TP-Link TL-SG108E or Zyxel GS1200-8 or NETGEAR GS308E or UniFi USW Flex Mini

Which Switch should I buy to use on a Raspberry Pi 4 (Kit) with a USB to Ethernet (TL-UE300)

Switches: (I don't need POE)

Thanks.

I doubt it really makes a difference, they'll both do the job. I have a TL-SG108E which works fine, but I'm sure the GS308E would work just as well.

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I don't know the Netgear GS308E, but I had the TP-Link TL-SG108E a few weeks for testing.

I recommend against the TP-Link, because it looses its configuration after power off and power on.

After that experience I ordered a Zyxel GS1200, there is a 5-port and a 8-port version. With the Zyxel device I'm now a happy camper.

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It doesn't, otherwise I'd have had to reconfigure mine several times. Which I haven't.

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I do not question your statement, but my two devices (TL-SG108E and TL-SG105E) did loose their configuration after a power off. Perhaps I had two faulty devices. I sent them back to Amazon and got a refund.

If you look at the Amazon customer reviews, there are a lot of complaints about this switch. If you're satisfied with your TP-Link switches, then it's okay.

We're here to exchange our personal experiences, the OP will make his own judgement upon the contributes made here.

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Old versions of the firmware required you to save to write to the startup-config. Since this concept was foreign to novices, i.e. separate running-config and startup-config, the latest firmware now does a save whenever you make a change. The downside to that is that if you make a mistake that locks you out, you can no longer recover by cycling power. Now you have to reset, then reload your backup.

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The TP-Link switches came with the latest firmware (Dec. 2019, V4 as far as I can remember) and I always saved the config changes.

After a reboot everything was okay, but after power down/up the switches had factory setting.

I have the TP Link TL-SG108E v4 and mine doesn't lose config, and I like the fact it has link aggregation for my NAS server too... For £29 it's been alright.

I'm using mine with a Rpi4 too :slight_smile:

just some info to add here after getting the gs308e...

in short avoid it... unless you only want basic internal isolation and or / rate control...

too insecure for wan usage...

The TP-Link and Netgear have the major security flaw that the management interface listens on all VLANs. The Zyxel can be configured to listen on one VLAN. Zyxel does not offer a PoE version though.

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As mentioned in the other thread: Go up a step to e.g the ZyXEL GS1900-8HP. Then you can run OpenWrt on it.