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Ashok Braganza - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Consultant at moj
Real User
Offers easy integration but needs to be more efficient
Pros and Cons
  • "The tool offers easy integration."
  • "The tool is only 75 percent efficient and not 100 percent as expected, making it an area where the tool can be improved."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution in my company for our normal work. We have the tool as a wireless connection. The tool is used for normal purposes, and there are no special use cases attached to the tool.

In our business environment, the tool is utilized not in all the sites but only in a few buildings where we have it.

What is most valuable?

There is nothing I find to be specifically valuable in the solution since we are a company with engineers who are experts in Cisco. The tool has normal features, so there isn't any area the tool has improved in our company.

What needs improvement?

In our company, we haven't explored the tool much. We are using the tool as a normal product.

I didn't experiment to see what are the features that are required in the product. As long as the tool works, everything will be fine with our company.

The tool is only 75 percent efficient and not 100 percent as expected, making it an area where the tool can be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches for twenty years.

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a very stable solution.

The reliability of the tool has affected our network uptime. There has been no hardware failure, and everything has been perfect in the tool.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

My company has not seen any AI integrated into the tool for any of the use cases.

The tool offers easy integration. We didn't have any issues or a tough time with the product.

I recommend the tool to others.

I rate the tool a seven to eight out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

I have not escalated any issues to the solution's technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I work with switches from Aruba and HPE. Aruba and HPE are more advanced, but we are using the old Cisco tools. At my company, we did a PoC with Aruba, and it was very good. Aruba is cheaper than Cisco. Aruba is more advanced in terms of integrations and monitoring.

What about the implementation team?

The tool was deployed by the local partner, the one who supplies it.

What was our ROI?

I have not calculated the benefits of the use of the tool since it has been a long time since we got it into the company.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The tool's pricing doesn't matter because it is purchased on a tender basis.

The tool's price is reasonable.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have only evaluated Arba against Cisco.

What other advice do I have?

My company has not seen any AI integrated into the tool for any of the use cases.

The tool offers easy integration. We didn't have any issues or a tough time with the product.

I recommend the tool to others.

I rate the tool a seven to eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PeerSpot user
Ceo & President at TNL
Real User
Useful web interface, scalable, and simple implementation
Pros and Cons
  • "Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches is stable."
  • "The documentation should be improved from Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches. Although it hints or refers to being able to do certain operations, they try to get you to load the software instead. They need to be more open with their documentation on using the web interface and give the client the option to use the software or not. This improvement is not on the switch itself, it is in the packaging."

What is our primary use case?

I can program Linksys and have onioned Linksys. I have put the onion into a Linksys, and made it onto our network. I have worked with them quite a bit.

What needs improvement?

The documentation should be improved from Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches. Although it hints or refers to being able to do certain operations, they try to get you to load the software instead. They need to be more open with their documentation on using the web interface and give the client the option to use the software or not. This improvement is not on the switch itself, it is in the packaging.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches within the past 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not used Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches too much in commercial environments other than the residential apartment systems that I have here. This is where residents have plugged in the Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches in their system. They seem to have no problem with device communication to Netgear and the Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches environment. 

They don't have any problem working in Roku's environment. I've even seen them used on Aruba's. From what I've seen for their functionality, and then putting them into where there's no back-end, you're connected to a cable modem, they seem to be the most robust. They don't seem to give you a lot of problems. I very rarely have an issue. When you're dealing with an apartment complex that has a thousand plus residents, each with their own router and other hardware, working in this close proximity of each other, 50 feet or less of each other, they don't seem to have a problem working in that environment.

Some of the Netscapes I have used where you have them too close together, you can start having issues that are caused by congestion of the airway of the channels that are being used. I find that the Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches are able to somehow deal with that better. Even if you have heavy congestion, they seem to be able to handle it better with their communication.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used many solutions, such as Belkin, Netscape, and Netgear.

The one problem I have found with the Belkin routers, and wireless points that people typically purchase is they want to phone home. If it can't phone home, the firewall blocks all communications.

