Overall, the Compex PS2216 is a decent switch.  It's got 16-ports, full auto-negotiation, VLAN, port-trunking, and it won't break the bank.  Those that do need some extra features, like remote management, will likely need to look elsewhere.  But you won't find anything like the Compex PS2216 at this price.  With so many ports on such a small box, the PS2216 provides great bang for the buck.

What it might come down to is versatility. The Compex worked wonderfully well in several networks, from a large educational institution to a little LAN party.  It might be made a little better by redesigning the lights so that it's easier to tell at a glance what's connected to what port.  But its ease of use is its most attractive feature.  You can reliably plug it in, with any type of CAT5 cable, and forget about it.  Especially with Compex's 1,000,000 packet quality assurance and three year warranty.  You just might have to dust it once in a while.

The Virtual LAN and port-trunking are interesting features to be found at this price point.  I don't know how useful they would be to most LAN party addicts, however, but I could see a small office with 10-12 machines using the PS2216.  Any more than that and I'm sure the IT manager would rather look for a box that had a least a console port and could mount in a wiring rack somewhere.  But with 'cost-effective' being a Silicon Valley catch-phrase these days, the PS2216 sure is attractive.

The performance of the PS2216 was just fine. It didn't have any problems working as advertised in our ad-hoc LAN party setting, despite the review unit's flaky power connector.  It incurred just a little over 8% performance drop in comparison to a direct link into a 10/100 network, which isn't any worse than much more expensive gear.  Needless to say, once it was installed, it became an indispensible part of the home network.

Recommended.

Ending Links

Special thanks to the great folks at Compex, Stephanie Ngan and Matthew Song for being patient and willing to answer my questions.  And to Hilbert for letting me field this one.  Thanks to Jim Warner, Network Dentist at the University California at Santa Cruz, and Jeff Fisher at the Conservatory of Music for the network drops.

http://www.cpx.com/

http://www.speedguide.com/

http://www.dslreports.com/

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/

http://www.gmd.de/Topics/ATM/tuning/#TCP

http://av.stanford.edu/books/tcpip/

http://nitro.ucsc.edu/  (but don't kill it with too much kindness)

http://noc.ucsc.edu/

http://www.sfcm.edu/

Quote of the day, "Dude, don't take me hunting…"  A Counter-Strike euphemism for Friendly Fire.

BAM

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Price: ~$60 USD, Guru3d.com PriceWatch reports 47 USD