D-Link DGS-2208 8-Port 10/100/1000 Desktop Switch

10 Review to this product

• 

  Jeff C Southern
  November 16th, 2010 on 12:13 pm

  Rating

  This is a good Gb switch at a reasonable price. It does not seem to generate much heat.

  It seems to work correctly with Jumbo frames up to 9000.

  Not much else to say about it…
• 

  AK Pilot
  November 16th, 2010 on 1:39 pm

  Rating

  Whatever the issues were in the reviews dated in 2006 appear to be completely resolved. I installed this unit in November 2008 and I get full speed between 1Gig ports despite having some 100Meg cards active on a few of the ports. This unit runs cool (just a tiny bit of warmth near the front), and the ports are well-spaced. For an inexpensive 1Gig switch this does the job just fine.
• 

  Chris H.
  November 17th, 2010 on 2:05 pm

  Rating

  When I decided to purchase this product, I wasn’t really considering the power saving features; I was simply searching for an 8-port gigabit switch that would work well with my network.

  All I had to do to get this switch (I keep almost typing ‘router’ but it’s not) up and running was to plug it in and connect ethernet cables. It detected my network configuration and after rebooting computers that had been previously on 100mbit, everything was up and running at gigabit speed.

  Since then, I haven’t touched it. I haven’t had to. It just works.

  Some other comments have raised questions or issues with operating in a mixed network (some computers at fast ethernet and others at gigabit speed). I’m operating a mixed network and haven’t had any issue whatsoever with this switch. It detects the maximum link speed available, configures the connection to that speed, and indicates the link speed with one of two different light colors.

  The only mediocre aspect of this switch is the light panel on the front. The various light colors are similar to one another and in close proximity, it’s hard to tell which lights are which colors and which are even on without standing directly in line with the panel. Still, I haven’t had to even look at it since the initial configuration, so it’s a very small issue.

  Overall, I’m extremely satisfied with this switch. It’s proven itself to be fast, reliable, and intuitive.
• 

  Omar Siddique
  November 17th, 2010 on 3:06 pm

  Rating

  I’m a technology junkie, and run networks professionally, so I’ve had home LANs for years. After several failed desktop gig switches, and reading dozens of user reviews, I picked this model as a combination of reliability and low-price.

  * I dropped this into place where I had a 100Mb NETGEAR FS608 8-Port Fast Ethernet Switch. My throughput on a large file copy went from about 5.7MB/s to 22MB/s, using the same computers, cables, and software, almost a 4x speedup. I suspect my test throughput is now limited by other factors rather than the switch.

  * The case is a little large, but is wall mountable. My biggest complaint is that it’s oriented as a desktop switch (lights on one side, cables on the other), which is awkward when you mount it on the wall (either the lights are hidden or you can’t get to the cables easily).

  * This is a “green” product. It’s max power draw is 6W, vs the 17.5W for a NETGEAR GS108 ProSafe 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Switch. If both products ran at max power usage all year long, this Dlink would use 52.56KWh a year, and the Netgear GS108 would use 153.3kWh a year. The difference would cost me about $[...] a year at the rate I pay here in Maryland. So the “green” product effectively gives you the equivalent of a [...], every year!

  I realize that the switches wouldn’t run full-tilt all-year long, but the idea holds. We’re finally starting to realize all the little things we do add up, environmentally and in cost. Buying hardware designed with that idea in mind helps!

  * It handles both 100Mb and 1000Mb hosts simultaneously without a problem (contrary to some comments otherwise). Mine is a H/W ver. C1

  Other thoughts: In the race to lower prices on consumer-grade gig-e switches, vendors seem to have cut corners. Almost every model of gig switch under $100 is plagued by quality problems and short lifespans (regardless of what the warranty says) according to many reviews.

  For example, the NETGEAR GS108 ProSafe 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Switch is a GREAT design derived from the vendor’s commercial lineup. Its case is sturdy heat-conductive metal, and easy to wall-mount. But mine died after 1.5 years of moderate use. I did better than many other folks who say their’s only lasted 1 year. Annoying, especially considering its premium pricing.

  This DLink SEEMS to be the exception based on reviews: cheaper, good performance, with no user complaints about it dying. So far, so good!

  Update 10/2009: After 17 months of continuous usage, still going strong.
• 

  Todd Poole
  November 20th, 2010 on 3:25 pm

  Rating

  This is one of most econonomical Gigabit Switches on the market today. They are quiet, don’t overheat, and work very well. I use with systems at gigabit where wired for it, 10mps for printers and 100mps for CAT5 wired systems. This is your typical mixed environment. If your having troubles connecting at Gigabit speeds, it’s your fault, not the switches. Your system needs to be setup for Gigabit, you need to cabled CAT6 or at least CAT5E, and your patch panel to your switch needs to support CAT6 as well.

  I bought a second for a spare, it hasn’t been out of it’s box yet.