If you are in a secured environment where everything is secured, the phoning home makes the switch not functional. Someone has to sit there and argue with it for a while to finally configure it to where it can phone home. Then every time you turn around, it wants to shut down because it can't phone home every so many day. That put Belkin off the list. I hook up the Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches straightforward, right out of the box. Most of the time, people don't have to do anything to it for it to work correctly. It works right out of the box in their environment.

How was the initial setup?

The installation of Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches is very easy. They are simpler to implement than other solutions.

With Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches I am able to direct the install software to be set up at a certain IP address to be done there. It has a good web interface when it comes to setting things up, you don't have to load needless software into your computer. Anything that requires you to load the software into your computer is one thing I turn away from because that's more resources taken from my computing platform. If I have to waste resources to control something that's supposed to be doing its own job, then what do I have it for. 

Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches doesn't force me to do that. Some of the Netscape's are similar to that. Netscape's interface is not as easy to navigate because they keep changing the interface. From one appliance to the other, your interface is not uniform. I could go with the Linksys, and if I've done one, I can find my way through most any of the others.

What other advice do I have?

For the home user or end-user, that doesn't have a high-end back-end running. I usually recommend the Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches. I recommend Linksys more than I do Netgear because of the simple installation. 

For home and small office use where you don't have a major back-end, I would recommend Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches.

Using Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches in a commercial residential environment where you have a lot of people using them, with individual configuration. I would give them an eight or a nine out of ten because I have had problems, but most of it is user-related. If they understood the documentation it would be better implemented, they would understand, and I probably wouldn't run across problems. Most of the time the problem is where they're plugging them in backward. They don't understand that just because the plug fits on the back does not mean it is correct. There's a reason why you have a WAN and a LAN side. The documents do not explain it well enough to people. The installer gives them a little bit more information so they know not to plug in the other way. That can cause some havoc.

Using Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches in a commercial office environment, non-heavy back-end or light back-end, they seem to work well. Under another router, they seem to do well and are stable. I don't have a lot of issues with them. I typically install them and forget about them. Most of the issues I have is their equipment is the hardware might fail and had to switch the equipment, and then gave them their ID and password. However, getting them back up's and running is pretty simple. I reset everything, turn everything back, change the passwords, and everything is back working.

When it comes to the heavy back-end commercial implementation, Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches do work when you have a heavy back-end. I don't see them used as much there and therefore cannot give a rating. I have not seen them in that environment as much to judge them on.

I rate Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Director of Information Technology at UniTeller Financial Services
Real User
Easy-to-use, with great product support, this versatile, mature product is a multi-faceted solution
Pros and Cons
  • "Ease-of-use and ease-of-management are good qualities of this product."
  • "The Cisco user interfaces can be difficult to use and maintain."

What is our primary use case?

I have been in so many situations using this product it is hard to choose a primary use. I have worked for many companies, so we have used them as access switches, we have used them as distribution switches, we have used them as IDF (Intermediate Distribution Frame) closets for floor switches. We have used them as code switches and clusters and chassis. I have gone through using all the different versions of switches in many scenarios, like remote offices, access to quotas for distribution. I have used the switches on every level and in exhaustive possibilities.  

What is most valuable?

I think the most valuable feature of Cisco Switches is basically the ease of use, the ease of management. The most important thing may be the support. Support is available and having access to good support has been the difference all along as a user of Cisco products. The most important thing about product support is that everything is made very available. Most of this stuff — I would say more than 90% of the technical stuff — is available online. Anybody can just go online and Google their questions, problems, or what they want to find out about and just download the documents and then get to work with the product. Some other products are good products, but there is not so much good technical information out there to support the products. Those products become less useful and less fully utilized.  

What needs improvement?

I think that Cisco UI interfaces need to be a little better. They use Java for parts of the graphical user interfaces and that messes up things from time-to-time. It is very hard to maintain that graphical user interface. If it would be anything but Java it would be better. Like if you could just access the GUI from a browser, that would be wonderful. But every time Cisco has their own product — like CCP (Cisco Configuration Professional) which is a nightmare to use.  

