News 2.5 GbE Networking Gets Affordable, $109 Qnap Five-Port Switch Now Available

[Admin]

After a long wait, the first consumer-class 2.5GbE ethernet switch has now arrived - and it's only $109 with free shipping for Prime members.

2.5 GbE Networking Gets Affordable, $109 Qnap Five-Port Switch Now Available : Read more

 

[SteveRX4]

Sounds good

 

[nofanneeded]

does it need to replace all the wires at home or not ? my netwrok cables in the walls are cat5e

 

[TheJoker2020]

I have one.

I got it a week ago. I needed 4-ports at 2.5G with the 5th port to connect to the 1G network. It works great.

I have not had the time to thoroughly test it, indeed I have only tested it between 2 of my 4 machines connected at 2.5G, and it hits full speed and stays there solid (albeit not for long (drives/arrays being my issue). 🆒

As for cables (nofanneeded asked), I was previously using direct-connect between 2 individual PC's (no switch) so I pre-bought CAT.7 and CAT.8 cables which work perfectly.

The only issues I have had is that

(1.) RealTek (LAN controller chip manufacturer) no longer allows you to simply download a driver (like they have for a very long time), jump through hoops or download elsewhere (be careful).!

(2.) You need to manually change a couple of settings on the NIC (within W10 at least), Network Connections > Properties > Configure > Advanced > Jumbo Frame [Set this to 9KB MTU]. Also in the "Advanced" section you may need to set "Speed and duplex" to "2.5Gbps Full Duplex" (shouldn't be needed, but if the detected speed drops to 1G and you know that the cables are good you may need this).

(3.) In W10 (at least) you may need to change the "priority" of NIC usage, this article shows how >
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-priority-order-network-adapters-windows-10

This IS fanless, this was one of my criteria and why I rejected everything before it. it has 2 sides closed and 2 sides well ventilated, you can see the large aluminium finned heatsink inside. As for heat, I can not comment as I have only tested between 2-machines simultaneously and it is sat horizontally in free air on top of a 1G switch and this is not where it will stay.

I would so far give this a score of 9/10 with it losing a point for minor things, such as all of the "blinkenlights" being on the same side as the ports so depending on placement you may never see them (do you care).! It has wall a mounting option (slot-screws on the back) so if you wall mount, the lights and cables will be upward.

This is a much needed product in the marketplace, and IMHO the beginning of the 2.5G era as a reality.

 

[SteveRX4]

No.
This is only the switch remember. And that's what it's capable of.
If you aren't dealing with that sort of fast internet then it's not an issue.

 

[torbjorn.lindgren]

does it need to replace all the wires at home or not ? my netwrok cables in the walls are cat5e

If the installation as a whole (not just the cables) meets CAT-5e requirements the 2.5GBASE-T standard guarantees that it will work at up to 100M just as the 1000BASE-T standard guarantees it will work up to 100m.

Having CAT-5e cables doesn't guarantee that all the other required parts are OK (like cable lengths, max untwisted length inside the connector, connector quality and so on) but in practice 2.5G will works with almost all cables that works with gigabit, that was part of the design goal but because it does push more data it can be slightly more sensitive to subtle errors.

Heck, even the faster 5GBASE-T will work fine on "many" CAT-5E installation as long as the cable runs aren't close to the maximum 100m, even if it requires CAT-6 (cables/connectors/...) to be guaranteed to work (but then it's guaranteed up to 100m).

 

[eye4bear]

After a long wait, the first consumer-class 2.5GbE ethernet switch has now arrived - and it's only $109 with free shipping for Prime members.

2.5 GbE Networking Gets Affordable, $109 Qnap Five-Port Switch Now Available : Read more

I have several 1 GB switches, none of which cost me more than $25. I can understand that the move from 1 to 2.5gb might cause a slight additional cost, but why 4 times the price? I could see these being $49.95. Your article presents that the $109 price is great, why?

 

[gggplaya]

I have several 1 GB switches, none of which cost me more than $25. I can understand that the move from 1 to 2.5gb might cause a slight additional cost, but why 4 times the price? I could see these being $49.95. Your article presents that the $109 price is great, why?

Once 2.5gbe becomes standard, the price will go down. It's not quite standard yet, but it's finally trickling down into the $100-$200 equipment space, like routers and motherboards. My alienware laptop has it.

Really nice upgrade if you have a NAS. The 250MB/s-300MB/s is the sweet spot for a consumer/small business NAS with standard hard drives since regular hard drives will be just quick enough with a large enough array to meet those speeds.

