Mokerlink Review Of 2.5G L2 Managed Switch

When upgrading your home or small business network you will quickly discover that 2.5G switches are not cheap.   Today I do a Mokerlink Review of their 8 port, managed 2.5G switch.

I ordered the switch from Amazon at a cost of $175.  While that might be inexpensive for a 2.5G switch it isn’t inexpensive for a network switch.  It will definitely make you question whether upgrading your network to 2.5G is worth it.   I understand that a 2.5G switch is going to be more expensive than a 1G switch but there is a huge chasm in pricing between the two.

First Impression

The first thing I noticed wasn’t about the actual switch.  As soon as I buy something I head to the internet to download the manuals for it.  When I went to the Mokerlink website their https certificate was expired and my browser was telling me it might not be safe.   The next day I tried and the website was down.  This morning, I finally was able to get to their website and download the manuals.

So my first impression is not a good one.  Someone is not minding the store at Mokerlink and keeping track of their web host.   Heck, at John’s Tech blog and my other web site I get a ton of emails from my host months in advance of an expiration of a domain name or a certificate.

Mokerlink Switch Review Key Points

Hardware wise it looks good, feels solid and after connecting it everything worked as it should.  The management console can only be accessed by setting a computer up with a 192.168.2.x  range address and accessing the switch at 192.168.2.1 after physically connecting it.

Physical access helps with security but some switches such as a Mikrotik switch I own has a web management console that can be reached over the local network.  There are strengths and weaknesses in both approaches.  For a home network, physical access is fine for me and probably best.

NOTE:  I should add that you can change the IP4 address of the switch and access it on your local network.  I choose NOT to do this.  If I need physical access……so would someone else.

After navigating to 192.168.2.1 in your browser the credentials are:

User=admin

password=admin

Lastly, the switch is fanless so there is no noise.  It doesn’t seem to get too hot under use either.

Mokerlink Management Console

There are a variety of ways to login to the management console but you should always disable the ones you will never use.   Also, the main page simply shows what the status is and the choices are enabled/disabled under the “Management” settings.  Mine came with Telnet and SSH disabled which I think is good.

The fact that this is a managed switch is a huge plus.  I don’t like buying unmanaged switches because I never know which way my network is going to go and I reserve the right to change the whole layout whenever I want.   I do like VLAN’s but my network is laid out like this:

• IoT and other sketchy crap are on a subdomain 192.168.50. x. (50 is a made up number)
• Personal computers, servers, and NAS are on a VLAN with a different 3rd octet.
• My firewall LAN port carries the VLAN and the very 1st switch has a couple tagged VLAN ports.
• One of those wires runs upstairs to the wall jack this switch is plugged into.  Everything connected to this switch will pull an address from the VLAN range.

Translation:  I don’t need to set any of these ports up as VLAN.   But I CAN in the future if I add another VLAN.  And a managed switch is the only way to get there. 

Speaking of VLAN

It is all there.  Every switch I’ve ever had handles VLAN management differently.  Also, every switch I’ve ever had took me a few minutes to figure out how to configure VLAN.  This looks no differently.  But suffice to say, it is all there.  I love managed switches.

Speed Indicator

Yellow light on the left means 2.5G connection.  Green means 1G on the left.

What I Don’t Like About It

The power brick.  This may sound nit picky but the brick orientation makes the brick sit sideways and not up and down in my rack mounted power supply.  That means it would cover other outlets.  All my other network items in the rack orient in an up and down manner allowing for side by side brick installation.

Mokerlink Review Wrap Up

As a Layer 2 (L2) Managed 2.5G switch, this is certainly one of the least expensive 8 port switches out there.  The Netgear MS108EUP (which I also own and like) is $299 by comparison.  And $249 on sale sometimes.

2.5G switches are still too expensive.  Provided this switch doesn’t fail on me I feel good about adding it in my Network.  Seems like all the typical management options are in there and I don’t see it missing anything critical for an L2 switch.  It would be nice though if it were a Layer 3 switch at this cost though.  That being said, my Netgear switch is also a Layer 2 switch.

2.5G switch pickings are slim.  This is a decent choice for an 8 port managed switch.