Re: Switch or No switch
 

There's a difference between a router (DIR-615) and an unmanaged switch, though. I'm talking about your general unmanaged switch.

Re: Switch or No switch
 

Routers almost always have a separate switch chip in them to handle the ethernet ports, which will be of the same range if not the same model as those used in pure unmanaged switches.

Turn off the router part (or wipe the router firmware) and the thing just boots up as a dumb unmanaged switch.

Re: Switch or No switch
 

Yeah, I'm not debating that. I'm saying that if you go out and buy an unmanaged switch, it's very unlikely to contain the hardware that will let you turn it into a managed switch, even if you could find some way to flash its firmware.

A router is a different matter entirely, though.

Re: Switch or No switch
 

But is it not the case that most electronics manufacturers just use the same hardware in a variety of models because it is cheaper to run one line and just enable/disable features via software?

Re: Switch or No switch
 

Well sure it is, but the hardware required for a managed switch is several times more powerful than what you need for an unmanaged switch. In fact, it's probably into router-grade territory.

By all means, find me a cheap unmanaged switch that can be flashed with a managed switch firmware, I'll be on that in a shot. If it has PoE, even better.

Re: Switch or No switch
 

TBH I find all standalone consumer switches to be pretty overpriced these days. But part of that bias is from my knowing how much more powerful a similarly priced and similarly specced consumer router is.

Re: Switch or No switch
 

I wouldn't generally pay more than about £15 for an unmanaged gigabit switch and even then I'd be pushing for an 8-port one. Anything more than that and as you say, a router would probably do a better job, though finding gigabit routers at that price (that can be flashed with something beyond a basic firmware) is a challenge as well.

Re: Switch or No switch
 

I know what you mean but i dont nind paying an extra few £££ for something which i know is going to work. When i got my nas and two media players this time last year i bought a Linksys/Cisco switch for £25 because i wanted a switch which i knew was going to handle the streaming between the devices properly and pass all the youtube traffic and stuff up to the router

Re: Switch or No switch
 

For £15, yeah, back when I last checked the cheapest 5-8 port gigabit switches were around £30.

And for £30 there's quite a wide range of Openwrt capable gigabit routers available.

Re: Switch or No switch
 

You can't have checked recently, here's a quick google:

TP-link 5-port Gigabit switch for less than £14

Netgear 8-port gigabit switch for less than £18

I'm sure I've seen the odd 8-port go for about £15 as well, but these are entirely unmanaged. I'd be shocked if they could be software upgraded to anything else. As you say, for anything more then your next step is to buy a cheapish router.

Re: Switch or No switch
 

You're right, last checked around 2009. Since then I've just been buying up N routers with built in gigabit switches. To be fair prices hadn't changed much in the few years prior to that so I'm surprised they dropped so much since.

Re: Switch or No switch
 

Yeah, I think the manufacturers must have hit a turning point where it was cheaper to produce all gigabit chipsets than some gigabit and some 10/100. I still see a lot of routers that are only 10/100 though, which annoys me.