What I believe they could do more with is enhancement of the security features. The security controls that are given to users with Cisco 4600 now can be integrated with the Cisco firewalls. I think something similar needs to be done on those Lynksys models as well.  

For how long have I used the solution?

It feels like we have been using Cisco Switches forever. I have been using their products since I started my career and that was back in 1988. That makes it about 32 years now.  

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco Lynksys Switches are pretty stable. No complaints. I think, in general, the majority of the Cisco switches are very stable if not all of them.  

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is easy to scale the Cisco products, absolutely. There are a variety of ways to scale it.  

How are customer service and technical support?

Cisco has good technical support. But Cisco is also an advantage when you go out and you want to hire someone for your group to work with the product. For Cisco products, you can find a lot of candidates with experience. If you go with some other products that are not so commonly used, they will not have as many available certified technical people. So it is not as easy to find good candidates for those other products. For Cisco, you can find a lot of people with the necessary skill set.  

Technical support is one of the biggest reasons to go with Cisco as a mature and competitive product that is familiar and generally has good support.  

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have been using Cisco products for my entire long career. They are not exactly the same product for the entire time but they are Cisco quality. If there is a switch between solutions it may be to upgrade or because I moved companies or that requirements change. It has been nothing unusual to switch using one Cisco product for another.  

How was the initial setup?

I think it is pretty straightforward to set up and implement. I think they are pretty standard. It is not rocket science. The person doing the work should have some basic knowledge of working with switches. That would be all they need.  

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

When it comes to pricing, I think the licensing cost is not that bad. It is actually very competitive within the product category.  

What other advice do I have?

The advice I would offer to others in implementing Cisco Lynksys Switches is that somebody on the team has to be well aware of basic networking and how the search network works. That will make them easier to use and implement.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate the Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches depending on the class. For example, I think the Cisco 9300s are almost an eight-out-of-ten.  

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
MohammedSaleh - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Of Operations at Advanced Data Systems
Reseller
Top 5
Stable solution with an easy initial setup process
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a scalable solution."
  • "The solution's price could be better."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to establish a network infrastructure for the customers.

What is most valuable?

The solution has the best uplink features in terms of speed.

What needs improvement?

The solution's price could be better. It is a significant concern for most of the end users.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for more than 20 years. I have worked with different series, including the 2900, 3900, and 9000 series.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the solution's scalability a ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

Customers with an SLA license contact us for technical support. The queries are related to collaboration or security.

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup is straightforward. The time taken for deployment depends on the requirement. For an access switch, it takes a day. For a core switch, it may take a couple of hours.

The process includes submitting design documentation and a network implementation plan to the customers. After approval, we provide templates and configuration guidelines to them. Later, we conduct a network readiness test to ensure its successful implementation. It requires two technicians to execute the process for extensive networks.

What about the implementation team?

We implement the solution with the help of Cisco partners.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution's price is high. Although, they offer around 50% or above discount on some of their products. So, it is manageable.

What other advice do I have?

I have experience working with the solution's core switches, distribution series, and regular access switches. I recommend it and advise others to have a CCNA level of knowledge to administer and support their end users. I rate it a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
Mark Moloney - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Network Manager at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
Real User
Easy to use and reliable, but they lack the management capabilities needed for enterprise-class switches
Pros and Cons
  • "Linksys switches are easy to use. You can pull the switch out of the box, plug it in, and it's going to work."
  • "I would like to see more manageability. That's primarily the reason why Linksys switches don't work in the enterprise space. They don't have the management and capabilities of other switches."

What is our primary use case?

Linksys switches are usually at the edge. People usually go with other switches for the core, but this is the switch that all the desktops connect to. It's primarily used in small offices. Once you're in a position where you really need a ton of bandwidth, companies tend to move away from Linksys to Cisco, Brocade, or another enterprise switch.  Most of the companies that use Linksys have fewer than 200 or 300 users. 

What is most valuable?

