TP-LINK Smart Switches anyone?

pete

Installed Java and the TP-Link application in Wine on a little tablet I have running Ubuntu 12.10.

Looks to work fine except its not seeing the switches.

Never really used Wine before. I installed the configuration utility using the wine installer.

Its still not seeing the switches.

robi

Installed Java and the TP-Link application in Wine on a little tablet I have running Ubuntu 12.10.

Looks to work fine except its not seeing the switches.

Never really used Wine before. I installed the configuration utility using the wine installer.

Its still not seeing the switches.

I don't think you should need Wine at all. Install the java package un Ubuntu as described here (that's jut one way to do it, but you can search for many other installation alternatives), and try to run javaws.jar or othe other .jar files directly. Maybe you could do some little hacking by finding how the launcher.exe is calling the app, you can similarly call it in linux then.

robi

@stephenw10:

The TL-SG2216 is not in the Easy Smart range hence it has all the features you might expect from an entry level managed switch like webgui and CLI etc.

Oops, sorry indeed. I remember now. On the OP I was also asking whether should I buy an Easy Smart version or a Smart version, and indeed, I finally bought the TL-SG2216 Smart one. The naming of these switch models is so confusing. Almost as worse as Ciscos, lol.

In my area, the TL-SG1016DE easy smart costs 123USD while the TL-SG2216 smart costs 144 USD. It's worth the 21 bucks difference at 16 ports both, to be platform independent and have CLI too.
I also have a couple of TL-SG1016 unmanaged dumb swithces (not the'DE' version) - these are the ones I'm going to replace with the TL-SG2216s. The final kick to choose this model was the fact that the TL-SG2216 is exactly the same size (physically - width/height/depth) as the TL-SG1016, so I don't need to replace my special mounting solution in one of the locations. That's just a bonus for me.

pete

Thank you guys; this discussion has been enlightening for me.

Yeah the first test was just to try the management application with Wine. It does work but doesn't see the switches. Will try playing around with the jar files as I have java installed on the Ubuntu side of things.

Here too one TP-Link EasySmart switch was a swap out of another switch in the Leviton media panel. It does fit just right. I do have many LV wires running on either side of the switch. No fan vents help in the mounting of the switch. The basic EasySmart 24 port switch with just the GUI interface is smaller than the next up version of the switch. One of the two switches has been up over a year; fully populated and barely warm to the touch. Most of the volume of traffic is relating to streaming HD stuff from multiple sources to multiple clients (+ 20 touchscreens) plus now some CCTV HD IP traffic. Price was right too. 'bout hitting around the end of that initially installed /25 subnet. Sort of related I have a similar setup in another location with the cover on the media panel now running for some 4 years 24/7; simple and functional and not seen.

robi

One more interesting observation related to TP-Link TL-SG2216.

Configuration can be backed up and restored from the web interface. The .cfg file generated is nothing else, than a list of cisco-style console commands which build up the functions of the switch. Very sweet. One could edit the file before restoring…
It contains commands like below:```
interface gigabitEthernet 1/0/6
switchport general allowed vlan 222 untagged
switchport pvid 222
no switchport general allowed vlan 1

stephenw10

That is interesting. Makes you wonder if it's possible to achieve some configuration that might not be possible via the webgui. Hidden options etc.

Steve

robi

That's what I was thinking too. The complete CLI guide is downloadable in PDF from their site.

robi

There's a new firmware available for TL-SG2216. Updating the device automatically restores it to factory default so a double-check is needed that a config backup has been done before the operation. Don't know how the other models behave, but I guess it's similar.

Unfortunately it also returns to the 192.168.0.1 IP address without gateway set, so if you have to do it remotely make sure you have a telnet-capable machine somewhere connected close, . A good idea would be to keep the default '1' vlan as it is just for management later (keep it as untagged 'native' vlan on the 'trunk' ports between the switches and pfSense), and when it returns to factory defaults, you only need to telnet in, set a default gateway by CLI and you can access the web interface from other networks if that's the case, to restore the config.
But I think copying the entire contents of the config file to clipboard and pasting it to the telnet window would do the same.

If 'trunking' vlans to pfSense, as I said above I suggest to keep vlan 1 untagged on that port. In pfSense assign the IP address 192.168.0.254 to the physical port which connects to the switch. This way, you can always telnet in your switch wihout any routing from an SSH window on pfSense.

robi

It's worth upgrading, as I see the firmware contains lots of new multicast and IPv6 features (like MLD snooping).

cwesterfield

http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?categoryid=2878&model=TL-SG108E

New owner of a TL-SG108E here.

