Customer Reviews

D-Link DGS-2205 5-Port 10/100/1000 Desktop Switch

5 star:		(117)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

My model is the DGS-2205 with the 5V power adapter. Like a previous reviewer, I noticed that I wasn't getting anywhere near gigabit speeds to my LaCie Ethernet Raid device. Well, that's because the LaCie Ethernet Raid Device is a slow pig.

After connecting my Mac Book Pro and my Mac Pro to the switch, I started offloading data to the Mac Pro.

Sustained throughput was 320 megabits per second with long bursts up to 720 megabits per second. At this point, the hard drive on the Macbook Pro was the bottleneck. Normally, I don't care for D-link products, but this little switch is quite the gem.

I've also noticed no noise from the unit, even when transferring large amounts of data at near wire speed.

Works Great, Clear light indicators, good product.
There are 2 versions of this on the market. There is a early version of 7V DC and the new rev 5V DC. I would take the 5V units only.

A good switch should require no real thought to install. You plug in, connect cat5e cables, and you're done. After that, it should work invisibly, giving you good throughput and no concerns whatsoever.

This one does that. If you need a modest-cost 5-port gigabit switch, I can recommend this one without reservation.

Notes: (1) If you don't need gigabit, you can get 100mb equipment pretty cheap right now. (2) Keep in mind that you use 1 port in a switch for the incoming cable, so a 5-port gives you connection to 4 devices, 8-port allows for 7 devices, etc. (Yeah, I know, it's dumb, but that's the way techies think.) (3) If you think you might need a couple more ports later, then definitely get the 8-port switch, since you don't pay that much more for the extra ports.

If you're concerned about expectations for the brand -- I am generally pretty happy with DLink products. I certainly haven't had any breaking right after 1 year of use, as I have had for some other brands.

I had been buying the Netgear gigabit switches (5 and 8 port) for work, as the metal cases appealed to me, and they seemed as though they'd be tougher and harder to damage. That may be true, but 2 of 5 have died within months.

So I'm trying this and thus far like it. It runs very cool, and I haven't hear the noise that another reviewer noticed, even though I'm using it in a pretty quiet apt.

I'm taking off one star as the case is pretty cheap plastic. Shouldn't matter for my use, but it would be easy to damage this.

Dave

This switch is a total gem. I have never used D-Link switches before, but I saw this one on Amazon for a decent price and decided to give it a go. It is truly the easiest thing I've installed into my home network. I originally bought it for my computer room to allow 5 more PC's to connect to my router, but the router's ports ended up frying after a lightning strike. I am now using the switch to connect all of the computers in the house (through one port on the router that goes to the Switch's uplink) and am using a dumb hub in the computer room. I have seen no drop in performance (since everything is gigabit) for daily internet usage or gaming. I have about 9 - 12 devices connected to my network at any given time and I have not encountered any problems. My network consists of PCs (Windows and Linux based), an Xbox 360 (wired) and a Nintendo Wii (wireless), with a few wireless laptops. My router has let me down a bit, but that switch is a breath of fresh air.

The unit itself is small, quiet, and cool, even stacked on top of my router. It has display lights for connected devices, which are color coded depending on if the device is gigabit capable or only 100-Base (amber for 100-base, green for gigabit). The lights blink for activity. If it matters I have the 5V version. There was no need to configure anything when I connected everything up, because it just worked. I definitely recommend this switch to anyone.

I purchased this switch 23 months ago. It worked fine until it failed this past week.

I submitted an RMA request online, and got an email in response giving me a case ID and telling me to call their number to talk to a live tech support. After fumbling through their menu, I reached someone who told me I needed to talk to their tech support department--which I thought I chose, but apparently not. She forwarded me to their tech support.

