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Number of Ports: You can get anywhere from four all the way up to 48 or more Ethernet ports. Some also have USB ports.
In testing, we found that, when using the Flex without configuration, it worked about as well as any other in this list: Transfer speeds were solid, and faster than other gigabit switches tested under load. It’s worth noting here, however, that the Ubiquiti does get quite hot, sitting easily over 100 degrees Fahrenheit at idle and getting as warm as 118.7 degrees F with every port in use -- and that’s in a cool room, with plenty of air movement. It’s rated to operate in temperatures up to 149 degrees F (at 25W output - 131F at 46W), but it would still be a good idea to keep it in a shaded area if using outside, as direct summer sun could shorten its lifespan or impact performance. If you want more Ethernet connections than your router can provide, then you need to buy a network switch. There are several reasons why you may want additional Ethernet ports---maybe you own several devices that will benefit from a wired internet connection, or maybe you want to host an old-fashioned LAN party. In any case, an inexpensive network switch will do the job.On many switches, every port runs at the same speed. But there are a growing number of devices that offer multiple speeds on different ports. If you are only connecting a small set of devices, you will only need one speed – and it’s quite commonplace now to get 1 Gigabit speeds (1000 Mbps) even on small switches. Its lightning protection design will save your devices from getting harmed in lousy weather conditions; the PoE switch automatically determines whether your device needs power or not. When you grow frustrated with Wi-Fi, a wired internet connection is usually your best bet. But you may need more Ethernet ports than your router can offer. That's where a network switch comes in handy. It's an extremely simple and affordable device, and it's one of the best upgrades for a busy home network. A Network Switch Adds Ethernet Ports to Your Router
The second question will be whether or not you want Power over Ethernet (PoE) or not. This depends on what sort of devices you are going to connect and how much PoE budget they will need. You can get switches that have PoE on all ports and others that only have it on a set number of connections. But usually, it’s a straight choice – with or without PoE. You’ll always pay a little more for a switch with PoE. The first consideration must be how many ports you need. This will be dictated by the number of devices you want to connect. You can buy switches with as few as four or eight ports, and these smaller devices are ideal for the smallest businesses or for a home office.This switch supplants our previous choice for best 5-port switch, the QNAP QSW 1105-5T, for a few reasons. First, the TP-Link just has a bigger pipe for data, pushing a consistent 2.34 Gbps where the QNAP, in our testing, only barely got over 2 Gbps in real world use. It also has a slightly more space-friendly form factor. And perhaps most importantly, where the QNAP’s warranty ends at 2 years, the TP-Link TL-SG105-M2 falls in the company’s business class of switches, giving it a generous limited lifetime warranty. Lastly, the TL-SG105-M2 sports QoS - a feature typical of most unmanaged switches that is conspicuously absent on the QSW 1105-5T. Most switches for business use will have 16, 24, or 48 ports and are designed for deployment within the network fabric. They come with a variety of features and capabilities and these factors will also influence your choice. Remember that connected devices will consume more power when active than inactive. If all your connected devices are going to be active at the same time you might need the switch to have quite a high PoE budget i.e. up to 30W per port. On some switches, you might have only 15W per port maximum. Also, the way that the power is distributed might be significant. Many switches will have a fixed maximum Wattage per port; on others, the power can be dynamically allocated, so different PoE ports can use more power if it’s needed by the connected device. But a wireless connection introduces several variables. Protocol compatibility, interference, signal-obliterating wall materials, or even poorly-designed radios and antennas can slow a speedy gigabit connection to a comparative crawl. For much more on this, see our how-to choose a gaming router feature. Fast Ethernet is the upgraded version of the original ethernet that speeds things up even more. It increased ethernet’s transfer rate from 10 megabits per second to 100 megabits per second.
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