Review on Zyxel 24 Gigabit Managed Rackmount GS1900 24E by James Hardy

I'm not an IT professional. I actually bought this switch for one reason: I wanted to enable link aggregation on my ReadyNAS, my QNAP, and my Mac Pro. Each of these devices has two Gigabit Ethernet ports and supports link aggregation. Running a TimeMachine backup of an 800GB drive over a single Gigabit Ethernet cable to each of two NAS units was getting tedious, so I looked for a switch that supported LACP 802.3ad. I had a couple of other requirements: 1. The overall width must not exceed 10 inches as it needs to fit on a very specific shelf in my home office.2. The Ethernet ports should be on the BACK along with the power cord. The status LEDs must be on the FRONT side. In my shelf mount application, all ethernet cables are connected to the back of the shelf. **SORRY** this switch does NOT meet this requirement. I bought it anyway because I just couldn't find a 16-port *managed* switch with rear ports and front lighting.3. The switch must be well made and able to work at high temperatures.4. The switch should be relatively easy to use.5. Price - it should be cheap but cheap only for the price. This product meets all my requirements *except* for number 2, but I still give it 5 stars because I was able to rotate it 90 degrees on my shelf. This means that Ethernet cables should not be routed back to front over the device. Cables can run on the left or right depending on the rotation 90 degrees left or 90 degrees right. The first thing I did after opening the box and not finding the user manual was to go online and download the complete and well-written PDF user manual. I read all relevant sections of the manual before plugging the device into the wall outlet. This was a particularly good idea because it introduced me to the ZON utility for basic device management such as For example, changing IP address, changing password, updating firmware, etc. More complex operations are performed through ZON's built-in website utility can be opened for you in a browser window. Using the guide I was able to set up 3 2-port trunk links, enable the links and explicitly set LACP on each link. Note that there are multiple link aggregation protocols and you must choose LACP explicitly for each link. (MacOS only supports LACP.) After enabling linked channels on two NAS devices and a Mac Pro, and connecting 6 ethernet cables, everything worked great! A beginner like me was able to get 3 working LACP connections on the first try. But it wasn't a happy accident - I read the manual (RTFM) first, which is written in surprisingly good English. 3 combined links. The device gets a little warm and needs enough space on the left and right for ventilation. Unmanaged switches often don't have a fan and run much cooler.