned a couple of Ali items with no issues but this was very soon after receiving. It can take quite a time if you want to get a money return though. If you want money back as a coupon for next Ali purchases then it's much quicker.

Nevertheless I would attempt to recover Horaco switch first. Solder in goldpins, connect serial console and see what's going on there. If it enters recovery mode by itself then it runs simple webserver on http://192.168.1.1 and allows reuploading firmware (note - this recovery IP may easily go into conflict with your router if you are using 192.168.1.0 subnet). Check up-n-atom's Github site - it contains a lot of useful info about these devices.

TL-SG3210X-M2 costs equiv to 250USD (with taxes) in local computer shops here. TP-Link TL-SG3428X-M2 is 500USD... Horaco 8+1 from Ali costed me around 100USD and now it's even cheaper.

I'm in the US. Unfortunately its well past the 90 day period. I bought the switch at the end of Feb. Ya i would be fine to get my money back as a aliexpress coupon just not sure what proof the seller will want so we shall see. Ya i'm not much a low level guy as you. Never even soder4ed before. Though it seems interesting just don't know if I will have time with everything going on in my life. Ya after i setup the switch i pretty much left it alone for a long long time so if there was something wrong i would have never know because as far as switching it was/is still working fine.

Ya i can get it slightly cheaper than $250 but its pretty close. Actually at this point its not available at too many places online.

I do have my older managed switch still there (1gbe) but i rewired a long run with SPF+ & my old switch is only cat5