I am thinking about adding a switch to my network. The reason that I say switch instead of hub, is just because from reading, it seems like a switch is more advanced (better security, probably).
I probably just need 1 additional port. So, 1 port in and at least 2 ports out.
I guess firmware updates are less important because the device will have the protection of my router (from devices outside of my network). So, if openwrt stops supporting the hardware, not such a big deal? Also, if I buy a device that is already at end of life, not such a big deal either?
I want the switch to be beginner friendly.
I suppose it couldn't hurt for the device to have wireless capabilities so that I could use it for wireless and keep it on old firmware and not have to worry about moving the settings to a new firmware (like I would have to do with my openwrt router if broadcasting wifi). Then again, there are probably security drawbacks of that, too. Trying to go inexpensive so probably don't want to narrow search to wpa3 only.
Hubs are ancient technology and haven't been widely available for about 20 years now. So you're not buying a hub.
Switches aren't designed to improve security, but they do massively improve performance.
It depends on what you need. If you're dealing with VLANs, you need to buy a managed switch and it will have firmware that you will interact with. In that case, you want the firmware to be up to date (not end of life), and maybe you'll want to run OpenWrt on the device.
If you're not using VLANs and the need is wired only, any standard unmanaged switch will do the trick.
An unmanaged switch requires no configuration and is entirely plug and play.
A managed switch is a bit more advanced.
You need to decide if wifi is part of the requirement. That means you get a different type of device.
And, FWIW, you should never be thinking of such a device as 'keep it on old firmware" -- even for devices inside your network, it's still important to be up to date.
First, figure out your actual need.
Wired only?
Wired + wifi?
VLAN aware or a "flat" network?
Any all-in-one wifi router that can run OpenWrt can be used as a wifi AP and a switch. They can also be VLAN aware to support multiple network (i.e. a trusted lan + iot/guest networks, etc.).
If you're asking for a wired only solution and don't need VLANs, just pick up any $10USD 5-port unmanaged ethernet switch. If you need wifi and/or VLAN capabilities, that is a slightly different conversation.