 | 16 Ports of Affordable Gigabit Excellence!
rating: 5
After trying a couple of Linksys Gigabit switches (both of which died in less than a year), with very poor results, I decided that it was worth spending a little more for something more reliable. I have been working in the I.T. field for over 20 years, and have found that many businesses seem to favor 3Com, when it comes to smaller, unmanaged network switches and hubs. I needed about 12 ports running gigabit speeds, so I decided to give the 3Com OfficeConnect 16-port Gigabit Switch a chance. Although it wasn't nearly as cheap as the Linksys switches, I had high hopes that this switch would perform better and last much longer than the cheaper switches.
One of the first things that impressed me, upon powering this switch up for the first time, was the lack of a noisy cooling fan running all of the time. The Linksys switches had a fan that would run at all times. This 3Com OfficeConnect switch runs silent until its built-in thermostat demands more cooling, at which time a whisper quiet fan comes on and runs for a few minutes. The fan then shuts off as soon as the temperature falls back into a safer range. The fan runs longer when I am transferring large amounts of data across my home network, but otherwise the switch remains silent most of the time. Another fantastic feature is the QoS (Quality of Service), 802.1p traffic prioritization (priority queuing), which allows you to maintain a rock solid VoIP connection even when initiating large file transfers at gigabit speeds. All 16 ports are autosensing, and I have not had to reset this switch during the entire 10 months that I have owned it. The autosensing feature means that you can plug in 10Mbps, 100Mbps, or even 1000Mbps devices, running at either half or full duplex. I'm telling you, this switch is perfect in just about every way! Honestly, my only complaint about this switch is the color. I mean come on; why the white/beige color? I would prefer black or a nice black and silver would be nice. Still, antiquated color aside, this 3Com OfficeConnect Gigabit switch is the perfect solution for any home or small office network! It is an unmanaged switch, so you will not be able to setup different VLANs or other specific port assignments, but for a home or home office this is not usually necessary anyway.
Here is a list of a basic technical specifications of the 3Com OfficeConnect 16-port Gigabit Switch (model #3C1671600):
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Width: 228.0 mm (9.0 in)
Height: 54.6 mm (2.1 in)
Depth: 185.4 mm (7.3 in)
Weight: 1.5 Kg (3.3 lb)
- All ports are auto MDI/MDIX, autonegotiating RJ-45
- 16 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX/1000BASE-T
- Power Consumption = 22.5VA
- LED Indicators: Port speed/activity and operation mode
- Ethernet switching features: Store-and-forward; full-/half-duplex auto-negotiation; 802.1p traffic prioritization (priority queuing)
PACKAGE CONTENTS:
Switch, power adapter, self-adhesive rubber pads, stacking clip, installation guide, Support and Safety information sheet, warranty flyer.
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I just can't say enough about this wonderful 3Com Gigabit switch. It is the perfect solution for anyone that needs high speed network switching for intensive data sharing. I hightly recommend this switch to anyone that is looking for ultra-fast performance, professional build quality, and for those who are willing to spend a little more to obtain these factors. This switch is a perfect 5-star product. I just wish it were available in a color other than the off-white/beige. =oP
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