The device has no way to configure other than windows program.

The device is currently operating in the following fashion:

Port 1 is plugged into a Staff router (Asa 5505) - Vlan 1
Port 2 is plugged into a Public use router (WRT54gV2) - Vlan 50 - PVID 50
Port 8 is plugged into a Ubiquiti AP - PVID 1 - Public Wifi sent through VLAN 50, Staff through VLAN 1

I've attached an image.

If you want to know why this abomination was necessary, read this: http://goo.gl/WTv0ah

Hopefully this helps with some of the questions presented here.

VLAN.PNG_thumb

stephenw10

Well at least that's an answer to the earlier question, there is no web interface on the cheapest model. Disappointing.

Steve

robi

You don't have to buy the cheapest one, really. Price difference is very minimal - pfSense's average user base should really avoid the cheapest models because they are not intended as target market for them.

stephenw10

That's certainly true for many but not everyone. One thing that makes pfSense, and its community, different from other projects is the very widely varying user base. Some are using it to replace $10K commercial routers and others with hardware gathered from scrap. The latter group are often asking about the cheapest way to add interfaces and using VLANs can be that especially as VLAN capable switches become ever cheaper.
Netgear seem to be threatening to put a webgui on their GS105e so that may remain the cheapest and easiest way to add VLANs.

Steve

cwesterfield

@robi:

You don't have to buy the cheapest one, really. Price difference is very minimal - pfSense's average user base should really avoid the cheapest models because they are not intended as target market for them.

As a smart man once said, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." :)

$30 for vlan support could come in handy for a number of situations. In my case, it is just a stop gap. I wont feel bad about it going unused later on because it was so cheap.

robi

I agree, but in that case, it's unfair to be disappointed that there's no CLI or webif available for it.

stephenw10

That's true. Doesn't stop me hoping to be pleasantly surprised though. ;)

Steve

thetallkid

I bought a TL-SG2424 and finally got several vlan's setup and working using the web gui only. Robi's posts helped me figure out what I was doing wrong.

To help others I am posting the steps which worked for me.

Setup vlan/s on pfsense. There are many tutorials on how to accomplish this task, so I will not cover that.

Plug cable from pfsense into port #1

Login using the default

1. VLAN –> 802.1Q --> Create a new vlan

2. Enter VLAN ID number and description.
Select the ports which will be members of the vlan. Include port #1
Click on Apply to create the vlan

3. In the top of the web page, click on Port Config
Select port #1. Change "Link Type" to General
Click on Apply

4. In the VLAN table, select your newly created vlan, click on Edit
Change Egress type of port #1 to TAG
Click on Apply

5. Save Config

Now, connecting an ethernet cable to any of the ports assigned to that vlan will provide an ip address for that VLAN

To create a second VLAN repeat steps 1, 2 & 4

Traffic for VLAN 2 will now flow to the designated ports for that VLAN.

After creating my first VLAN, I went to System --> System Info --> System IP
Changed the Management VLAN and IP address to match. Doing this allows me to manage the switch from my LAN.

robi

I enabled yesterday SNMP on the 2216 switch, and got very nice graphs for each interface in my munin-monitoring system.

On the switch, all I had to do is enabled SNMP in the web interface, on the "SNMP Community" tab added a new read-only community with the name "public" and that's all.

On the system running munin, it was as simple as running```
munin-node-configure --shell --snmp switch_name | sh


Added to /etc/munin/munin.conf an entry like this:```
[switch_name]
    address 127.0.0.1
    use_node_name no
```and restarted the munin-node service.

Getting great graphs with traffic and errors for each interface, netstat and switch uptime. Each measured parameter has detailed description and current port speed specified. This all works with Munin version 2.0.19-2 out of the box, and the default standard SNMP MIBs from the system (Ubuntu 12.04). From TP-Link's website extra MIBs can be downloaded for the switch which allow for polling even more details from the device, but I didn't try those out yet.

robi

Another yummy feature I just noticed is that if you add descriptions to the interfaces on the switch, they will appear as graph titles in Munin.

finnest

@robi:

I agree, but in that case, it's unfair to be disappointed that there's no CLI or webif available for it.

You can use the config software with any JRE enabled system (Pure Java). See info at http://pastebin.com/DwB4uaPR

These switches don't have any internal CPU to execute a server (like CLI, Web, etc.) or execute monitoring tasks (like STP), just the plain switch silicon. The software only set/get register from the internal switch silicon… like home routers do with the internal hardware switch (with tools like swconfig, http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/techref/swconfig=). No more, no less! ;)