Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This review covers the 24 port JGS524Ev3 model. As a.basic Ethernet switch it does what you'd expect. Plug it in, connect network devices, and go. No problems. There are a few things to be aware of/ 1. This switch runs some management software and has a default password. If you know that password, you can change switch configuration from any device connected to any port. There's even a handy utility to help you find these switches on a network. Moral of story: change the password if you don't want folks messing with your switch. 2 the web management interface is accessible from any port on the switch, regardless of VLAN configuration. If this switch is connected to an open internet connection, you run the risk of having people on the internet manage your switch. There's no settings to limit IP address ranges for management or to restrict management access by port or VLAN. 3. The web management function cannot be turned off, and it appears to only work using non-secure HTTP. This functionality can't be turned off, so pick a really, really good password, and make sure no one can see your management traffic. 4. It's called an unmanaged switch since it doesn't offer SNMP support; you can still configure Link Aggregation, VLANs, some traffic shaping etc through the web interface. No L3 switching of any kind; VLAN support is kinda odd to configure but it does work. You can't see MAC maps or any spanning tree information. 5. Configuring VLANs was confusing; there are different modes and the ineffable is not obvious. I finally ended up using the 892.1Q Advanced mode; that was the only way I could find to get both "I tagged" ports with default VLAN assignments (so I can stick any piece of gear on and it's intagged reaffirmed ends up in the VLAN I want it in) and tagged ports (so I can trunk between switches and use servers which can tag traffic). The configuration spans about three screens and is confusing, but it does work, offers access to 4096 VLAN IDs, and interior rates with other gear flawlessly. 6. Link Aggreation works, but it's not easy to configure. Be aware that you're limited to 8 aggregation groups, so it's not possible to aggregate 12 dual-link connections on this model. 7. Check your firmware. Mine did not have the latest version out of the box. Upgrades through the web interface were fairly straightforward. With 2 four port link group and 4 link groups of 2 ports, several VLANs and using jumbo frames, the throughout is quite impressive for a switch this inexpensive. I could push north of 3Gb/s on the four port link groups while pushing over 1.5Gb/s on the dual link groups at the same time, which is as much traffic as I could reasonably generate. Impressive for under two hundred bucks.