[arm-allstar] OT: The best deal in town... a 10/100 speed 8-port ethernet switch for under $10 delivered

[David McGough]

Hi Mike,

I want to mention a real-life story about low-end switches.

Once upon a time, I went in search of low-cost switches. I needed a very 
cost-effective solution for customers.

After some searching, I found what seemed to be fantastic value in an
8-port 10/100MBit unmanaged switch. It was about $12 and had a lot a good
reviews. The brand name was Zonet and the model was ZFS3008P. I purchased
a few and they worked GREAT.  I deployed them by the dozens.  All was
good.

After a while, some users started having very weird network problems. We
found that power cycling the switch usually temporarily fixed these
problems. Over more time, more users had problems and the issues with old 
switches got worse and worse, some failing completely.

We ended up pulling and replacing every single Zonet that we deployed, 
even if it seemed to be working properly.

The moral here is: Be VERY, VERY CAUTIOUS when purchasing network hardware 
off the "bottom rung of the latter."  These days, name-brand hardware is 
not much higher cost.  


73, David KB4FXC




On Sun, 2 Dec 2018, "M M via ARM-allstar" wrote:

> Eight Ethernet ports for under seven dollars!
> In my case shipping was $2.49, but that's still under $10 delivered.
> 
> <https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15761>
> And it has auto MDI/MDIX support - no need for crossover
> cables or uplink ports.
> 
> I could not tell if it's a 12v or 5v wall wart, either way it's
> probably quite usable on battery powered systems...
> 
> Mike
> 
> 
> 
> 
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