 

[gggplaya]

does it need to replace all the wires at home or not ? my netwrok cables in the walls are cat5e

Was plug and play at my house. Dropped in a network switch in place of my gigabit switch and bought 2 network cards for each desktop. Looks like you could do it now for under $200 with the 2.5gbe switch and 2 network cards. They also have USB to 2.5gbe adapters now too, for laptops.

 

[Soaptrail]

I have one.

I got it a week ago. I needed 4-ports at 2.5G with the 5th port to connect to the 1G network. It works great.

I have not had the time to thoroughly test it, indeed I have only tested it between 2 of my 4 machines connected at 2.5G, and it hits full speed and stays there solid (albeit not for long (drives/arrays being my issue). 🆒

As for cables (nofanneeded asked), I was previously using direct-connect between 2 individual PC's (no switch) so I pre-bought CAT.7 and CAT.8 cables which work perfectly.

The only issues I have had is that

(1.) RealTek (LAN controller chip manufacturer) no longer allows you to simply download a driver (like they have for a very long time), jump through hoops or download elsewhere (be careful).!

(2.) You need to manually change a couple of settings on the NIC (within W10 at least), Network Connections > Properties > Configure > Advanced > Jumbo Frame [Set this to 9KB MTU]. Also in the "Advanced" section you may need to set "Speed and duplex" to "2.5Gbps Full Duplex" (shouldn't be needed, but if the detected speed drops to 1G and you know that the cables are good you may need this).

(3.) In W10 (at least) you may need to change the "priority" of NIC usage, this article shows how >
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-priority-order-network-adapters-windows-10

This IS fanless, this was one of my criteria and why I rejected everything before it. it has 2 sides closed and 2 sides well ventilated, you can see the large aluminium finned heatsink inside. As for heat, I can not comment as I have only tested between 2-machines simultaneously and it is sat horizontally in free air on top of a 1G switch and this is not where it will stay.

I would so far give this a score of 9/10 with it losing a point for minor things, such as all of the "blinkenlights" being on the same side as the ports so depending on placement you may never see them (do you care).! It has wall a mounting option (slot-screws on the back) so if you wall mount, the lights and cables will be upward.

This is a much needed product in the marketplace, and IMHO the beginning of the 2.5G era as a reality.

Did you get drivers from your mobo maker?

 

[jeremyj_83]

If the installation as a whole (not just the cables) meets CAT-5e requirements the 2.5GBASE-T standard guarantees that it will work at up to 100M just as the 1000BASE-T standard guarantees it will work up to 100m.

Having CAT-5e cables doesn't guarantee that all the other required parts are OK (like cable lengths, max untwisted length inside the connector, connector quality and so on) but in practice 2.5G will works with almost all cables that works with gigabit, that was part of the design goal but because it does push more data it can be slightly more sensitive to subtle errors.

Heck, even the faster 5GBASE-T will work fine on "many" CAT-5E installation as long as the cable runs aren't close to the maximum 100m, even if it requires CAT-6 (cables/connectors/...) to be guaranteed to work (but then it's guaranteed up to 100m).

Both 2.5GBase-T and 5GBase-T allow for Cat-5e cables according to the IEEE Standard 802.3bz. For 10GBase-T you need Cat-6a officially. However, if your run is less than 33M it will work on Cat-5e and less than 50M for Cat-6.

 

[TheJoker2020]

I have several 1 GB switches, none of which cost me more than $25. I can understand that the move from 1 to 2.5gb might cause a slight additional cost, but why 4 times the price? I could see these being $49.95. Your article presents that the $109 price is great, why?

How wonderful it must have been to have not needed 1G networking early on...

My first 1G Switch was something like £15-£20 per port, but of course the performance jump was stunning at up to 100MB/s (realistic figure), and most HDD's would not even do that speed, so the HDD became the bottleneck (that soon changed).

Give it 12-18 months and this product or others like it will be literally half this price.! Also the 2.5G PCIe NIC's that you can now buy for ~£18 will be around the £10-£12 price, and as 2.5G continues to be integrated into motherboards this will push 2.5G into the mainstream, give it 3-4 years an I expect all motherboards that cost £90+ to include 2.5G

10G is IMHO the next real step and I expect that 5G will never take off, an it has still not taken off for switches and I doubt anyone will bother to ever make a full-5G switch at all.

10G is one of the reasons why I got Cat7E cabling now.

 

[TheJoker2020]

Did you get drivers from your mobo maker?

2.5G PCIe add in cards - Chinese stuff so zero support.!

I have 4x cards for 4x machines, 2 of them are the ones linked below, the chip gets pretty toasty so I recommend the ones with heatsinks (I have 2 without). They were just under £18 when I bought them.

