The manufacturer D-Link has launched its first unmanaged switch for home environments that has Multigigabit ports. Nowadays, having a Multigigabit network in a home or small and medium office environment is very important, because we will be able to transfer data at speeds of 2.5Gbps or higher, in this way, we will be able to make the most of the NAS servers that already incorporate this type of connectivity. Today in Redeszone we are going to show you all about the new D-Link DMS-106XT switch, a really interesting model, not only because of its spectacular design, but also because of its features and the performance it is capable of offering.
Main features
This new switch is unmanageable, this means that we will not have a configuration menu via the web to make different settings on the equipment. As it is a non-manageable switch, it is completely Plug&Play, that is, we simply have to connect it to the electric light and then connect the different devices via cable so that they can communicate with each other. However, this switch has a very important feature at the firmware level that we will explain later.
This D-Link DMS-106XT has a total of 5 ports 2.5G MultigigabitThis means that we will be able to connect different devices with 2.5G cards and achieve speeds of 2.5Gbps Full Duplex, that is, both upload and download simultaneously. This kit allows devices to sync at 10/100/1000Mbps speeds on these 2.5G ports, with the goal of backward compatibility with older devices. In addition to these 2.5G ports, we also have one 10GBASE-T Multigigabit port that will allow us to connect a NAS server or a PC at the maximum possible speed, this 10G port allows speeds of 5Gbps, 2.5Gbps and also the typical 10/100/1000Mbps. Thanks to this 10G port we can both connect a NAS or PC to quickly exchange files between the rest of the ports, or connect this switch to the backbone network at a speed of 10Gbps so as not to have a bottleneck.
Other very important characteristics of this model are that it has a capacity of 45Gbps switchingAlso, the transmission method is typical store and forward, we also have a MAC table of up to 4K entries. Finally, it has support for Jumbo Frames at 9KThis means that we will be able to squeeze the most out of the wired network to have effective speeds of about 2.45Gbps and 9.8Gbps respectively.
This equipment has a white LED strip when it is in “normal” operating mode. However, this LED strip turns different colors when we activate the “Turbo Mode” since it is the mode oriented for gaming and streaming video in 4K. East “turbo mode» it is activated through a switch that we have on the back of the switch, where the different equipment is connected to the ports, and what it does is activate the QOS (Quality of Service) that it has internally, this QoS is based on priority per port and will allow us to have the minimum possible latency and the best user experience in online games and also in 4K streaming. Every time we move the switch to turbo mode or not, the switch will restart, so you must take this into account before moving it to avoid connection cuts.
The D-Link DMS-106XT has a maximum consumption of 10.6W, therefore, it is a very low consumption device. The dimensions of this model are 21.7cm long, 16.3cm wide and 3.3cm high, with a weight of 680 grams. This switch does not have any type of active cooling with fans, the cooling is completely passive thanks to its metal casing, in addition, something we would like to add is that the quality of the materials of this switch is top of the range, we have never seen a home switch so well built, and it shows as soon as we take out the D-Link DMS-106XT out of the box.
Unboxing this unmanaged switch
The first thing that caught our attention about this unmanaged switch is the quality of materials. As soon as we take the switch out of the box we can appreciate the good construction that this equipment has, and that is that the metal casing does not look anything like the rest of D-Link models such as the DGS-108 for domestic environments, or other models oriented to companies such as the DGS-1210 or DXS-1210. This team has a really amazing design, and it is suitable for placing it in the living room, since all the wired connections and the power connector are on the back, in this way, we will not see a single cable, we will only see the equipment status LEDs that are on the front, and we will also see the LED strip that will indicate if we have Turbo mode activated or not. However, if you are going to put it in the living room and you do not want to see any light, you will always be able to deactivate each and every one of the lights on the switch by pressing the button on the back.
If you are moving from a standard Gigabit Ethernet network to a Multigigabit network at home, this model with its 5 2.5G Multigigabit ports and the 10G port will provide you with excellent performance. The only handicap we can put on it is that it would have been desirable if it had two 10G ports instead of just one, but this carries a significant additional cost. However, this 10G port will allow us to connect a PC or NAS and that the rest of the equipment connected to the 2.5G ports can access it and make the most of the ports.
In the following video you can see all the details of this new high-performance switch, and with a truly spectacular design:
Soon in RedesZone we are going to offer you a complete analysis where you can see all the technical specifications in detail, and we will also check the real performance of this switch with our Multigigabit equipment, including a laptop with the D-Link DUB-E250 adapter that we have analyzed previously.
