TP-Link has announced a new family of multi-gigabit switches designed primarily for homes and small offices. The 2.5GbE and 10GbE switches are reasonably priced — one 2.5GbE model is only $130 — and are designed for advanced users that need faster wired network speeds as they use multi-gig NAS, Wi-Fi 6 access points, and other bandwidth-hungry devices.

The 5-port TL-SG105-M2 and the 8-port TL-SG108-M2 switches are rather basic fanless devices that can automatically sense link speeds and intelligently fine-tune for compatibility and optimal performance for all devices. The switches come in metal chassis and will fit almost any home design (assuming, of course, that they are not hidden). 

The 5-port switch is immediately available for $130, whereas the 8-port model carries a $200 MSRP.

Being a managed switch, the TL-SG3210XHP-M2 JetStream is of course inherently more advanced than its cheaper counterparts. The unit has eight 2.5GbE 802.3at/af-compliant PoE+ ports, two 10 Gbps SFP+ slots, and two ports for management (an RJ45 and a mini-USB). TP-Link positions this switch for relatively large networks employing both wired and wireless clients. Since it is supposed to have rather serious switching capacity, it uses up to 240W of power and has active cooling.

The switch supports a host of security capabilities, including IP-MAC-Port binding, ACL, Port Security, DoS defend, Storm control, DHCP snooping, 802.1X and radius authentication. L2/L3/L4 QoS and IGMP snooping for voice and video applications. In addition, the switch is Omada SDN compatible and features Zero-Touch Provisioning and intelligent monitoring.

The TL-SG3210XHP-M2 JetStream is of course not exactly cheap, but for $350, it is certainly not expensive.