Review on 🔀 QNAP QSW-M2108-2C, 8-Port 2.5Gbps Management Switch with 2 Port 10Gbps SFP+ / NBASE-T Combo. Effortless web-based management. by Boss Spangler

I have been slowly upgrading my home network to be able to support 2.5G (at least) for a few years. I also upgraded my two main workstations with 10G cards (one with SFP+, the other with RJ45). This switch's simplicity and decently low cost drew me in after some weird MikroTik router configuration issues. Setup was easier, the UI of their web-based management interface is simpler (if you're just using it as a switch - note that this is _not_ a router!). And more importantly, since this switch is designed for both 2.5G (8 ports) and 10G (2 combo ports), it's nice to look at it and see if the device with 2, 5 or 1G is connected, only by the light LED (the MikroTik router only showed "green" to connect, does not indicate the connection speed). This is how I discovered that 2.5G network adapters in macOS actually work at 2.5G even though the Network System Preferences window shows it as 1000baseT! Anyway, I've had it running for about a week and it's been quiet (but not silent), efficient, and I don't see any packet loss or unexplained issues with bandwidths over 1 Gbps like I've sometimes seen with MikroTik. A great option if you don't want to spend that much money to upgrade everything to 10G.