Review: Linksys WRT 8-Port Gigabit Switch (SE4008-FFP)

• May 28, 2015
• James Skemp
• review

A great basic switch

It has been many years since I've used a network switch, as wireless has become fast and prevalent enough that most devices are just wireless now.

However, since I'm running into an issue where wired computers weren't on the same subnet due to the usage of a router.

Having the Linksys SE4008 in my network for a number of weeks now I've found it to be extremely performant. It has very basic functionality, so it's not too surprising, but I've had no reason to restart it.

Speaking of functionality, there's no web interface for the switch. So if you're hoping to setup any sort of advanced functionality, such as quality of service (does seemingly support router configuration of this), port forwarding, or MAC address-based static IPs, you'll have to look elsewhere. Initially I tried putting the switch between my modem and wireless router, to prevent some issues I'm having with sessions in the router, but because of these restrictions had to keep the switch connected through the router. Not a big issue there.

Moving to the hardware, this features 8 ports, which, again, in our world should be more than enough for the majority of home networks, even if you're plugging multiple next-generation consoles into it. The front LEDs showing activity can be switched on or off, which is something I haven't seen on many modems or routers, and definitely not on switches from years ago. Given the various places these devices can be placed in, this is quite nice to see.

In regards to network speed, the speeds I saw using this device were on-par with speeds I noticed using my current router setups. Outside of filling every port with a device and having them all hit the network as hard as possible, you shouldn't experience any issues because of this device.

Finally, while I don't have a Linksys router that supports it, I do like the stacking ability that they promote in their marketing for this. It's a nice idea, but your mileage may vary, given how many quality products are being released by a variety of companies.

As a basic switch, this works just as I'd expect. Individuals looking for something with additional functionality, or the ability to install firmware on it, will need to look elsewhere. For these reasons I give the Linksys WRT 8-Port Gigabit Switch (SE4008-FFP) 4 of 5 stars.

• review
• linksys