I will get around to download an up to date driver when I sort out the other machines (at the weekend).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B086HJXQLG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[TheJoker2020]

Did you get drivers from your mobo maker?

Just updated the 2018 driver I was running, version 10.81

Now running 10.82 also a 2018 driver.!

I actually downloaded it for a latest generation Asus motherboard, all good 👍

 

[Soaptrail]

Just updated the 2018 driver I was running, version 10.81

Now running 10.82 also a 2018 driver.!

I actually downloaded it for a latest generation Asus motherboard, all good 👍

I really like Asus boards but sometimes their support is flaky. For instance they give you the AI Suite software but never update it for old boards. Every time Windows updates break it, at least twice, i have to find a newer mobo or forum with a link since Asus cannot be bothered providing an update to old mobo makers even after a year.

 

[Soaptrail]

How wonderful it must have been to have not needed 1G networking early on...

My first 1G Switch was something like £15-£20 per port, but of course the performance jump was stunning at up to 100MB/s (realistic figure), and most HDD's would not even do that speed, so the HDD became the bottleneck (that soon changed).

Give it 12-18 months and this product or others like it will be literally half this price.! Also the 2.5G PCIe NIC's that you can now buy for ~£18 will be around the £10-£12 price, and as 2.5G continues to be integrated into motherboards this will push 2.5G into the mainstream, give it 3-4 years an I expect all motherboards that cost £90+ to include 2.5G

10G is IMHO the next real step and I expect that 5G will never take off, an it has still not taken off for switches and I doubt anyone will bother to ever make a full-5G switch at all.

10G is one of the reasons why I got Cat7E cabling now.

I put Cat 6 in my house when i built over Cat 5e. You would think instead of doing 7e they would just call it Cat 8. I cannot believe in today how many builders still use Cat 5e over Cat 6.

 

[jeremyj_83]

I put Cat 6 in my house when i built over Cat 5e. You would think instead of doing 7e they would just call it Cat 8. I cannot believe in today how many builders still use Cat 5e over Cat 6.

There really isn't any difference in what Cat5e and Cat6 can do for networking.

 

[USAFRet]

I put Cat 6 in my house when i built over Cat 5e. You would think instead of doing 7e they would just call it Cat 8. I cannot believe in today how many builders still use Cat 5e over Cat 6.

There already is a "Cat8".

 

[Soaptrail]

There really isn't any difference in what Cat5e and Cat6 can do for networking.

Cat5e has a spacer seperating the twisted pairs and Cat6 does not, seems like Cat6 would be cheaper to produce.

 

[jeremyj_83]

Cat5e has a spacer seperating the twisted pairs and Cat6 does not, seems like Cat6 would be cheaper to produce.

I have Cat6 with a rubber support that runs the length of the cable. The biggest differences between Cat5e and Cat6 is Cat 6 has to meet more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise than Cat 5 and Cat 5e. The cable standard specifies performance of up to 250 MHz, compared to 100 MHz for Cat 5 and Cat 5e. However, neither Cat5e or Cat6 meet official specifications for 10GBase-T which require the cable to handle the signal to 100 meters. Cat6 is only able to do 55 meters of 10G whereas Cat5e can only do 33 meters of 10G.

 

[Hrunga Zmuda]

I was looking for it and couldn't find it until I checked Newegg. $97! I hear there is going to be a managed version of this, but decided I didn't need it because my Synology NAS can do link aggregation, so I can just hook this to my Asus router's 2.5 GbE port and have a really fast connection to my Nas. Since my wireless network is faster than 2.5 GB, that should make it easy to edit images from my laptop.

BTW I future-proofed my network with Cat 8 cables.

 

[Soaptrail]

I was looking for it and couldn't find it until I checked Newegg. $97! I hear there is going to be a managed version of this, but decided I didn't need it because my Synology NAS can do link aggregation, so I can just hook this to my Asus router's 2.5 GbE port and have a really fast connection to my Nas. Since my wireless network is faster than 2.5 GB, that should make it easy to edit images from my laptop.

BTW I future-proofed my network with Cat 8 cables.

I thought i was future proof with Cat 6 back in 2012!

 

[USAFRet]

I thought i was future proof with Cat 6 back in 2012!

'future proofing' is not Cat 6 vs Cat 8.
It is running whatever you install through conduit, so that you can pull new cables easily, 10 years from now.

 

[Hrunga Zmuda]

I thought i was future proof with Cat 6 back in 2012!

That's why I've been buying CAT 8. Some day we'll have $100 10 GB switches. Shoot, my Wifi 6 router can do that wirelessly. (Theoretically of course.)