INTRODUCTION

   Even though for most consumers a modem/router is more than sufficient to support all their local area wired devices that's obviously not the case for offices and businesses regardless of size. This is why the first ethernet network switches made their appearance in the early 90's and since then well they've pretty much transformed local networks by making them faster, more cost-effective and a lot easier to manage. Today there's a very wide range of ethernet switches in the market to pick from with 1GbE ones clearly being the most popular among consumers and even professionals and 10/25/40/50GbE ones gaining ground with both small and large businesses. Companies like EnGenius have numerous solutions tailored for the needs of pretty much every user out there and today with me i have one of their latest business models, the ECS2512FP 8-Port Multi-Gigabit L2+ Managed PoE++ Switch.

   EnGenius Technologies is a leading global manufacturer of pioneering wireless and voice communications. For more than 20 years, EnGenius has delivered best-in-class voice and data solutions that empower mobility, enhance productivity, and embrace simplicity. EnGenius prides itself on providing you with the best, most reliable, feature-rich, personalized network solutions to drive the success of your business.

   The EnGenius ECS2512FP rack switch is part of their business managed line featuring a grand total of eight RJ45 2.5GbE (10/100/1000/2500Mbps) Ethernet ports and four SFP+ (fiber) 10GbE (10000Mbps) ports all of which combined deliver a somewhat impressive total switching capacity of 120Gbps. All of its 8 RJ45 ports support the PoE++ standard (both data and electricity are provided via the Ethernet cable) and have a maximum budget of 240W for use with a large number of PoE/++ compatible network devices like IP cameras, IP microphones, IP/VoIP telephones and of course access points. It's also part of EnGenius’ s Cloud family which means the end user can access and manage its primary functions remotely via the EnGenius Cloud service. In terms of available features/settings the ECS2512FP delivers everything small and medium business users require including 802.3ad link aggregation, port based bandwidth control, 802.3az energy efficient mode, 802.1d spanning tree, 802.1Q tagged VLAN, 802.1p Class of Service (CoS), 802.1X RADIUS authentication, Quality of service (QoS), LLDP, ACL, SNMP v1/2c/3 (simple network management protocol), RMON 1/2/3/9 (remote monitoring), Loopback Detection, MAC/port filtering, IGMP forwarding/snooping, port mirroring, SSH Server, TFT client and Voice VLAN. Last time i had a switch from EnGenius here it was part of their "entry-level" line so I’m very curious to see what their business line is capable of.