TP-Link LS1005G 5-Port Gigabit Switch review

The LS1005G is an unmanaged five-port gigabit switch. You connect your devices and it works. TP-Link lists it as plug-and-play with no configuration needed, and owner reports praise that simplicity. It suits a desk, a media cabinet or a shelf where you need a few more wired ports and nothing else.

All five RJ45 ports run at 10/100/1000 Mbps with auto-negotiation, and they support auto-MDI/MDIX. TP-Link quotes 10 Gbps switching capacity and a 7.4 Mpps packet forwarding rate. Owners report near-gigabit throughput across all ports.

Gigabit is the ceiling. The switch has no 2.5GbE or 10GbE ports, so a device with a faster network card would connect at gigabit speed at most. For a router, a PC, a games console, a TV and a printer, that limit is unlikely to matter. For a homelab that moves large files between faster machines, it will.

This is an unmanaged switch. TP-Link lists it as needing no configuration, and one complaint from owners is the lack of management features such as VLANs and QoS. With no VLANs, you cannot separate IoT devices from lab traffic on this switch. With no QoS, you cannot prioritise one kind of traffic over another.

The flip side is that there is nothing to set up and nothing to misconfigure. If your network needs no segmentation, that is a fair trade. If it does, this is the wrong switch.

The switch has five RJ45 ports and no SFP or SFP+ uplinks. If one port connects back to your router, four remain for devices. There is no PoE on any port, so cameras, access points and phones need power from elsewhere.

The port count fits a small setup. If you expect to outgrow five ports, check that against your plans before buying, because there is no fibre uplink to join a second switch to this one.

The LS1005G is fanless, and owners praise its quiet operation. With no fan, that follows directly from the spec. That makes it a reasonable choice for a bedroom, a living room or an office where noise would be a nuisance.

TP-Link also lists Green Ethernet, which adjusts power by link status and cable length. The switch measures 90 x 72 x 23 mm and supports wall mounting. It is small enough to tuck behind a TV or fix to a wall.

The UK seller gives a two-year commercial warranty. TP-Link's US download page lists hardware versions from V1 to V6.60, so several revisions of this model exist. The sources give no firmware update history.

The LS1005G suits buyers who want extra wired ports with no setup, in a quiet and compact case. Owner reports back that up: easy to use, quiet and close to gigabit speeds on every port. The same reports also show the limits. There is no VLAN or QoS support, no PoE and no uplink beyond a standard RJ45 port.

If your network is a router, a handful of wired devices and no need for segmentation, those limits cost you nothing. If you plan to run VLANs, power devices over Ethernet or use anything faster than gigabit, look at a different switch.