Linksys switches are easy to use. You can pull the switch out of the box, plug it in, and it's going to work. 

What needs improvement?

I would like to see more manageability. That's primarily the reason why Linksys switches don't work in the enterprise space. They don't have the management and capabilities of other switches.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Linksys Ethernet switches for 10-15 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't seen issues with them. On occasion, they'll have a bad port come up, but that's just about any switch.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I don't consider them to be scalable. As far as I know, they don't talk to each other at all. You can't put three of them together as a stack and then work off that. 

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward to set up and maintain Linksys switches. One network engineer is enough to handle it. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Linksys switches are at the low end of the price range, but that's partly because of where they fit in the whole scheme of things. They're definitely a lower-price option.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Cisco Linksys ethernet switches five out of 10. They're not very feature-rich, but they have sufficient features for the market segment they occupy. Don't expect a ton out of them. They're good for what they're designed for, but if you try to stretch them, they're just not going to perform the way you want.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
PeerSpot user
it_user1414992 - PeerSpot reviewer
DGM Programming at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Reliable hardware that does its job so you can do yours
Pros and Cons
  • "My work is able to continue because the switches are reliable."
  • "The simplicity of management could be improved so the object-based switch management is possible."

What is our primary use case?

In our environment, we are using Cisco switches in Visio clusters. We are using Dell servers, and we are using Dell Precision workstations. I do not remember the model number of the Cisco switches. We are using the Cisco network series of switches and they are the L2 class. I think they are the 2960 series of switches.  

At present, our company policy does not allow us to host any of our data on the public cloud. We are revising the information security policy. Until this new policy comes into effect, we will not be able to go into the public cloud.  

In the end, the switches will continue to be a component of data interpretation in our environment.  

What is most valuable?

My work is able to continue because the switches are reliable. That is mostly what is important to me. I can not say that I like the product more than other switches because I have not worked with other switches in a long time and I have not had any difficulty with these. They are working fine right now and the support is good for so far.  

What needs improvement?

In particular, the simplicity of management could be improved. At present, all these switches require a software layer. For example, I am asking for the SDN (Software Defined Networking) for managing a network-based project. Similarly, I would like to get the SDS (Smart Distributed System) for storage projects. Managing things is a little bit difficult, definitely. So, manageability can be improved. At the individual product level, an improvement to the difficulty of management will be very helpful for admin users.  

For how long have I used the solution?

I think we have been using these Lynksys Ethernet switches for five or six years, but as far as Cisco products are concerned, we have been using Cisco products for a much longer time.  

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Overall, my organization has more than 30 or 40 work centers, data centers, and more than about 15 or 20,000 users. It is not possible to tell the exact number of end-users. So we are already running on a large scale. Our plans are to subscribe to a private cloud. By that, I mean we plan to convert the whole data center to cloud services. As far as the technical capabilities are concerned, Cisco Lynksys switches will be something we can still use. Commercially, I do not know if they are feasible. I already talked to a Cisco person about the technical qualifications and he assured me that the product qualifies technically.  

How are customer service and technical support?

Personally, I have never taken any personal support, because I have a different team. But there definitely has been no complaint regarding the Cisco support. I cannot say every customer gets the same support, but at our company we definitely have got good support.  

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We use L3 switches in one of the Nexus series of switches. I do not remember the series. We use them concurrently. It depends on the situation.  

How was the initial setup?

It is a little difficult to answer if it is straightforward or complex because some parts are easy and some parts are difficult. Also, it will not be possible for me to say first-hand, because when the deployment was going on, I was not here.  

Nowadays everything is software-driven. Even network products are configured through NFS (Network File System). Because we have to configure each individual switch, which makes it more complex. Once you are on object-based storage like SDN, it becomes easy to manage things. Most of the time, it is manageability which is complex. It is not the product which is giving us any problems. Managing every little product one-at-a-time is difficult. With something like SDN, or these types of alternative management systems, we can manage all these things through a single software interface — a single pane of glass — that becomes easy.  

