Cisco 26-Port Gigabit PoE Smart Switch (SG200-26P)

So far so good. This thing is fast as advertised easily pushing Gb data through my LAN with confirmed measurements. BUT, as other people have mentioned, the fan noise is not trivial. It's also not load dependent either. It runs full blast 24/7 regardless of port utilization. It generates about 38dB of fan noise as you're standing in front of it - about as much as a clothes dryer. I may explore replacing the fan with something quieter in the future as it just doesn't seem necessary in my particular case since the unit doesn't even get warm. I only use 1 PoE port. This unit would not be appropriate for use in an occupied, quiet, open room. I have it tucked away in a closet in a lonely area where the noise has minimal impact.

I pulled this out of the box (had all of the new cables ready) plugged it in and configured it. Moved it to the closet. Moved all of the existing cables from my old switch to the SG200. Planned on the proper placement for the two cables from my Synology 1511+ for link aggregation. Plugged in one of those two. Configured the two ports on the SC200 (with LACP checked). Configured the Synology box (see their website and follow the instructions). Once it was ready, I moved the single cable to one of the two configured LA ports and plugged in the other one. And it was done. Tested transfer speed before and after. Seeing better performance. Especially when more than one device is hitting the Synology box (I uses multiple VMs with ISCSI configured for various storage devices). I should have done this a long time ago and not messed with a few of the cheaper switches.Tested with VMs running which use iSCSI LUNs and performance is better. Slightly higher IOPS. Would be higher with LA configured from my desktop which is up next now that I have a reason to configure it.

This is my second switch. My first was a 8 port and I out grew it. This switch was a great upgrade. All the features that you get are worth the price. I'm not a company but it has surpassed everything that I've thrown at it. I use the PoE on cameras and access point so that works. I got this going with a RV180 and a WAP321. Great combination.My only problem so far is one port is physically bad. If you wiggle it then it works but I have ports to spare so I don't use it.

We needed a 24-port gigabit switch with POE. We did not need/want a managed switch, but the combined price of a non-managed switch and a POE injector was more than the cost of this unit.The Cisco switch arrived quickly and worked right out of the box with no configuration changes. We have three TalkSwitch TS-350i IP Phones and a Snom 370 IP Phone connected to the switch (and receiving power from the switch), as well as several workstations.The fan is noticeable if you're standing next to the switch. Our switch is mounted in the store room, so no noise problems in the offices.

I have bought items from Amazon Warehouse in the past, and I never had a problem. However, this switch was defective and sold as "working". Well, I searched the web for the blinking blue power light problem and there were others who had that issue with this model. I feel quite let down by CISCO name, I had a much better impression about the brand. So much for that. I will get an HP switch instead as I had a good luck with them in the past. This "Cisco" (Linksys actually) switch is going straight back to Amazon.3-24-14 Update: I ended up getting an HP 3500yl 24 port switch which is a total overkill, but it works as it should. I am not using all the manageable features yet, as I have to set it up through serial port (pretty archaic) which I have not done so. For now it is acting as a non managed switch only. On the downside HP switch is louder, so forget about keeping one in your room as there is not only hum from fans, but certain harmonic ringing tone too. I keep it in the ventilated closet, so that's not a problem. HP 3500yl POE switch when being used without POE is drawing about 100W of power.

For most home networks this would be over kill. However I don't think my situation is far from the norm today. My network had become unmanageable; 3 - 8 port split POE switches, 1-5 port, 1 high end router with 4 high end wireless AP's installed.. At times over 50 wireless devices on the network. I was losing devices, double assigning IP's, network overhead was choking it. You just can't keep plugging 8 port switch after 8 port switch under each other or across the network in an unmanaged environment. It was time to get a degree in network management or buy a big well engineered unmanaged switch. This was the cheaper route and I have not had a problem since it was installed under my router. I make sure not to plug anything directly into the router other than this switch. Everything else is plugged into the switch. It has all sorts of features I don't completely understand and don't want to. The second thing I did was to install a rack system with battery back up so that my internal com network, including the digital modem never lost power. When I had power issues the network never came back up by itself without problems. I have not had a single network problem since I installed this switch, no kids and wife complaining to me that their wireless was not working on the iPad, phone, etc. I am no longer in a job that I sucked at, Family Network Support. Thankless job that pays nothing.

No where in any descritption was it disclosed that only half the 24 ports were POE. That is right only 12 ports are POE. Everything else is fine but if you are looking for more than 12 POE ports look elsewhere...

Nice unit but too bad it only supports PoE on half of the ports. Bad thing for flexibility. Will sell it to some one.