SmallNetBuilder

Trendnet TEG-160WS - more

For each port, you can configure speed, flow control and port-based QoS. The TEG-160WS does not support 802.1q VLANS or 802.1p QoS. Port-based QoS is limited to two queues: Normal or High.

You do get a traffic summary screen showing traffic per port. You can also select an individual port and drill down on more detailed statistics including distribution of traffic by packet size. Port mirroring, while supported, is limited to mirroring a single source port to a target port.

The TEW-160WS is almost completely lacking in reporting capabilities. It doesn't have support for SNMP. About the only monitoring available are a limited number of traps that can be sent to a computer running the discovery utility—a feature also available in both the Netgear and D-Link switches. You do have the ability to backup and restore switch settings, but firmware upgrades must be done through the configuration utility.

Construction details

Figure 12: TEG-160WS Interior

The interior of the TEG-160WS looks remarkably similar to the D-Link—right down to the power supply, the LED displays and the fans. The Trendnet switch, however, uses two fans and as expected, produced higher noise levels when measured 3 feet from the unit. Still, it was significantly quieter than the Netgear switch that also used two fans.

Unlike any of the units in this roundup, Trendnet is using a Broadcom BCM5346 17 port gigabit Ethernet controller. A review of the chip's spec sheet indicates that it's a fairly capable chip that supports a number of features that are not enabled on the TEG-160WS including spanning tre/ rapid spanning tree, four hardware queues, per port rate controls and 802.1x access control. The chipset also supports jumbo frames, which are not enabled on their switch.