Products such as Zyxel’s excellent and extremely affordable ($179) XGS1210-12 are changing the high-bandwidth networking equation for the home and small business users. This transitional (it has gigabit as well) beauty is even managed, i.e., has a Web-based configuration interface and advanced routing features. Sweet.<\/p>\n

Design and Features<\/h2>\n

The Zyxel XGS1210-12 is a desktop unit featuring eight 10\/100\/1000 (1Gb) ports, two RJ-45 100\/1000\/2500 (2.5GbE or “multi-gig”), and two SFP+ 10Gb ports. It’s rated for a switching capacity of 66 Gbps, and forwarding rate of 49 Mbps, which is pretty fair for the price point. The switch is a solidly-constructed, medium silver-hued box, measuring 9.84-inches wide, 4.10-inches deep, 1.06-inches tall, and weighing just over 1.5 pounds.<\/p>\n

Zyxel has aimed the XGS1210-12 at SOHO or SMB workgroups still using lots of legacy PCs and laptops and only a couple state-of-the-art 2.5GbE\/10GbE NAS boxes or workstations. Put another way, “get the data off the server fast”, then shuffle as needs be to the slower destinations. It’s nigh on perfect for the task.<\/p>\n

Though I might’ve wished for true step-down (capable of handing 2.5\/5Gbps) 10GbE 10Base-T ports rather than the 2.5GbE pair, that’s probably not realistic at this price point, and to be honest, 2.5GbE is a lot more common in PCs and you can add it easily and cheaply (around $30) via USB adapters.<\/p>\n