Author: smokinAMD Posted on: 8/25/2003 Sponsor: Compex Discuss: In the forums

Introduction It's time yet again for another review here at Littlewhitedog. This one has been a while in the making, due to events beyond our control and having hectic careers. But with that behind us, today we have a Compex DSR2216 16-Port switch to review provided to us directly from Compex. If you were to purchase one of these switches you could expect to spend anywhere from $75-$115 USD, but seeing as how most of you are probably not familiar with this company, and admissibly, I wasn't either until I was informed I would be reviewing one of their products, I will provide you with some basic background information about Compex. COMPEX, Inc. is a distinguished rising leader in the ever-evolving networking, connectivity, and telecommunications industry. Compex designs, develops, and manufactures a complete line of networking products that make the full benefits and advantages of networking technology a tangible and affordable solution to fulfill home, small office, home office, broadband, and wireless LAN networking needs. Founded in 1987 by four visionary engineers, who together hold over 75 years of experience in microcomputer design and network products engineering, Compex is headquartered in Anaheim, California. Compex, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Powermatic Data Systems, Ltd., a public company whose stock is traded on the Singapore Main Board Exchange (Sesdaq-Listed). Features and Specifications The features and specifications below are taken directly from the manual. Features Each port supports 10Base-T and 100Base-TX connection through auto-negotiation. 16 high-speed ports provide switching between 10Base-T Ethernet segments and 100Base-TX Fast Ethernet segments in a single integrated network. Implementing store-and-forward switching scheme. Supports 10Base-T to 100Base-TX connectivity, allowing for progressive migration. Support Full Duplex and Half Duplex for both 10Base-T and 100Base-TX connection at each port. Highly optimized flow control for full and half duplex, evolved traffic priority services, flexible trunking capabilities. Provides a dynamic memory sharing in/out buffer to ensure fast free packet storage and transmission, which greatly improves your network performance. Easy to use, configurable without cable. Port-trunking and priority support. Specifications Industry Standards: Complies with IEEE 802.3 10Base-T, IEEE 802.3u 100Base-TX, IEEE 802.3x flow control; FCC Class A, CE Mark. Interface: Support 16 10/100Mbps ports (RJ-45, UTP): Ha fl/Full Duplex modes at 10Mbps and 100Mbps. LED Indicators: LED indicators for system Power, Link, Speed (10/100Mbps), Duplex status, priority, trunking, and Port (Transmit/Receive) traffic. Speed Selection: N-Way Auto-Negotiation or forced mode Link Distance: 100Base-TX: Requires data grade (Category 5) UTP cable. Segment length can be up to a maximum of 100 meters on every port. 10Base-T: Requires (Category 3, 4, and 5) UTP cable. Segment length can be up to a maximum of 100 meters on every port. Forwarding Method: Store & Forward Dynamic Address Learning/Filtering: Yes MAC Address Table: 16K Memory Buffer: 4Mbits Transmission Mode: Full/Half Duplex Flow Control: IEEE 802.3x Flow Control (Full Duplex) Back-Pressure Flow Control (Half Duplex) Switching Buffer: 512Kb Backplane Capacity: 3.2Gbps Port Trunking: Up to 4 Ports/trunk Priority Setting: Port-based Configuration: Via Power Buttons Out of the box One of the first things I'd like to point at is the fact that the DSR2216 is a rack mountable switch that will fit in your standard 19" rack. This makes it larger than some 16 port switches. Compex offers the same switch we are reviewing today in a non-rack mountable version that is much more compact in size. With that said, lets take a look at our switch. The first thing that you guys should know, if you haven't figured it out already from the specs above, is that this is a managed switch. If you are not aware what this means, I'll explain it to you. A managed switch is a switch that is capable of having settings altered on it so you can achieve optimum performance for your network, while still being able to run devices with different networking architectures. One nice feature of the DSR2216 is that there is 200Mbps of bandwidth available to each of the 16 ports. The DSR2216 also supports 4-port port trunking which allows you to connect it to another switch and have an 800mbps pipe of bandwidth running between the two switches. This is a nice feature because it offers near gigabit speed at only a fraction of a cost. Considering that gigabit switches can cost upwards of $500 USD, and lets not even mention the fact that fibre cable is highly expensive compared to Cat5e UTP. By far the most interesting feature of this switch that set it apart from others are its "Power Buttons", which are used to change the configuration settings of the switch. The two tiny buttons, "Mode" and "Set", are able to alter all of the settings of the switch. The mode button cycles through the parameters of the switch (Link/Act, Speed, FDX/Col, 100M, Half duplex, Port Trunking, Priority, Default, etc.), whereas the set button cycles you through the ports (1 - 16) and when you hold down the set button for 3 seconds it engages whatever parameter you have set with the mode button on that particular port. It's really quite nifty. One area where the DSR2216 falls short compared to other managed switches, is that you can't telnet into the switch through a direct connection and change the settings, but seeing as most other switches in this price range aren't even