TP-LinkTL-SF1008D 8-Port Fast Ethernet/Network/Lan Switch (10/100Mbps, Auto Speed and Duplex Adjustment, Plug and Play, Auto MDI/MDIX, Fanless) White

I bought one of these because I have several components that plug into my TV that can be connected to the internet/home network (Freesat box - for iPlayer, media streamer - to share media over my network and blu-ray player too). Since I only have one potential Ethernet cable from my router, I obviously needed an Ethernet switch to make it possible to hook all three up.As one would expect of an Ethernet switch, it's a connect-the-wires-and-power-up jobby. It works just fine, doesn't run too hot and auto-detects whether to run at 10 or 100mbps (although I'll be amazed if anyone is running at 10mbps these days).People ought to bear in mind that you should really only use Ethernet switches for devices that don't all simultaneously need lots of bandwidth when connecting to other devices on your network. Every device plugged in to your switch has to share a total of 100mbps of bandwidth because they all use the same common cable to hook up to your router (or wherever else it goes). In my case, although my media streamer can be fairly intensive (up to 50mbps), generally iPlayer is no greater than 2mbps and the blu-ray player only uses the link to download firmware updates, so even if I were using all three at the same time, they wouldn't max out the connection. As an example, I would never connect a NAS server to a switch: the whole point of network storage is that it needs all the bandwidth it can get and could potentially have several demands from different computers at the same time. One should try and plug in bandwidth-hungry devices as high up the network as possible (i.e. as close to your router as possible). This effect would be reduced if you use a gigabit Ethernet network (because there's 10x more bandwidth available).Also, these switches can be daisy-chained. In theory, the number you can daisy chain is limitless, but in practice you'll see higher latencies and eventually signal degradation. (Although this effect will occur well beyond the needs of the typical home user.)Overall it's a solid purchase. I went for the 8-port switch over the 4-port because the price difference was about a pound and the extra ports offer me more expandability in the future.

First ever review on here and I have been an Amazon customer for years, but this was so quick and painless to set up, it definitely deserves a recommendation. I'll keep things as simple as possible as even a technophobe should not be put off buying and setting this up.I bought the 8-Port version as I have a few devices in my study that have no wireless capabilities, and I wanted to ensure they were all connected to my home network. I have one long main Ethernet (Network) cable running from my router/hub (Virgin Media) in the livingroom, and rather than having multiple long cables running from this hub to my study, I thought it best to buy one of these to connect the main Ethernet cable to instead. Then I could simply have many smaller cables connecting to this box as required.That was the plan, and it went as smoothly as possible. I just simply connected the 8-port box to the mains using the plug/adaptor provided and then placed the main Ethernet cable running from my livingroom into the first port on this box (although any port would do - it shouldn't matter). Then I simply connected several other smaller cables from this box to my main computer, blu-ray player, Raspberry Pi, and Smart TV that are in my study. Once the green lights on the box started flashing for each port, I knew they were up-and-running. A quick check of each device ensured Internet connectivity. No fuss, no faffing about with ip addresses, no changing of settings, just true 'plug-n-play'.So if you are looking to extend the wired part of your home network, I wholeheartedly would recommend this. At an excellent sub-£10 price tag, I only wish I had bought one long before now!(Please also note that the instructions point out 16-port version can be wall mounted, however the ones with fewer ports cannot - this wasn't an issue for me as I have it tucked away under my desk, but it might be relevant for others who prefer easier access).Hope this helps!

Purchased this to extend te amount of ports i could use on my router, connected as follows,1 x rj45 from switch to router,1 x rj45 from pc to switch,no intenet connectivity, unable to ping out to anything, checked IP address and mac addres tables on router and no pc listed.Plugged pc direct into router and all ok.Swapped out cable from switch to router and fro pc to switch, tested again, nothing working.Seems like this switch doesn't work properly, maybe there are bad batches or it's just a bad switch.I went for the cheapest and guess this is a lesson learned.

TP-LINK TL-SF1008D 8-Port 10/100 MbpsThis allows you to connect your internet hub to one ethernet connection and the other 7 ethernet ports can be connected to other devices and all will work simultaneously. A key advantage is that these switches sort the broadband signal. If you run multiple computers all computers get all internet traffic and each computer effectively has to sort out which parts of the transmission belong to it. This means that packets of information clog the system and can cause conflicts.A switch separates out the info so each computer only gets the signal that belongs to it.I have 3 gaming PCs and this device does mean that all 3 work better at the same time.My main hub gives 220mb/s and because this hub has a max of 100mb/s, each PC clocks only about 85mb/s instead of the full amount they did when all connected directly to the main hub. So whilst slower, it seems the signal is actually more reliable.I may buy a more capable unit that does not throttle the main signal but this switch does appear to work effectively more or less to the stated spec. I have since bought a 1 gigabyte switch and this does give full speed at each computer. Nonetheless the slower switch did effectively allow better multiple simultaneous use of the machines.