Linksys EG008W Gigabit 8-Port Workgroup Switch

Company: Linksys
Product: EG008W Gigabit Switch
Street Price: ~$175
Date Reviewed: July 31, 2003
Reviewed By: Jason Rabel

What's In The Box:

There's not a lot to say about what is included, you get the switch, the AC adapter, instruction manual, warranty card, and a promo sheet.

The EG008W has the same footprint as other Linksys devices so you can stack them on top of each other to save space. The front panel has several LEDs so you can monitor activity, speed, etc. All ports support auto MDI/MDI-X cable detection, so you don't have to worry if your cable is a regular pass-thru, or a crossover cable. The back of the switch is nothing special, there are 8 ports, and the plug for the AC adapter.

There is a fan inside, and initially it was fairly quiet for me, though I've been reading mixed results where some people complain the fan is extremely noisy. After time my fan did start to get louder, and I oiled it several times with little success. Finally I just gave up and took the fan out and placed heatsinks on chips that generated the most heat, so now it is completely silent.

Opening your Linksys switch will void the warranty. To open it up you will need to pop off the front (the dark blue part), it's held by clips on the sides so just pull it forward. The top piece then slides back, then up. That should bring you to the picture above. There is a bracket that holds the fan in place that can be unscrewed. The board itself is held in by a single screw.