didn't try the official Firefox mobile browser, but the page is displayed and usable just fine in the Firefox-based Iceraven browser that I use on my android tablet.
Managed switches have become much cheaper since that article came out -- you can get a Netgear 8 port managed switch for $25 versus $18 for the unmanaged version.
It's a little harder to compare TP-Link switches (which is the brand used in the linked article), since their $53 managed switch also has 4 ports of PoE, while their $18 unmanaged switch doesn't have PoE.
I have always been resolute in avoiding managed switches for home use. I figure I don't need the headaches of worrying about configuring another device in my free time when I can pay less to have simple boxes that just send packets around without complaint.
I even managed to find an unmanaged 16-port 2.5GbE PoE switch so now I have 2.5Gbps and PoE at every wall jack in my house. (PoE is amazing. Get PoE if you're upgrading anything.) It's a no-name Chinese brand, but who cares? It's not like anything in this house is even trying to saturate 1GbE, much less 2.5GbE. So QoS or whatever on an internal network doesn't seem particularly useful.
I guess I could try to segregate the Internet of Shit devices I have (they're already on their own WiFi SSID which is most of the battle) but I mostly fight that fight by owning as few IoS things as I can.
What am I missing? Why bother with managed switches at home?
I use separate LAN segments because the "S" in "IOT" is for "security". I have a bunch of cheap, closed-source IP cameras with poor software quality. [1] Irrigation controller, landscape lighting, printer, scanner, TV, AV receiver, Roku, Sonos, dishwasher [2], key light for video chats, etc. I don't trust any of these things to be secure. Most of them aren't allowed to access the Internet. Even the ones that need to (Roku/Sonos) aren't allowed to initiate connections to my "trusted" segment that has my laptop and such.
I implement the separate LAN segments with VLANs for practical reasons. I have a few different places (closets/desks) that might terminate devices on different segments because that's how my home is. [3] Having separate switches for each segment in each place with sufficient capacity for potential future needs, and separate uplinks between them, and multiple ports on my router, and separate wifi access points isn't gonna happen. Instead I have end devices on untagged ports with correct VLAN set and trunked ports with 802.1Q tagging for uplinks, APs, and router.
[2] I avoided the recent Bosch ones that can only do a rinse cycle through wifi. I think the Miel I bought instead also can be put on wifi, though I haven't felt the need so far.
[3] Old. Without a dedicated space for networking—most of the drops are in the top of my coat closet. Difficult to wire, particularly the largest room that was converted from a garage, is on a slab, and has the old foundation perimeter between it and the rest of the house's crawl space.
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[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 35.8 ms ] threadIt's a little harder to compare TP-Link switches (which is the brand used in the linked article), since their $53 managed switch also has 4 ports of PoE, while their $18 unmanaged switch doesn't have PoE.
I even managed to find an unmanaged 16-port 2.5GbE PoE switch so now I have 2.5Gbps and PoE at every wall jack in my house. (PoE is amazing. Get PoE if you're upgrading anything.) It's a no-name Chinese brand, but who cares? It's not like anything in this house is even trying to saturate 1GbE, much less 2.5GbE. So QoS or whatever on an internal network doesn't seem particularly useful.
I guess I could try to segregate the Internet of Shit devices I have (they're already on their own WiFi SSID which is most of the battle) but I mostly fight that fight by owning as few IoS things as I can.
What am I missing? Why bother with managed switches at home?
I implement the separate LAN segments with VLANs for practical reasons. I have a few different places (closets/desks) that might terminate devices on different segments because that's how my home is. [3] Having separate switches for each segment in each place with sufficient capacity for potential future needs, and separate uplinks between them, and multiple ports on my router, and separate wifi access points isn't gonna happen. Instead I have end devices on untagged ports with correct VLAN set and trunked ports with 802.1Q tagging for uplinks, APs, and router.
[1] coincidentally talked about this recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44792209
[2] I avoided the recent Bosch ones that can only do a rinse cycle through wifi. I think the Miel I bought instead also can be put on wifi, though I haven't felt the need so far.
[3] Old. Without a dedicated space for networking—most of the drops are in the top of my coat closet. Difficult to wire, particularly the largest room that was converted from a garage, is on a slab, and has the old foundation perimeter between it and the rest of the house's crawl space.
The reasonably cheap managed switches often expose the management interface on all ports, even all VLANs (with no way turn it off).
It’s frustrating that this is just a software limitation - the hardware is damn capable of much more.
Hell, I’d love to have a switch where the management interface was an I2C port that I could plug into just for reprogramming.
Really just want dumb VLANs, no fancy RSTP or such.
https://www.openwrt.org
Many common off-the-shelf routers can run openwrt, and it is very nice to not only own your router, but your network as well.
People who do the sort of hacking like the author of this article get newer unsupported routers up and running on openwrt and share the results.