Mikrotik CRS328-24P-4S+RM 24 port Gigabit Ethernet router/switch with four 10Gbps SFP+ ports in 1U rackmount case, Dual Boot and PoE output, 500W

The Mikrotik CRS328-24P-4S+RM is an outstanding upgrade, successfully replacing my aging 15-year-old Netgear switch and immediately bringing noticeable enhancements to my network. The core benefit is the massive boost in speed and overall network stability. Data transfers are significantly faster, and I've experienced far fewer dropouts compared to the old hardware. The inclusion of four 10Gbps SFP+ ports was a game-changer for connectivity, allowing me to easily establish a 10Gbps uplink to my main Mikrotik router using a DAC cable. A major advantage of this device is the integrated PoE functionality on all 24 Gigabit Ethernet ports. This feature immediately improved my power management and organization, allowing me to remove almost all external PoE injectors from my rack, which is a massive plus. In terms of physical attributes, the size is standard 1U rackmount, fitting perfectly. The noise level is surprisingly low for a device with this level of functionality and PoE capabilities, which is excellent for an office or home setup. Regarding heat resistance, the unit has maintained stable operating temperatures, even under moderate PoE load. The only consideration for new users is the required setup; for those new to Mikrotik, be aware that it needs configuration before full deployment. So far, however, I have encountered no immediate cons, and the switch is performing exceptionally well. It's a robust, feature-rich device that vastly improves network performance and organization.

This switch brought me farther into the MikroTik camp than any of the inexpensive RouterBoard products I'm used to working with. After several weeks of researching managed PoE switches for a local business install, I settled on the CRS328 over several Cisco enterprise and small business options, as well as some AdTran switches. I chose the CRS328 for a few key features, including: - CAPsMAN function for controlling wireless access points - Full Layer-3 routing capability, including BGP/OSPF/RIP as well as MPLS capability - MikroTik reputation for regular firmware updates and responsiveness to bug fixes - Lack of complicated licensing schemes (ahem, Cisco...) After installing this switch, it has exceeded my expectations. There were initially some growing pains as the Cisco router that it is connected to had an odd trunk configuration that created a few headaches. Now, the business where this is installed has near wirespeed throughput, PoE for wireless access points and security cameras, and built-in tools such as Bandwidth testing and Torch that make troubleshooting a breeze. A few things to consider for those who might purchase this switch for business use (especially if PCI-DSS compliance are a concern): - The Winbox interface is notoriously insecure, and should be disabled. - DHCP configuration makes it easy for a user to determine server source IP address, and access to the default web interface isn't blocked by default (although firewall rules can be configured to limit access to the web interface from particular IPs or subnets). If you're familiar with the MikroTik command line interface, all web access can be disabled leaving serial console access for secure management - Be mindful that the DHCP lease time configuration by default is set in HH:MM:SS format. If you want to provide long lease times to certain devices (or as part of the DHCP default configuration), leases can have days added as well using the format XXd HH:MM:SS for lease times. NOTE: The Manito Networks website has a great hardening guide for MikroTik devices After a month of having this switch installed, it is running like a champ with CPU usage generally less than 30%, even with the network fully saturated and with 250+ clients.

Mikrotik has some great products for very reasonable prices, but they're not plug-and-play home units. To get the most out of their stuff, research capabilities thoroughly on their website. This particular unit was just what we needed to upgrade my company's equipment/throughput testing lab. We upgraded from a Cisco SG350-10P. This gave us more ports, 10 Gb capability, more PoE options, wire-speed VLAN routing, and VPN capabilities. I rated "Easy to use" at 3 stars only because you really do need to dive through the documentation to optimize your configuration. For instance, this box will offload VLAN routing to the switch chip for wire-speed layer-3 switching, but only if you have it set up a certain way. Once I got the configuration correct, this thing works a treat!

I bought this for several reasons. I had been using a large HP 2900-48G switch and a PFSense i7-7700K PC based router for my home network. They worked great, but...... The HP switch was large, LOUD, put out a LOT of heat and sucks down 200-300watts of power. It is a server 19" rack enterprise switch. The PFSense i7 CPU PC mini tower router is powerful, flexible but takes up lots of space and consumes another 100 Watts. I wanted something with four 10GBit links like the HP. I no longer needed more than 24 ports like I did last year. The Mikrotik also has a comprehensive GUI (WinBox). I don't manage routers and switches for a living so a GUI was a must for me. I have no desire to learn another command line interface. I have a couple of proper Win 2012R2 media servers and a Threadripper workstation I do most of my home based business and personal things on. I wanted to be able to move large multi gigabyte media files to the servers at HD speeds and not be limited to the roughly 115MB/sec of gigabit ethernet. I will also run the 4th fiber link to the media room to access content from the servers. In all honesty I do not need most of the features this device has (which are numerous). It was appealing that this device's router OS has a following and is often used in business environments. A plus. I'm sure that I can grow with this setup to do all those things I want to do. My next step is to eventually install proper access points and power those with the need for a wall wart in whatever house we move to soon. Currently I use an R7000 and a WRT1900AC running DD-WRT setup as access points only(no routing). I only took me a couple of hours to find some tutorials online for things like setting Static IP address, changing DNS servers, upgrading the firmware and setting up the DHCP stuff. This is all pretty basic stuff. Later I will find more information concerning best security practices and hardening of this box so I am not a target for hackers. I am very happy. My network speed is great. My power draw is 8x less and I no longer have 5 screaming fans from the HP to talk over. The Mikrotik only has 2 quiet fans and barely puts out any heat. I love it!!!! UPDATE: Important!!!! You MUST add some firewall rules and go through the Mikrotik Wiki to secure this router or it will be hacked!!! I installed mine, updated the router OS to the latest version and changed the ADMIN password. NOT ENOUGH!! After a week I was getting failed login attempts every second form multiple sources all over the world. Google "microtik essential firewall rules" and watch the youtube tutorial #29. This guy also has a web page with a script to add rules. Also google "securing mikrotik router". The first hit is the Mikrotik wiki. Follow this!!!! Turn off services from the Winbox CMD line that are not needed so this router doesn't become some hacker's plaything. Keep your router firmware up to date!!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!