  My only regret? I wish I could buy this in a 16-port version for under $100.00.
• 

  Tom Carpenter
  November 21st, 2010 on 2:34 am

  Rating

  This is an unmanaged switch, which means that you can not configure Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANS) or Quality of Service (QoS) – though QoS is supported through the implementation of 802.1p, but all the attached devices must support 802.1p in order to use it. Since there is no configuration, all you have to do is plug it into power and plug your devices into it. It really is that simple for any unmanaged switch. It will automatically allow all your devices to talk to each other at the physical layer. Of course, your applications must be configured right to talk to each other, but these unmanaged devices make building the infrastructure a snap.

  In answer to a previously posted review, I tested this device in the following way:

  -Port 1 connected to my desktop computer with a Gigabit network interface card (NIC)
  
  -Port 2 connected to a 10/100 switch which was connected to a gigabit ethernet storage device
  
  -Port 3 connected to a second DGS-2208 switch which was connectedto the exact same model gigabit ethernet storage device
  
  -Port 4 connected to a laptop with a 10/100 NIC

  The point of this setup was to use the identical computer communicating with identical devices through a 10/100 connection and through a gigabit (1000) connection. I transferred a 10 GB file to the ethernet storage device through the gigabit connection first and then I transferred the exact same file through the 10/100 connection. The GB connection was about five times faster.

  Now, this proves that the switch does not automatically throttle back to the slowest “connected” device. However, it does not indicate whether the gigabit connections will slow to the speed of 10/100 connections if those slower connections are actually active.

  To test this, I transferred the same file from the laptop to the slower connected ethernet storage device while also transferring the file from the desktop to the faster connected ethernet stoarage device. The results? The gigabit connected devices still transferred the data at rates faster than possible on a 10/100 connection. This proves that the gigabit speeds are still achieved even when a 10/100 connection is active.

  In the end, due to memory and processor limitations, this device cannot even compare to enterprise-class gigabit switches from Cisco and other providers; however, it is the best performing gigabit switch I’ve ever seen for under $75.

  [...]

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• 

  Hardy52
  November 21st, 2010 on 2:32 pm

  Rating

  I use a collection of Cisco enterprise switches and routers at work. You’re not going to get the same performance using this switch; nor are you going to have all the configuration options that you get with a managed switch, but for a basic, unmanaged GigE switch this is perfect. And there is something refreshing knowing you don’t have to configure the switch and remember how you have configured the VLANs etc.

  Do not listen to the person who said that the switch down-shunted all ports to the slowest possible speed. That’s just plain wet. Just don’t plug a 10/100 NIC into one of the ports and expect the switch to magically turn it into a GigE connection.
• 

  Soukie
  November 21st, 2010 on 3:52 pm

  Rating

  I had to post a review because one of the reviews I read here freaked me out. I found it hard to believe a gigabit switch would fall back to the slowest speed on all ports and wouldn’t auto negotiate per port. I bought one anyway to see what happens…

  Bottom line: It’s a gigabit switch that works as you’d expect. I have several computers with gigabit nics and several non-gigabit devices (router, print server, older computer) all connected at the same time.

  The gigabit enabled computers connect and transfer at gigabit speed. The 10/100 devices connect and transfer at 100 Mbps. No problems at all.

  I believe the reviewers who had problems didn’t have their gigabit nics set to 1000 or don’t own gigabit nics or have wiring problems (gigabit uses all 4 pairs and 10/100 uses only 2 of the 4 pairs on a cable). I even tried to create a problem by setting my gigabit nics to AUTO and they still negotiated 1000 Mbps. The only way I can ding this switch is its light weight. I wish it were heavier as it tends to want to lift (lean back) when you have a bunch of network cables hanging out of it. Wall mounting is an option, however.
• 

  Ken
  November 21st, 2010 on 7:21 pm

  Rating

  I almost did not buy this switch because of the reviews that said it would default to the slowest speed. It does not. I have it connected to my desktop at 1GB, my Buffalo NAS at GB and my wireless router at 100MB all work great. It was easy to setup, just connect and run.
• 

  G. Bartley
  November 21st, 2010 on 8:43 pm

  Rating

  I just received and installed the switch today and have a bunch of 100Mbps switches and hubs attached, so I can’t really vouch much for the transfer rates, but I can say that pulling from two computers on two different switches connected to a gigabit file server on this switch, I did notice a considerable increase in speed.

  However, I did notice one very minor problem when testing the ports on this switch. When you try to use a simple loopback adapter to test the ports (I have ethernet running to many rooms in my house), the switch is too smart and does not show a link light. I think this may have something to do with the green features of the switch. It may work with an electronic network test kit, but just not with a keychain loopback adapter. The easy fix was to just use a laptop instead.

  Like I said, very minor, but it confused me for a minute at first. Hopefully this will help other people when considering purchasing or testing this switch. In the meantime, I’m going to buy some more.