Home > Consumer Reviews > TRENDnet 5-Port 10/100Mbps Switch (Plastic)

Bottom line: Small, light weight and just works. Power brick is half the size of the unit itself and is also very light.

I was looking for a portable network switch to keep in my backpack for occasions when I had a network drop but no wireless. Searching around I found this one and saw that the switch itself is small and light, but I was worried about the power brick. Turns out the brick is small too, so I'm very happy with my purchase.

I've used the switch to network two Macs together and to connect multiple Macs to various network drops. The switch has always worked flawlessly. It doesn't care in which of the five ports you plug in the cables, it figures it all out and just works.

According to my kitchen scale, the switch weighs just under 4 ounces and the power brick just under 3.

I found this product while looking for a way to split the LAN at my job into two. We get one ethernet cord running to our desk and that's it. I was worried that my company would have some kind of block to not allow this to happen (they don't allow streaming video, audio, etc... so they block a lot of things). I found the unit on sell (about half price) and decided it was worth the price to try it. I tried it at home at first and it worked great (I have a router at home, so don't really need this at home, but just wanted to make sure it worked at home so if it didn't at the office, then I'd know it wasn't the device). I unplugged the ethernet from one computer, plugged this in and plugged in two computers. So, basically, there was one ethernet cord going from the router to the TRENDnet box and two computers branched off from there. Worked great - no set up needed, just plug-n-play. So, now for the big test: I took it to work. Worked with no big problems - same plug-n-play. The only thing is that when I plug my computer directly to the work LAN, it says the connection at 1 GBPS, but through this device, it shows up as 100 MBPS. I can't really tell any problems so far with speed - everything is working as normal, but now I have online access on both my work computer and my laptop. So, for me, this device works as advertised and meets my needs.

PS - sorry for my non-technical review, but I'm no tech expert!

PPS - don't forget you'll need an additional ethernet cord to make this connection. I didn't think of it at first, but luckily remembered before I finished my transaction and was able to pick up a cheap 3-footer.

I got one of these a while back for my home network, and it has worked great. Because of this, when I needed some switches for a network I was building at my church, I ordered 3 of these. Alas, I couldn't get them to work with their older 10BaseT network - for some unknown reason it would connect with the network but it wouldn't work with the church's DHCP server. I opened 2 of them and they both had the same result. I tried one of them at home and it worked fine, so I don't think they were defective - there was just some kind of incompatibility. I borrowed a Netgear switch from my work and tried it and it worked, so I ordered 3 of the same model NETGEAR FS608 8-Port Fast Ethernet Switch to replace the TRENDnets. They have been working great. I returned the 3 TRENDnets and Amazon was great enough to refund nearly the entire amount for them even though I had opened 2 of them. That's why I just love Amazon!!

This little 5 port switch is in my laptop computer bag at all times. There are plenty of situations I find myself in where there are several people who need Internet access but there is only one connection. Does anyone happen to have a switch? 9 times out of 10 the answer is "no."

This switch has a great feature that I wasn't expecting to find on such a small, low-cost unit. It auto-uplinks to any other switches on the network - no crossover cables necessary. That's one less specialty cable required to carry around to ensure network connectivity. Good job TRENDnet!

Otherwise there is nothing remarkable about this switch besides being small, light and does what network switches are supposed to do. After quite a bit of searching, this was the smallest switch I could find. At 3.1" x 3.9" x 1.2" it can't get much smaller!

Ordered it Friday (Tiger Direct $9.99 + $7.xx Shipping), got it Tuesday. I plugged an e-net cable from my DSL portal/modem(which has a USB jack and an e-net jack and it's hooked to my main computer upstairs via USB cable)into port 1, my basement computer(WindowsVista)into port 2, My son's X-Box 360 into port 3. Each of the three kids are now online at the same time even though the quick setup guide said it wasn't designed for multiple computers to share an internet connection and you should use a router. I read that after I had ordered it so I was unsure if it'd work at all. It's tiny and it works fine so I'm set for under $20.