managed, you can't complain too much. Upon closer look, you can see that the switches upload port (port 8), isn't a dedicated port, this is a minor downfall considering that even some of the cheapest of switches have a dedicated upload port. I have a "cheap" 4 port Linksys switch that has a dedicated upload port, but granted, if you use the upload port, the 4th port stops functioning. I'm arguing into the wind though, because if you use the upload feature on either of these switches, you lose one of the normal ports, so it's a non issue. And without further interruption, pictures of the DSR2216, unfortunately I was unable to get any close up shots of the LED's or the Power Buttons because my camera is unable to focus at such close distances. Gallery                         As you can see above, the DSR2216 isn't flimsy, but it's built fairly rugged, as it was able to withstand a drop from 4 feet without any problems. You can blame my brother for that one as he knocked it off the top of my TV stand when he came in to interrupt me about some inane thing that I could care less about when I'm trying to benchmark a product. It has decent sized vents on the side of it to help make sure it stays cool, and as you can also see from the second picture on the top row, it is rack mountable, as I have attached the brackets to do so . The first picture on the top row shows the entire contents of the kit, the switch itself, the rack mountable brackets, the screws to attach the brackets and the power cord. The DSR2216 has an internal power supply and it uses the standard power cable that you see on all ATX Power supplies. It looks simple, but let me assure you that the DSR2216 can get the job done. With all that said, lets post the results of the benchmarks. Benchmarking In these benchmarks I will be comparing the DSR2216 to the 4-port switch inside of my Linksys BEFW11S4 Router. The way I benchmarked it was the transfer of a 696Mb file and seeing how long it took on the Linksys switch and how long on the Compex switch with various settings. The two computers in this tests have their specs listed below. Machine 1 XP 2500+ overclocked to XP 3200+ 1024 MB DDR 400 Maxtor 80Gb 7200 RPM 8Mb Cache Integrated 3com NIC Machine 2 XP 2400+ 1024 MB DDR 333 Maxtor 80Gb 7200 RPM 8Mb Cache Linksys NIC Linksys: Default       Trial 1: 1.18.45       Trial 2: 1.16.42       Trial 3: 1.18.19 DSR2216: Default       Trial 1: 1.15.75       Trial 2: 1.16.25       Trial 3: 1.16.00 Beats the Linksys out with what are identical settings. DSR2216: 100Mbps / Half Duplex       Trial 1: 1.25.89       Trial 2: 1.30.77       Trial 3: 1.26.44 I thought this would be an interesting test, seeing as I'm telling it to use two conflicting standards. Judging by the results, 100Mbps won the battle. DSR2216: 100Mbps / Auto Duplex with priority enabled on both ports       Trial 1: 1.16.02       Trial 2: 1.16.43       Trial 3: 1.19.11 Quicker than the Linksys once again. DSR2216: 10Mbps / Half Duplex       Trial 1: 13.35.44 Seeing as how slow that was, I'm not going to bother running it again, as we all know that half duplex is slow. DSR2216: Auto negotiate with priority enabled on both ports       Trial 1: 1.16.59       Trial 2: 1.16.41       Trial 3: 1.16.51 Once again quicker than the Linksys. DSR2216: 100Mbps / Full Duplex       Trial 1: 1.16.38       Trial 2: 1.16.39       Trial 3: 1.16.38 Nearly identical speeds here, nothing unusual. DSR2216: 10Mbps / Half Duplex with priority enabled on both ports       Trial 1: 11.24.27 Noticeably faster than just having half duplex enabled. Once again, only running this once because it is so slow. DSR2216: 100Mbps / Half Duplex with priority enabled on both ports       Trial 1: 1.25.97       Trial 2: 1.26.16       Trial 3: 1.28.36 I ran the conflicting standard test again, but with priority enabled just to see if it had any effect like the other time. It seemed to help out marginally, but not anything that you would notice. And that concludes the benchmarking part of this review, as you could see it performed quite decently for an item of its price. And it was able to pull ahead of one of the more major names in networking products. Summary In conclusion, the DSR2216 is a great product, it has tremendous bang for the buck. It falls in line right where the high quality networking solution pieces are, but yet it still carries the price tag of an entry level solution. This item would be great for medium sized networks, or for smaller sized networks when the future is uncertain regarding expandability. Another use of this switch would be LAN parties, lets face it, us LANers are cheap, we spend all our money making a kick ass gaming rig but yet we are always overlook the most important part of a LAN, connectivity. This is a GREAT solution for us LANers because of its low price tag, and the fact that it performs greatly. My only complaints of the DSR2216 is the fact that it doesn't have a dedicated upload port, and the fact that you can't you can't telnet into it to change it's settings. But lets face it, on a switch of this cost, you shouldn't expect that, you shouldn't even expect to get a managed switch for that price. If you want to know if I would buy this product? I would give you an honest "Yes". This product fulfills all my expectations of a switch and even more. In closing, we would like the thank our sponsor Compex for their generosity and continued support of LWD. The Good The price Manageable Easy to set up Rack Mountable Rugged Casing Good performance Port Priority The Bad Can't telnet into it No dedicated upload port

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Published on: 2004-01-23 (12407 reads)