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this product for other users who want to start using it. We do not have anything negative to say about the product and it has been serving us well. There would be no reason not to recommend it.  

On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate this product from my perspective as a nine-out-of-ten. It would be very difficult for me to give it a higher rating. There are parts of it that can be improved.  

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Ashok Braganza - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Consultant at moj
Real User
Great interface, helpful support, and easy to use
Pros and Cons
  • "It's stable and we never have to worry about it."
  • "The pricing can be a bit unstable."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution as switches. We use it across the justice system in our country. They are in lots of buildings. 

We are using it for networking for WAN network connections.

How has it helped my organization?

The stability has come in handy for us. If you compare it to Huawei or HPE, it's more reliable.

We are using the ICE integration with Cisco and that's it.

What is most valuable?

It's great for networking. 

We are using protocols like OSPF.

It works very well. 

We are using the common features and it works well for us.

It's stable and we never have to worry about it. 

The setup is straightforward. 

The product is scalable.

What needs improvement?

We aren't lacking any features. 

The pricing can be a bit unstable. It's dependent on the account manager. They should offer reasonable standard pricing. We need to go through local vendors and everything varies far too much.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for 20 years now. It's been a very long time. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've never had issues with stability. The switches are always stable and reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have nearly 2,000 switches. Right now, we have 10,000 users. 

It's quite scalable. The product is not limited in any way. 

How are customer service and support?

We have Smart Net support. If anything comes up, we open a ticket with Cisco and they assist. They will replace the hardware within a week or two typically. 

They are all qualified CCIE and are quite knowledgeable.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used to use Huawei switches many years ago. We also used HPE. We are purely using Cisco now. Cisco has better support and the switches are easier to use. The Command Line is different and simple.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward. It's not difficult at all.

It is easy to maintain everything.

What about the implementation team?

We handle the setups in-house. 

What was our ROI?

We've noted an ROI. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is okay. 

Depending on the account manager, whether he gives a discount or not will determine the price. Sometimes they give you a 70% discount and sometimes there's no discount. The price is not stable.

Comparatively, the pricing is pretty good.

What other advice do I have?

We are an end user. 

Every year, we are changing the product and tend to use the latest versions. Right now, we are using 93 on many. We may use different switch versions.  

We'd recommend the product. It's stable and has a good interface. 

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Assistant Director at unpa
Real User
Reasonably priced, and has web-based interface for administration
Pros and Cons
  • "Administration can be done using the web-based interface."
  • "This product does not scale to environments where there is a lot of network traffic."

What is our primary use case?

We use this switch in our network layer 3. One of our use cases is managing the VLAN, and connecting with other VLANs.

What is most valuable?

Administration can be done using the web-based interface.

What needs improvement?

This product does not scale to environments where there is a lot of network traffic.

The security features for the web services can be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches for quite some time.

I am a Cisco-certified network engineer. I have experience with routing and configuring this product.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

For a smaller company, Linksys is very stable. In an environment where there is a large number of devices and a lot of traffic, this is not the best solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

With respect to scalability, this switch works well in an administration environment where the traffic is low. However, in other industries that require a lot of traffic, this type of switch is too small. In other parts of our company, we use other Cisco devices that handle a larger amount of traffic.

In our environment, scalability is good and we don't have a problem. We have 300 users. We do plan to increase our usage.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I also have experience with D-Link switches, as well as similar products from HPE including the HPE ProCurve.

For a larger architecture, such as one that is used for virtualization services, I would recommend using larger Cisco switches. On the other hand, if you have a smaller company that doesn't need a complex network with MPLS, then Linksys is a good choice because of the cost difference. Cisco switches have a very high cost.

What about the implementation team?

We have an in-house technical support team that maintains our network. There are three people on the team.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost of Linksys switches is very reasonable and for a small enterprise like my company, it's perfect.

What other advice do I have?

This is a product that I recommend, although if you have an environment that uses a lot of bandwidth then it is not the best choice. That said, there is a cost difference between Linksys and the larger Cisco products.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2025
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.