GS1200-5HP

This is my second zyxel switch, the GS1200-8. I also have the GS1900-8HP.They make great switches from what I can tell, but I’m no expert. $25 for a web managed gigabit switch is impossible to beat I think. The web management interface (WMI) is pretty intuitive, if simple. I doubt the GS1200-8 has all the most advanced features of more expensive managed switches. Its WMI is pretty sparse compared to screenshots of others I’ve seen, but it does what I need.Interestingly, the GS1900-8HP Power over Ethernet switch from Zyxel has very different firmware compared to the GS1200-8. I haven’t compared them feature per feature, but I believe the 8HP might have more options and customizable features. Need to do side-by-side comparison of their firmware, maybe I’ll add to this review after I do that.The power brick is tiny compared to the Power over Ethernet power brick from the other Zyxel switch I own. The switch itself is also tiny. I didn’t realize when I bought that it would be physically about 1/3 the size of the 8HP PoE switch I already had. Very sleek little unit. Solid metal case with a nice rough (anodized?) texture. Case screws are quite tight, but I got ‘em loose and opened it up to take a peak inside. Don’t know anything about electronics manufacturing, but these internal components are of as high a quality as I’ve seen.I’m seeing blazing fast speeds on all my devices passing through the switch. I have not done any formal, rigorous testing, but so far I am quite pleased with this switch. It works great for a home or small business network. If you have high end enterprise-grade networking requirements, this switch may not be ideal, although for the price it’s certainly worth seeing if it meets your needs because you will pay far more for a Linksys, Netgear, or Cisco switch.Also of note is that Zyxel actively patches their equipment. The firmwares for both of my Zyxel switches have fairly recent updates, need to check the dates for their latest firmwares and I’ll include them in a future edit. It’s not as if Zyxel slaps these things together and ships them without intending to support the firmware and issue bug fixes and security patches. No they seem to do a pretty good job of staying up to date with these thingsInstructions that come with the unit are a bit sparse, but Zyxel’s online tutorials and videos are good, and although I haven’t needed it yet, I believe their customer support is decent as well.This would be a great choice for a managed gigabit switch even if the price wasn’t so competitive, just make sure it has the features you need.

Good quality PoE switch. Driving 2 WiFi AC access points and another switch via PoE. Like the "smart" functionality so could setup VLANs and see stats including power draw, for not much more cost than many unmanaged switches. Very satisfied.

I recently expanded my PoE camera network.I was looking for a relatively inexpensive managed PoE switch to finish installing IP cameras to the other side of my relatively large house so that I can use just one Cat-6 ethernet uplink to the main switch in the attic on the opposite end of the house, then eventually to the router (pfSense) in my office. This method, call it a substation in the attic, saves me from having to lay down extra ethernet cables, up to 100 feet each, in the hot 🔥 Florida attic. This switch fits the bill, thus far. I can't believe this Xyxel, managed PoE+, switch costs under $60.00. This is a great value for the money. I immediately canceled a similar switch en route for delivery, tp-Link, when serendipitously stumbled on this switch after placing that Amazon order. The tp-Link switch only supports 802.3af, whereas, the Xyxel supports both 802.3af/at and cheaper. In addition, the Xyxel operates at a higher temperature range, which I need since this puppy is going to live in that hot attic. This switch has all the basic level 2 features. However, it only supports one flavor of vlan, 802.1q. This works for me. My other switches support the other vlan options, which I don't use at this time. I have a complex network with many subnets, a managed switch with vlan capability is a must for my network. The power supply is outside the unit. It's a huge power brick, "wall wart." It's similar to the power supply cord/brick that comes with your typical laptop 💻 computer. It does come with an on/off switchso you don't have to pull the plug when you want to turn the switch off. This "wall wart" maybe a negative for some users. This is a non-issue for me since this baby will live in the attic, and this is a plus since this will prevent more heat generation inside the unit since it's outside the unit. It's made of metal. No noisy fan/ lots of air vents on the sides & the indicator lights are clear of potential obstruction. They give link/ activity /power & PoE status. The GUI is simple & intuitive. Setting up vlan is easy & intuitive if you understand how vlan works. Some reviews say that the wizard for setting vlan is confusing. IMHO, a wizard is not needed if one understands the concept of vlan. I'm no network guru. I'm just a regular Joe when it comes to networking. I just do my research by using Google, YouTube & forums. This switch has additional nice features that I find very useful like PoE status <how much power being used by each device & available>. It appears that it doesn't support the spanning tree protocol for network loop. It appears to use this proprietary loop detection system. Overall, this is an inexpensive, solid basic PoE managed switch that's currently working flawlessly, which I highly recommend.

This is a great little set-and-forget switch to extend a trunk on an existing SOHO network. I used it to terminate a MoCA link (Ethernet-over-Coax). For IEEE 802.1q trunking and general security, remember the following:1. For the trunk port, make sure each in-use VLAN is set to "Tag Egress Member" which will presumably match your upstream switch (tagging for in-use VLANs is a best practice and only VLAN one can be untagged on a trunk anyway).2. For access ports, make sure the VLAN is set to "Untag Egress Member"3. REMEMBER: On access ports to make the PVID number match the VLAN number or else the access port *will not* function.4. For defense against VLAN-hopping attacks I disabled the default-untagged VLAN 1 on the upstream switch trunk interface.For ~$30 this is a lot of capability.