Nicgiga S25-0501-M Switch Management
Logging into the switch’s management at 192.168.1.199 is an experience. Instead of a login page, we are simply prompted for a username and password. What is more, this is done over HTTP. This feels about as secure as a cookie jar in a room full of Santa Clauses.
Once we log in, we can see the web management interface.
There is some basic functionality like being able to set VLANs.
We have port isolation.
Overall though, for those who want a top-end management experience, this is a step or two behind.
Some will think this is fine for low-cost switch management, and some will stop at the HTTP login.
Nicgiga S25-0501-M 1-port 10GbE Fanless Switch Performance
In terms of performance, this switch seems like the others that we have tested at this point.
This is similar to the Mokerlink and Yulinca units.
Nicgiga S25-0501-M Power Consumption and Noise
The switch comes with a small 12V 1A power adapter.
Idle power is 1.0W, which is the same as the Yulinca even though this has a management feature.
Plugging in a 2.5GbE port added around 0.3W to bring us to 1.3W. That is much lower than the Mokerlink but the same as the Yulinca.
Adding a 10Gbase-T to SFP+ adapter instead got us to 2.6W. This is again the same as the Yulinca switch.
These are very low-power devices. We have seen many of these low-end Realtek based switches offer similar power for managed and unmanaged modes. This is a case where it was the same as the Yulinca switch.
Final Words
One way to look at this is that at $59.99 – a normal $15 discount at a $45 street price it is lower cost than some unmanaged versions. The management can be useful, but it is also, as stated earlier, “about as secure as a cookie jar in a room full of Santa Clauses.”
To us, the biggest challenge with a switch like this in today’s market is that there are 4-port 2.5GbE and 2-port SFP+ switches, as well as 8-port 2.5GbE and 1-port SFP+ switches in the same price band. If this is the port configuration you want, then it probably has the most features for the money available.
Where to Buy
We purchased our unit on Amazon. Here is the affiliate link for this model.
Ultimate Fanless 2.5GbE Switch Buyer’s Guide
You may have seen that we published the Ultimate Cheap Fanless 2.5GbE Switch Buyer’s Guide. Here is the video for that one:
You can see more switches in this class in that video and we are keeping the link above updated with the switches we review.
Can you maybe look at reviewing some one these new larger switches 12, 16 and 24 port etc
Agreed, 8 ports wouldn’t even cover the machines I have on my desk let alone the rest of my home network! Ironic how Serve The Home was never supposed to be about home equipment but rather enterprise stuff, yet lately it’s been mostly home networking switches being reviewed. I’m not complaining as the home stuff is more relevant to me, but maybe it’s time to acknowledge that the site is really about consumer equipment for use in the home :)
@Malvineous, IMHO, “enterprise stuff” does not mean rack networking equipment only.
In my experience, these “small” device are useful also in enterprise enviroment: I saw them used in offices to distribute connection among devices and desktop place, in datacenter room, to connect temporarly some extra-devices, in (energy/hvac cabinets), and in several other not home places… recently I saw them also in electrical box of a greenhouse (smart agricalture).
So, in my opinion they are relevant.
If I would add a wish to these review, please also condider small industrial switch, DIN mountable, fanless, usually can be powered by two different/redundant 12Vdc sources, managed or not-managed, with or without SFP(+). I used these sometime.
@sovking That’s a fair point, it just seems like these devices can’t really be used in a high reliability environment, but for office use and temporary things they definitely have a place.
I’d also like to see more industrial stuff. Where I work we have a lot of Modbus and BACnet devices often connected to various DIN mountable switches, and I’m in the process now of setting up a remote data collection site so these switches that run off multiple ELV DC sources are very useful but rarely reviewed.
Nicgiga please
This is almost certainly also sold as a Vimin VM0S25051M. I have one on my desk and it’s identical inside and out. The web UI is also the same, short of the logo in the upper left corner.
@Kasey, could you check please: is this switch support SNMP? For monitoring as minimum.
Thanks in advance!
Am I the only one disappointed in the lack of LLDP on these so called managed switches?
Having ability to programmatically map your network topology and port assignments is a game changer that these products don’t enable at all.