Digital Impulses

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Home Office LAN expnaded

Linksys SD2008 Business Series 8-Port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch: A Review

This afternoon after work I stopped by Best Buy to pick up a network switch to add a few more ports to my local area network here at the house.

I ended up going with a Linksys (Cisco) SD2008 Business Series 8-Port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch that I paid  $99.99 for.  Add to that $19.99 for a 7-foot CAT6 Ethernet cable and the grand total was $129.88 after tax.

Installation and setup could not have been simpler:

1. Unpack it.
2. Register the switch at the Linksys website (http://www.linksys.com/registration)
3. Plug the switch's power cord into an open power receptacle.
4. Unplug one of the existing Ethernet cables from my Linksys N Router and into the new switch.
5. Run the new Cat6 Ethernet cable from the switch to the  empty port on the N Router.

That's it.  No rebooting. No resetting. Nothing.  It just worked.  I walked over to my Windows Home Server and it had already acquired an IP address via the new switch.  I was so surprised that I did an 'ipconfig /release' and 'renew' and sure enough, it dropped and re-acquired an IP address instantly.

It's rare when things work this seamlessly, but occasionally they do, and when that happens, it's really, really nice.  I love it when the stars line up and there is basically zero effort required to make something work.

So, for now, the Linksys SD2008 Business Series 8-Port 10/100/1000 Gigabit switch works well and is drop-dea simple to install, setup and configure.  Recommended.