An Indian-accented girl was on the other line, who proceeded to ask me to supply my name, contact info, product model number, serial number, etc., all of which should have been available through the case ID for the RMA request I already opened. Furthermore, she insisted I supply answers to irrelevant questions such as what operating system I was using, how many wired computers were on my network, how many wireless computers were on my network, what ISP I was using, what cable modem I was using, etc--despite my objections several times that these questions were irrelevant.

She then placed me on hold for several minutes. After this, she had me run the diagnostic procedures of unplugging and re-plugging the power to the switch to see if it was still broken--which I had obviously done before. Then she had me try plugging the switch to a different power outlet. When it turned out that the switch still wasn't functioning, she concluded that my switch was defective and apologized that I was unfortunately out of warranty. I had to point out to her that this switch is covered by either a 3 yr warranty or a lifetime warranty, as is ambiguously stated on this product page, but either way I should still be covered.

She then placed me on hold for several more minutes, and came back and told me that I had to call their customer support line. I re-stated that I'm trying to do an RMA on this device, and their system told me that I had to talk to their live technical support, not customer service.

She then placed me on hold yet again, and came back telling me that she'll escalate me to their next tier of technical support. This lead to a ringing phone that was never picked up after several minutes.

All in all, I wasted about half an hour on the phone trying to get this product through their RMA procedure without any progress. It seems that all their tech support does is delay and deflect. This is the worst tech support experience I've ever had.

This switch is the BEST! I plugged it into my gigabit network and data came pouring out of all 5 ports like crazy. It works as a blinkey night-light and you can keep your coffee warm if you keep your mug on top of it. It works with XP and Win 7 (64 & 32 bit!) It will handle 5 or 6 cats. I only have 2 cats but it still switches like gangbusters. If it ever quits working, I might light it on fire and blow it up with an M-80 while drinking beer. That would be cool. FREE SHIPPING!

The DLink seemed to work great for the first 18 months, then one morning I woke up and it was dead. Just one light comes on. Meanwhile my Netgear WGR614 Wireless Router has outlasted this switch, 2 internet providers and at least 2 computers.

I'm not a power user or propeller head, so my review will be written in english. I live rural and needed a way to route internet acess from my WildBlue modem to multiple computers in a large ranch house. Had terrible luck with a Netgear wireless router, worked, then did not work with new HP laptop.
Wireless schmireless, cables work. Read all the reviews, understood about 30% of them but got the general idea how an ethernet switch works. Only needed 3 ports, but 4 was the smallest so I ordered the D-Link DGS-2205. Very easy to hook up, truly plug and use. No heat from unit, status lights are clean and understandable, all-in-all a nice unit.

One small complaint, the instruction CD sent with the unit, way too complicated. I suppose there are some network set-ups that would require the 33 pages of instructions. However a simple home set-up paragraph of "plug this into this, and when these lights come on its working", would have been helpful for us ranchland types.

Since they were available for cheap from various sales over the last 2 years, I bought a couple. Then one died, and I chalked it up as a fluke and bought another since it was by far the cheapest gigabit switch I could find to replace it. Today, #2 died.

Same symptoms: power light goes on, nothing else. Swapped the other still working DGS 2205 from the not-as-widely-used network (I have 3 gigabit switches in the house in various rooms), and turns out it's the power supply that failed, NOT the switch. Got the "spare" power supply from the one that died last year (I keep power supplies, I'm constantly re-using them), and slap-in-the-face #2: it's dead too - I recycled the wrong part last year. ARGH. That'll teach me to assume power supplies are no longer a common point of failure..

Grabbed a different (adjustable) power supply. Switch didn't like 4.5V, but is back up and happily running at 6V for now. So, in 2 years, 2 dead power supplies out of 3. Time to buy another power supply.. Wish I'd kept the (probably) working switch.

All 3 models were the "new" 5v models someone suggested one should get. I'm now wondering if they under-specced the 5v supplies, and are over-stressing them, trying too hard to be "green" and actually causing MORE e-waste in the end..

Such is life when you buy cheap consumer-level products.. At least, a new power supply is < $10.