Let me get this out of the way up front. Unless you are a home user trying to build the best WiFi system using Power over Ethernet, or your a home user setting up the the best security system where your cameras require Power over Ethernet, and on top of those use cases you also need fibre connectivity, then this switch is likely overkill for you. Now if you need a switch to fit any of those use cases, or a use case that I haven’t thought of, then the EnGenius ECS2512FP 8-Port Multi-Gigabit L2+ Managed PoE++ Switch with 4 SFP+ Slots may be the switch that you’re looking for. Let’s walk through the features of this switch:

You get a management port if you want to connect to the switch via SSH. But you can also connect to the switch via a web browser, or using EnGenius Cloud. I would recommend giving the latter a try as I’ve found that it is a great and easy way to manage everything related to EnGenius devices. Not to mention that it makes the setup process trivially easy. Having said that, it’s nice that EnGenius gives you other options to manage the switch as options are good. There’s also status lights as well as a button to alter the behaviour of those lights and another button to reset the switch.

This particular switch has 8 ports capable of up to 2.5 Gbps each. They are highly configurable as well. For example, you can turn off PoE on any individual port, or you can bond two or more ports together to get better performance. From a PoE perspective, you get 240W across all eight ports.

If you want to cascade a bunch of these switches together for example, you have for SFP+ fibre connections with up to 10 Gbps of bandwidth.
I didn’t take a picture of the back of the switch as there’s not much to see there except two fan outlets and the power connector. But the fans are what I want to talk about for a second. They’re audible. Which might be in an issue in a home or a small office. But a complete non-factor in a server room or a data centre which is likely where this switch belongs. Thus if you decide to use this switch in a home or small office, you may want to take that into consideration.
To test this, I used some EnGenius PoE gear to see if 240 watts is enough to host a few access points over PoE. Specifically I used this and this access point in my test. The bottom line is that the switch didn’t break a sweat. The graph on the switch showed a total of 25W with these two access points. So you would likely run out of ports before you run out of power.
The price depending on your perspective is the only con that I have. It’s $1200 CDN which is high if you’re not used to paying four digit numbers for high quality network switches. Or it’s a bargain if you’re used to buying networking gear from the big vendors out there. But what I would say is this, if you want a high quality switch for PoE devices that comes with lots of headroom, the ECS2512FP 8-Port Multi-Gigabit L2+ Managed PoE++ Switch with 4 SFP+ Slots is absolutely worth looking at.
EnGenius Plans To Deliver More Simplicity And Security To Business Networks With Its First-Ever Cloud Security Gateway
Posted in Commentary with tags EnGenius on June 7, 2022 by itnerdEnGenius, a leading global manufacturer of networking and voice communications for more than 20 years, will soon release its first brand new security gateway—that crucial first line of defense—bringing faster speed, enhanced security, and greater cloud management any place at any time, all without the complex setup process that plagues other vendor systems.
EnGenius will round out its cloud solution with the new gateway, giving customers the ability to set up quickly and manage their entire network from absolutely anywhere using a central cloud interface or mobile app. The end-to-end solution will also offer core functionalities through a cloud-based network security system that allows customers greater visibility across its line of access points, gigabit PoE switches, and soon a fully operative security gateway.
The EnGenius cloud-managed security gateway, combined with an already powerful cloud management solution, will allow IT professionals to do so much more:
It will have plenty of horsepower to handle heavy throughput requirements and will be insanely easy to set up.
Set up. Scan. Plug in. Done.
More details will be revealed later this year.
Leave a comment »