TP-Link SG108E – Nasty £25 Gigabit Switch

TP-Link are pretty much synonymous for producing feature rich, solid and cheap networking products. Their SG108E Gigabit Switch should be decent.. surely.

Ermm… well lets just say it’s cheap and cheerful. Whilst they have gone to the effort of writing the managed firmware code in the device itself, the management interface is shocking.

.33-704-173-TS

There it is – a cute 8 port ‘managed’ switch. I expect some things at minimum from a managed switch.

  • Command Line & Web Based Management Interface
  • SNMP Support
  • MAC Address Lookup Table

None of these are present on this switch. I mean WTF.

What is available includes:

  • Up to 32 VLANs
  • Windows based Management Utility
  • 8 ports of Gigabit goodness
  • Not a lot else

The forgiving factor is that this switch costs £25. I mean I would pay that for an unmanaged 8 port gigabit switch so let’s not be too hasty in calling it pointless.

I’ll add some screenshots to show the horrible interface shortly but for now, if you’re looking for a cheap 8 port managed switch, I’d suggest pay a bit more and grab the Netgear GS108T instead.