Review: TRENDnet 5-Port Gigabit GREENnet Switch

Jeff's Rating: 5/5

tl;dr: Priced perfectly, works perfectly, and is perfect for a small office or home network.

This will be a somewhat quicker review than I normally post, for the simple fact that there's very little to be said about this switch, other than it works, it's priced well, and it's absolutely perfect for my needs.

TRENDnet Gigabit Switch

In my condo, I've changed around my wired/wireless network a few times since moving in, and from the start, I've had Cat5e cabling (took a while to get that all installed, but it helps so much in (a) keeping wireless network traffic flowing smoothly, and (b) allowing my Macs to transfer files extremely fast—way faster than even my 802.11n AirPort wifi network.

I've been using a cheap D-Link 10/100 switch for a few years, and it started flaking out a little more, so I switched to using a D-Link wired/wireless bridge router, but that was toast after one lightning storm (my fault, actually).

I finally bought this itty-bitty router after a few hours' research, because it was only $24.99, had enough ports for all the rooms in my condo, and was TINY.

A lot of switches I've used, especially from the name brands, have been huge, and not only that, they would get extremely hot to the touch (enough so that I would stand them off from my networking wall box so they wouldn't catch fire to the insulation in the wall!).

This little guy does get a little warm, but it uses less power than any of the switches I've used in the past, it lets traffic flow quickly (transferring 1GB+ files are just as quick over my wired network as over a USB drive), and it's cheap enough that if it does go out due to a storm, I won't feel bad about buying another one.

I've been using this one for about 6 months now, without a hitch. Plugged into it are: a Motorola SurfBoard cable modem, an AirPort Express, my MacBook Pro, and XBox 360, and my wife's MacBook.

Buy the TRENDnet 5-port gigabit switch for $25 on Amazon.com.

Read my review on Amazon.com »