Strengths:Good case design for stackability, good performance
Weaknesses:Fan noise, heat, prone to failure
Summary:I bought both this and the 5-port version. The 5-port doesn\'t have a fan and is much cooler. For some reason the 8-port generates a lot of heat and must be fan-cooled.
Worked great for 2 months (not stacked) then suddenly quit. Linksys replaced it, which covered me for another 2 months until the obviously USED replacement quit. I have just completed month 1 of the replacement for the replacement, and so far so good.
Although I was able to get Linksys to replace the unit twice, the process was incredibly long and frustrating. They don\'t just give you an RMA number, you have to go through their website and enter your case number. The case number is supposed to be sent to you in an email after you talk to tech support. To get my case number took me approximately 7 phone calls, 4 hours of my time, and endless repetition of the story to idiots at tech support trying to see if they could make my existing unit work (for crying out loud, it\'s a SWITCH! It has no controls, only lights, with ceased to work when it stopped carrying network traffic!). Everyone at tech support was very interested to determine when exactly I purchased the original unit, even when I was calling to return the replacement unit when it died.
Anyway, Linksys has a good reputation and most of their products are good, but I cannot recommend this unit. Due to the problems with tech support, I am hesitant to recommend Linksys at all.
