New Switches for my Home Network - Cisco Business 250 & 350 Series!

In this video we take a look at the new switches that I have bought to upgrade my home network from the Cisco Business CBS350 and CBS250 ranges. We'll talk about what I've bought, take a look at the hardware and take a look at the initial setup process. Then, in the next video, we'll install them all!

Buy on Amazon (Affiliate):

Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
01:18 - My Requirements
03:32 - Cisco Business Switch Product Range
10:48 - CBS350-12XT
12:43 - CBS350-12XT - Fan Replacement
15:10 - CBS350-12XT - Hardware Tour
16:55 - CBS350-12NP-4X
20:48 - CBS250-24T-4X
23:16 - Different Casing Designs
28:32 - CBS250-16T-2G
32:22 - Initial Setup & Web Interface
43:32 - CLI Demo
48:02 - Built in Cable Length Measurements
53:00 - Initial Setup using Serial Console
58:48 - Conclusion

*AFFILIATE LINKS NOTICE:*
Product links under this video marked “(Affiliate)” are affiliate links where I may receive a small commission on qualifying sales. Affiliate programs that I am a member of include, _but are not limited to:_ Amazon Associates, eBay Partner Network and AliExpress Affiliates.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Purchasing through these affiliate links will not cost you any more money, however the commission earned significantly helps fund the production of videos on my channel.

[jamess]

"no primary cloud configuration"
"No silly firmware subscription nonsense."
I love it! Thanks Cameron. Definitely resonates 💯

[abyssalreclass]

32:00 The wall mount slots are probably that way for thermal reasons, I've got a different switch from the same range and in the manual for it, they specify ports down if it is wall mounted.

[kbhasi]

(1:45) I agree! My previous service provider provided a plastic D-Link network switch for their pay TV (IP-based) and bought additional ones from the same range to match, but when I switched ISPs, the one I switched to provided a metal TP-Link network switch instead and explained that the previous ISP's switch caused latency issues with the pay TV infrastructure they used. As such, I replaced the other D-Link switches with matching TP-Link switches.

The same applies to the multi-monitor setup I use with my main PC, in which I have matching 2012-2013 Dell U and P series monitors because I use a mix of different screen resolutions and they have them with consistent design language.

(22:26) My guess is that Amazon wanted to sell them off quickly in order to free up space in their warehouses.

[JohnDoe-lgmh]

Currently have mostly Cisco CBS250/350 and one SG300 in my home network. Use to be SG2xx/3xx. Then installed unifi for a while and ripped it out and put my Cisco switches. The unifi was a bit finicky to setup at the start. Got it working finally and was stable for a few month. Later, it was nothing but absolute headaches. Firmware would update even when I disable updates and more. Needed one to be CBS350 as I needed more than 4 LAGs. I really dislike the new offset rack mounts. I needed to mount three of my switches to a side of of something.

[granttaylor]

I have a CBS250-16T-2G as my main switch in my home office and a CBS350-8T-E-2G under the stairs connected to my Poweredge server.

With these switches you can manage them via the CLI or Web gui and there is also a mobile app as well.

[spectremarty]

Having been swapping OEM fans in enterprise kit for home use since forever, take a look at Noctua 40mm fans. Highly recommended. Very quiet. The NF-A4-20 or NF-A4-10 - excellent fans to reduce noise. 3 and 4 pin versions. 👌🏻

The Sunon fans (a lot of which online are fake) have an annoying ticking noise / bearing noise, combined with not a huge improvement in overall noise.

Food for thought!

[pyramid]

Very nice! Just upgraded my home network from the older SG350X line to the new CBS switches last year. Had to wait months to get them because they were out of stock everywhere, so someone out there is definitely using them. Running a CBS350-48NGP-4X, CBS350-24XTS, CBS350-24NGP-4X, and a CBS220-24P-4X. I hadn't noticed the difference between the 350 and 250 when ordering but my 220 looks like the 350s and mounts flush at the front. Both the 350s and 220 have fans for cooling on the side of the cases. The mesh on the top of the 250s makes it look like they are passively cooled.

[ufa]

37:57 I really like the way OpenWrt handles it, and it's the only equipment that I've seen do it like this way - where whenever you make a change, it goes into a config buffer, so you can copy the commands its going to execute for later, or hit apply, at which point it'll give you 90 seconds to log back in, and if you don't it'll revert the changes.

Still would be nice to combine this with something like startup/running config (i.e. if youre on VLAN 1, and you break VLAN 2 with your config changes, there's still an easy revert method).

Wonder if there's going to be a network equipment vendor with full git-like source control :^)

[andrevangijsel]

I ran one of the predecessors of this model the SG-350X wonderfull piece of equipment and very powerfull. Am very tempted to go catalyst 1300 again :)

[catalystguitarguy]

I'm almost done migrating my network away from assorted manufacturers and towards entirely MikroTik for hardline. Just need a Mikrotik CRS328-24P-4S+RM to finish it up... for now. But i'll have my clusters, NAS, Computers, TVs, Pi's, and then cameras and mesh wifi on PoE.

4U total used on MikroTik, 2U patch panels, 4U for my 12 Lenovo M900 cluster, and 2U for UPS.
My 12U rack will be full. and I'll be looking for a deal on either a full or half rack going forward.

[jrr]

I have a deployment of these in a business park (CBS350, CBS250, SG350, SG250) and they are dang good for what they are.

[Nevexo]

Thank god for a serial port and no cloud silliness.
I bought a few of the 250 series switches at work yesterday, Incredible timing!

[eyevo]

The 2960cx and 3560cx are also nice and fanless! Usually cheap to get used. Recently replaced Unifi with Cisco Aironet 2802i (ME) and 3650 switch.

[neogrid]

yeah you make a great point about subscriptions, best to check before buying !

[EgonSpengler]

as a Cisco engineer the guy has come on leaps and bounds over the last few years, great to setup and configure from it, but I would suggest also looking at the config when you do this so you see the cli way of doing stuff

[jaapkamstra]

Hey great video! It's a topic that is not covered much. After covid with people working from home, you want the same specs at home as you had at the office. And two port enterprice switches are not really a thing yet. I like your thoughtproces in choosing these. Most home users don't have acces to getting contracts for switches even if they wanted to. And cloud management does not make sense for home use either.
I'm in the proces of upgrading my home network. I use a firepower firewall allready. Still have to decide about routing and switching. Searching for a balance between features, powerconsumption, fannoise and price....
Thanks for your input!

[Felix-vehs]

I also thought about getting those Cisco business switches, but since they lack some of the features of Cisco iOS (like the Cisco Catalyst switches) and aren't that cheap, I decided to get some Brocade ICX 6450 and 6430 switches (the 6450 even supports layer 3 routing :D). But these are best configured through the CLI (serial / telnet / ssh), so they won't be good for beginners.

[marksie]

personally really like Juniper switches. They allow writing configuration without it being applied until you commit it, it also does some config error checking to help stop you borking the switch and losing network connectivity.

[andljoy]

For the first one why with all that space on the front did they put the console on the back!

[pineappleroad]

ive been thinking about getting a new switch to replace the 2 8-port unmanaged ones i currently have (which are sat on top of each other)
I already have a use lined up for one of those 8 port switches, as after recently done away with a mesh WiFi system i had (which conviniently gave me extra network ports), i now need to put in a switch where one of the WiFi nodes was (i say WiFi node, but it was actually a wireless router that was acting as a node, im still using the main router from the mesh setup i had)