Recently I was looking for a gigabit switch to expand my home network. I only had limited space in my junction box which had all Ethernet cables routed into and could only fit single device in it.
Fiber goes from junction box to another room where I keep my router (hAP ac^2), AP (TP-Link AX1500) and switch provided by ISP. Main trunk cable comes back to junction box where it connects as an uplink for the main switch. Then all other rooms get their Ethernet from main switch. Because of constraint space this topology is only possible solution for my home network and it is very common in all modern blocks of flats, at least in Poland.
Finally I ended up buying TP-Link TL-SG108E. This was only solution that fits the space, has 8 GbE ports and supports 802.1q. It has it downsides though. It lacks any open protocol for remote configuration/monitoring, only custom solution I found is this psmode/essstat and it simply scrapes the html of web GUI. Also it has plenty security issues like lack of HTTPS and authorization session checks only IP address of the client.
The only issue is it runs an odd version, v7.0, right now but that’s purportedly stable for these devices. With hardware offloading, you’d have switch-like performance, but option to be a router.
Because he is looking for a switch: If there are some extra centimeters left he could use the CRS112, there is also a POE version available: https://mikrotik.com/product/crs112_8p_4s_in
Just saying when I look at the photo and read the subject line (and put a Mikrotik hat on)… this screams like a use case for the RB5009. May not work here, but a ruler would know… See the RB5009 is 22cm thick, so it might be able to mount behind (or in front) of the white square unit in upper left of the photo. But yeah at 220mm wide, that may not be just a “drop in” replacement.
The question is does someone care if a device is labels as a “switch” or “router”? Since “Bridging” specs of the RB5009 is pretty close to the “Switching” specs of the CRS112, does it even matter? See RB5009 tests between 3Gb/s to 9+Gb/s, depending on packet size – maybe not even that much available bandwidth upstream. If PoE was needed, this IDF seems to have power, so a DC y-spliter and PoE injector(s) might work. Plus, having a common OS between the router and IDF “switch” is a plus in my book for maintenance/support/updates/etc. And, if one got creative, VRRP could be used to make the RB5009 in the flat’s IDF a backup router if the upstream router rebooted/updated/broke.
If I take the Mikrotik hat off and “switch that fit” was all that’s needed today, a Netonix WS-6-MINI could work if the requirements could be reduced to 6 ports: https://netonix.com/wisp-switch/ws-6-mini.html
RB5009 is an absolute beast and it costs $219, total overkill for every home and most small to medium offices. Currently I use only tiny fraction of my hAP ac^2’s capabilities and its priced at $69.
What I’d love to see is something like RB260GS, but without SFP cage, with 8 Ethernet ports instead of 5 and PoE in. RB260GS’s suggested price is $39.95, I’d expect not much more.
I’ll stay with my setup for now, I can live with downsides of my current switch. I’m just throwing the idea to let MikroTik people know that there is demand for such device.
