Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys EG008W Gigabit 8-Port Workgroup Switch

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Contrary to what many of the reviews say here, the latest version (3.0) of the switch has been redesigned without a fan. The switch is 100% silent. Also, the pictures on a lot of sites of the switch are old. To see the new case go to the linksys site.

I purchased this switch in November 2005 and seemed to significantly improve my network throughput. I've been purchasing Linksys products for years and have never had any problems from any of them.

Like many I quickly found that the switches fan was quite loud. Since it was in a room with 5 or so computers, the noise didn't really bother me that much. The switch did its job and that's all I needed it to do.

Over the past few months, the fan has gotten progressively louder with a pleasing rattling noise as well. Obviously, the fan was approaching the end of it's sad little life. Then last week, the loud fan noise ceased. The sad little fan had breathed its last. When I touched the case, I was astonished how hot the switch was running. Obviously, something needed to happen. There was a very real chance of fire.

Now the real fun began.

Yesterday, I placed a call to Linksys' tech support. After waiting on hold for 45 minutes, I spoke with a tech support person (Let's call him 29845). I was given a case number that was supposed to allow me to return the unit. Sadly, the number was rejected as invalid by the RMA "support" web site.

Next, I tried their "live chat" "support" tool online. This time the wait was only 40 minutes and I spoke (typed?) with a very nice, but ineffective person (25174)who promised that I would be sent an email with a case number once I disconnected from the chat session. Of course, that number never came. Lovely. Another hour of my life gone.

The next morning, I called the Tech support line. Joy! They picked up right away. I spoke with a gentleman named 43406 who was very nice, but was obviously not a deep thinker. He thought that it was very important that I needed to tell him who my ISP was and what my OS was before he could consider the issue with my bad fan. After a while it became apparent that he was in over his head, he placed me on hold so he could consult with his manager. After about 20 minutes, he picked up again, made some noises that sounded like he was scratching himself with the receiver then hung up on me.

At this point, I was feeling very "special"...

I've never really ever had to deal with Linksys before for support issues. I'm not sure I have the constitution to ever try again.

Their products are generally pretty good. Since I usually never need tech support, I'm usually pretty happy with their products. This type of "support" is appallingly bad though. They've wasted a couple hours of my life and left me rather disgusted.

If you're willing to purchase any of their products, you should probably consider them throwaway items, because you're not likely to get ANY competent support from them.

This thing is so LOUD!!, it never should have been put on shelves for sale. Its absolutely atrocious! Its insane! Its horrible! Its a piece of cr*p for being so loud!! But there is a fix if you are a bit of a doit your selfer. Go to google and search for LinkSysGigabitFanFix.jpg. Follow at your own peril. I didn't put it together, but its too late to return mine and I thought this might help other poeople who are in the same boat.

Did I mention how LOUD it is!!!!!!!! No seriously!!!!! It will give you a headache if you're in the same room for extended periods of time. Its hella loud!!! If you don't believe me, you will regret it when you go buy this. But if you already have and its too late to return it. Check out the fix above. Which I did not author, but thought I'd pass along because its useful.

I do like the performance of the switch but linksys must have gotten a real deal on some cheap used jet engines and converted them to fans. This sucker is NOISY! Way too noisy for a home or small office environment.
p.s.
I wish I could change my vote to 2 stars.
Although they answered the support line quickly, I was told that the noise of this product is as designed and it really isn't intended for a small office, but rather should live in an already noisy data center where it can just add to the din. I am going to return mine and find another brand that actually wants it's equipment to be used in a small office. Sigh...

After reading some previous reviews about the noise, I was still not convinced and decided to give it a try. After all, my home office already has 3 computers and 2 laptops, along with serval external devices with fans running all the time. Little did I know that this thing is really such a turbo engine. Not only was it loud, its high-pitch noise actually stood out amoung all the noisy devices that I have.
Performance aside (which I think is about the same as my other netgear gigabit switch), I doubt it's even suitable for an office/cube with such disturbing noise.

First let me say that I love Cisco and Linksys products. I love them so much that when I wanted to replace my old 100 BaseT switch I use for the 4 computers I work with at home I didn't think twice about buying the SD2008 switch, and so I didn't bother to see if there were any reviews written about this product. That was a mistake, as I can see now that I'm not the first one to complain about the noise of this switch.

This switch is LOUD. VERY LOUD. Louder than all of my other computers and network equipment put together by AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE! I can't believe how loud this switch is, and am shocked to see something like this come out of Linksys. I feel this product should come with a warning label on the box, and it truly should be recalled because of this amount of noise. I'll be trying to return this thing later this week. I've seen at least one other similar Gigabit switch which has a fanless design, and that will be my criteria from now on. I've also found a web page describing how to open this switch and replace the fan with a quieter one, search Google since I don't think I can paste an URL here.

Yes, I can agree to people already mentioning THE NOISE this device produces. It was so unusual to hear such a loud sound from LinkSys product. I have several different LinkSys devices and all are quiet. This one is not. Beware! It is louder than most computers are nowadays. LinkSys - oh no, CISCO as now owner of LinkSys should be ashamed. EG008W is intended for HOME use, isn't it? Not for noisy server room but for our sweet home? Tell us how to get it less noisy. Much less! This current noise level is unacceptable (it sounds loudly as I am writing this commentary).

If anybody has found good replacement fan and/or knows procedure how to replace the noisy fan please write your advice here!

I really couldn't believe it when others noted how loud this thing was. I ordered it anyway. Unfortunately, they were right. This thing is egregiously loud. It's in my upstairs bonus room and I can hear it from my master bedroom downstairs. It's louder than all the rest of my computer equipment combined. Too bad too, because it's an attractive piece that seems to work fine and fits nicely on my desk with my Linksys router and Linksys Vonage box.

Anyone need a good switch to put in a closet?

We purchased a Linksys EG008W at the beginning of 2004; the fan was very noisy from the beginning, but workeded ok out of a remote basement closet. However, after six months, the fan failed altogether. Linksys RMA has been a disappointment--they claim they are "backordered" on replacement product. Sheesh.
Although the product seemed to work as advertised, given the noisy fan and Linksys' impossibly slow RMA and poor warranty service, cannot recommend purchasing this product. AVOID

Apparently version 1 had major fan issues. The latest version 3 is completely silent and performance is great. My only complaint is that I want to wall mount this switch and it includes no means to do so.