Ubiquiti Inc. is a renowned manufacturer of networking equipment. The solutions offered by the company are characterized by a high level of quality and reliability at a fairly affordable price not only for large organizations, but also for small businesses and home customers. One of the newest additions to their product line is the affordable
EdgeSwitch 18X switch. While designed to support small networks, the device also features support for optical connectivity, PoE-In and PoE-Out features.
The EdgeSwitch 18X has 16 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 2 1 Gigabit SFP connectors, and supports 24V incoming PoE on the first port and managed outgoing PoE on port 16. Pairs 4, 5 (+) and 7, 8 (-) are used. The switch measures 299.8 mm x 160 mm x 43.7 mm and weighs 1150 grams.
It comes complete with a standard 24 VDC, 1 A power supply and power cord, and an instruction manual. The unit has ESD/EM protection, air: ± 16 kV, contact ± 8 kV. It can operate, according to the specifications, in temperatures from -10 to 50°C and maximum humidity of 95% without condensation. It is designed to be mounted on a wall or in a 19" rack.
Before we move on to configuring the switch, it is worth looking at the possible scenarios for its use. The
EdgeSwitch 18X is suitable for installation in networks that require simple network switching control and a single PoE device that supports
24V Passive PoE mode. This could be Ubiquiti UniFi series budget Wi-Fi access points, video cameras, Ubiquiti airMAX / airMAX ac series wireless CPE routers. From third-party solutions, this power standard is supported by most
MikroTik devices.
Initial connection and configuration of the router
By default, the switch is configured to obtain a network address using the DHCP protocol. In addition, there is traditionally an "emergency" static address of 192.168.1.2. When you first connect via the WEB interface, the system will suggest changing the password (ubnt/ubnt) to a more secure one.
Login (login: ubnt, password: ubnt)
Most port information and settings are displayed on a convenient and clear summary screen ("Dashboard"). It displays the current switch load, status of each port, link speed, PoE status and other useful information.
Use the "i" icon to access more detailed information. This icon also gives access to the "Cable Test" tool. Each port can be forced to restart. PoE settings for the EdgeSwitch 18X are only available on port 16 (disabled or Passive 24V).
Additional port settings are available via the cogwheel icon. Each port can be enabled or disabled, put into an "isolated" state (such a port will not communicate with other "isolated" ports). The "Flow Control" option disabled by default, it allows to use the 802.3x Ethernet Flow Control technology. The DHCP Snooping option allows to monitor DHCP messages between servers and clients and to create a list of "trusted" DHCP servers.
An interesting feature is the ability to force a speed limit for each port. It may be useful e.g. when using ISP tariff plan with limited access speed.
The system settings of the switch are fairly standard for Ubiquiti devices. It is possible to change the network address, connect the device to the centralized UNMS monitoring system, change access ports for management interfaces. The "Device Discovery" option allows the switch to respond to queries from Ubiquiti's discovery systems, and in turn the switch itself creates a list of neighboring devices.
Several tools are included with the management interface. The MAC address table shows a list of available devices on the network, and for Ubiquiti devices it displays a range of additional information (which is collected by the Discovery tool). The "Ping" tool allows you to check the availability of network resources. The "Discovery" tool collects data on available Ubiquiti devices, although this data may be incomplete. For example, UniFi access points customized to the controller are not visible in the tool.
USNM also makes it easy to update firmware with a few mouse clicks.
Configuration of Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 18X via UNMS Cloud Service
UISP is a service that allows us to configure, update and monitor several different Ubiquiti platforms: airMAX, airCube, airFiber, EdgeMAX and UFiber.
With this service, we can configure the Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 18X from basic to the most advanced settings on the ports of the device.
UISP Features
- Fast, automatic and transparent traffic shaping and suspension: everything is managed by UISP (no more manual configuration of firewall, NAT or QoS rules).
- Simple client installation with auto-discovery and via the UISP mobile app.
- Traffic shaping, hold and NetFlow compatible with DHCP: dynamic IP addresses are now enabled. UISP always knows the current IP address of all Ubiquiti devices.
- Advanced network monitoring, even for devices on a separate network, behind NAT. Also, transparent (seamless) migration to the cloud is now possible.
- Automatic UISP backups - creates restore checkpoints that you can go back to in case of problems.
- UI changes bring not only a fresh, modern look, but also new smart filtering.
- Search by title is a new feature that allows full-text searching for a desired keyword across all UISP systems.
- Ethernet connection data links are now created automatically via LLDP. Creating a complete network topology map in UISP is now easier than ever.
- Intelligent outage tracking now reports only the device responsible for the network problem, instead of all devices on the affected segment.
- Secure credential storage allows you to store device login credentials and use them for fast login.
Summary - pros and cons of the Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 18X
Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 18X is a very simple switch for basic tasks in carrier and corporate networks. With 16 gigabit ports, it has a bandwidth of 18 Gbps. L2 management offers extensive Layer 2 management and a range of L3 routing capabilities. The device is well designed for building and expanding networks, and the basic package includes everything you need to mount it in a server rack or on a wall.
Disadvantages:
- Power supply only 24V
- No support for 802.3af/at/bt etc
- No IGMP Snooping support
- No SFP ports
Pros:
- Ability to work as a power flipping switch with the use of PoE-IN and PoE-Out
- Ease of use and configuration
- UISP support
- Low power consumption, only 14W max
- Supports 4k vlan
- Support for QoS (Traffic shaping), one queue per copper port.
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