I'll start by saying that this is actually a decent switch and it does exactly what I wanted it to do. It does a LOT more than I was expecting or planning to use it for, but it does give me ideas on a future mikrotik purchase if I decide to. Coming from HP switches (and one dying recently), I decided to give this mikrotik switch a try and I'm glad I gave it a chance. If you're looking for something that will give you most if not all of the features you would want in a 24 port switch (such as VLAN's, LACP support, PoE), then you can't go wrong with this one. I've seen some reviews mention a noise level problem. This is fairly subjective. Someone's "quiet" is someone else's "loud". For me, it's not bad. I can sit in the lab room and work a full day and never notice it. Honestly, I hear the HP switch I still have left. For those who have never worked on Mikrotik devices, these are some things I think you should know: * Expect growing pains. You may have some problems with the configuration of the switch. Don't blame yourself nor the device. It's extremely confusing at first. * The CLI is not immediately understandable; it is NOT a cisco-like CLI. Consider using WinBox at first to get you started. It can connect to the switch via mac address. * The documentation has some good moments and also some bad moments. Read through it at least three times for the things you care about, and consider looking through the forums and perhaps a youtube video or two. * Don't confuse yourself with the "bridges" when you're configuring the switch. Leave a single bridge and do NOT add any more. You will thank yourself later. Other than those things (which I didn't think was worth docking a star for), it's a good switch and is serving me well with what I wanted it for.

This is a pretty awesome switch for a home setup. I was a little hesitant to purchase this because there weren't many reviews and the few I found were complaints about the fans cycling on and off. I got tired of waiting for UBNT to make a 10GB switch that I wanted to buy got old so I pulled the trigger on this one. I did have a problem with the fans cycling on and off in both switchos and router os with the latest firmware. This switch is in a rack in my bedroom so this was a problem. The fans were not loud and likely wouldn't have been a problem if they just stayed on but the cycling got old quick. I saw on the forums there were a bunch of commands but none worked. I really liked the switch so I opened it up and found that it had regular pinout PWM fan headers. So I purchased two Noctua NF-A4x20 4 pin PWM fans and installed them and what a difference. These little fans are inaudible even on full power. Since the CPU temp is above the trigger point of 40c for the fans to turn on they run all the time and keep the CPU under 50c with about 15 watts of POE load and standard daily traffic for a house of 5. Things to note: Even if you are using this as a switch I would recommend routeros as it is much more mature and feature rich. This will power UBNT 24v POE gear no problem and on an interesting note it automatically figures out that the load takes 24v passive POE and supplies it without intervention just as if it was 802.3AF. 10GBtek Mikrotik SFP+ fiber modules work great in this switch. Just make sure you leave auto-negotiate on. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who needs a few 10GB ports with 24v passive and af/at POE. If you cant live with the fan cycling, replacing the fans is relatively inexpensive and very easy resulting in a silent switch which is impressive for under $400.

24 ports including power over ethernet and 4 10GB capable SFP+ ports !! This was my first mikrotik device and have since gone on to purchase several others. Mikrotik keeps their costs low by integrating their linux-based RouterOS with chip manufacturer reference designs. This particular switch is based on a Marvell chip that is just fantastic. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I could could do full speed hardware switching of a VLAN trunk across a pair of bonded connections to my FW/GW router. Really great stuff for such an inexpensive device. As for 10G, fully saturating two point-to-point links with iperf3 at the same time was no problem for this switch. I have also grown to like RouterOS as well. If you have some experience with networking and linux you will find it to be very intuitive and easy to use. Even if that's not your forte there are enough online guides to get you going. You can also run SwitchOS on it instead if all you need is a basic high performance managed switch. SwitchOS will greatly reduce the learning curve. Since the cpu in this switch is so anemic you pretty much have to ensure that whatever you do with the switch is capable of being hardware offloaded. For that reason, 80% of the use use cases for this particular switich can probably be achieved with SwitchOS. Still, if you have the time and inclination, I'd encourage you to learn RouterOS.

Switch works, no issues. Having a lower model, non poe, running only switch OS. The setup of VLAN a bit different. Not impossible, but if new to it, there is a great video on youtube. Put in the name/model number