TP-Link TL-SG108S-M2 | 8-Port Multi-Gigabit 2.5G Ethernet Switch | Unmanaged Network Switch | Ethernet Splitter | Plug & Play | Desktop/Wall Mount | Silent Operation

There isn’t a lot to say about an unmanaged 8-port switch. It works, it came with all possible required mounting hardware and a power cable, and it provides 10GBE links as advertised. I recently upgraded to 8 gigabit internet service, and needed a switch that could do 10GBE. Since it natively uses ethernet, I did not need to purchase any SFP modules or worry about fiber cabling. It works well both over 10GB link to my home server and for the 2.5GB links to 2 gaming PCs, and properly auto-negotiates the correct speeds. I wish it was a bit cheaper, but 2.5 & 5GB support are new, and a cost comes with new technology. It is a lot quieter and more power-efficient than using an old enterprise 10GB switch.

It’s quiet, plug and play, easy to use, a little larger than other 4-port switches, but overall smaller than most. It’s quiet and doesn’t get too hot. The switch did fail within a year, but it was under warranty, and the process to get a replacement was easy.

Needed to make an upgrade and this product looked highly rated here. Easy install and all ports are working as intended. I expect this switch to last several years. It feels sturdy and doesn’t get too warm with over half the ports in use. Good deal.

I ordered 2 of these after having some issues with older equipment.

I like that they are made in a metal housing, not the plastic some use. After buying 2 of their 8 port models, I decided to go with this 16 port model. My one 8 port was already filled and felt it just made sense for expansion as I prefer hardwired device speeds over the WiFi type and no interference from all the wireless signals I have.

Not a ding as I don’t believe it’s the ports vs older cables had hardened over time and therefore hard to get the cable locks to set. Hence why I swapped out the old cables for newer Cat8’s as well.

Overall, yes, my speed went back up into the range I expected. Decent price on these unmanaged 16 port switches. Do the connections, power em up and nothing more to be done short of a speed test

Upgraded my home Internet to 2 gigabit fiber, and home fileserver with SSD storage, so I bought the TP-Link 8-port TL-SG108-M2 and 5-port TL-SG105-M2 to upgrade my home network to multi-gigabit speed. It was easy to swap my old gigabit switches with these TP-Link 2.5 giggers, using my existing ethernet cables.

Per-port lights made it obvious which ports run at 2.5 gigabit, 1 gigabit, and 100 megabit. I loved the fan-less design – zero noise coming from these TP-Link switches. I will never buy a fan-based switch again – they collect dust, and eventually die unless kept clean.

Speed:

Tested throughput extensively using iperf3 on the local network, and speedtest.net for Internet speed.

LAN (local network) bandwidth tests reliably 2.3 gigabit average between two computers. Same speed when 2 computers are on the same switch, and when they are connected switch-to-switch. This was a HUGE improvement over a gigabit network which maxed out at about 0.95 gigabits.

Was worried whether my investment would actually get close to 2.5 gigabit, especially switch-to-switch, but they did! Two TP-Link switches are linked with a 40-foot in-wall Cat-6 cable, and computers can get 2.3 gigabit between the two switches.

Internet speed tested at 2.0 gigabit download and 910 megabit upload with Google Fiber 2 Gig!

The TP-Links were fully backward compatible with 1 gigabit and 100 megabit devices and switches. Connected various slower devices including a gigabit switch (1gig), a Ubiquiti AC Lite AP (1gig), a printer (100meg), and voice-over-IP box (100meg).

Heat: These TP-Link switches get slightly warm but never hot.

Ethernet Adapters: Using Sabrent 2.5 Gigabit NT-S25G USB 3.0 adapters on all my computers, since none of my computers came with 2.5 gigabit as of mid-2021. I had some auto-negotiation issues on bootup, where the adapter would sync at 100 mbit or 1 gbit (not 2.5gig) when the adapter powered on. After boot, I would manually adjust the driver’s speed setting from auto-negotiate to 2.5 gigabit, or 2.5 gigabit to auto-negotiate, which would re-sync at 2.5-gig with the switch. Contacted Sabrent support who also believed the issue was with the latest Realtek driver, a fix may be coming soon.

Another reviewer here believed the TP-Links are responsible for auto-negotiate issues, it may be a TP-Link issue but I’m not sure. When I connected my TP-Link 2.5 gig switches to each other, they always synced at 2.5 gig. Same with the Google Fiber router’s 1/2.5/5/10 port which always auto-negotiated at 2.5 gig. Only my Realtek-chip adapters would sync at lower speed on initial power-on. I figured out that by plugging my 2.5gig adapters into always-on USB 3.0 ports via USB 3.0 hub, kept the adapters locked at 2.5 gigabit even after the PC rebooted.

When my adapters did sync at lower speed, a quick re-sync of the driver would fix it. On Windows, Network Connections (Control Panel), double-click the adapter, Configure, Advanced tab, Speed & Duplex, switch it to “2.5 gig full” or “auto-negotiate”, either will trigger the adapter to re-try its link to the TP-Link. On Linux, after boot, run: ethtool -s enx002341234567 autoneg on advertise 0x80000000002f (replacing the enx002… with your device name)

Ethernet Cables: My rooms have Jadaol flat Cat-6 cables that range in length from 1-foot to 25-feet, all worked with 2.5 gigabit. My home had professionally-installed Cat-6 in-wall cabling, with some cable lengths up to 40 feet long, all worked with 2.5 gigabit.

Is this worth the price:

If your Internet speed is more than 1 gigabit, then yes! If you transfer files between computers that have SSDs capable of more than 125 megabytes per second, then yes! Otherwise, no. One gigabit is plenty fast for nearly everyone’s needs. If you do buy one, you can keep your existing 1 gig switch for your gigabit devices, and plug your multi-gigabit devices into one of these TP-Link 2.5 giggers.