Hands on: D-Link DSS-200G-28MP review
This comment first appeared in Issue 355 PC Pro.
D-Link Designed to monitor new directions using its DSS-200G series 2-layer switches, which are designed to power the latest switches IP camera And provide automatic recovery services. The family of 4-port switches is led by the 28-port DSS-200G-28MPP, which has a strong budget of 518W and supports 90W 802.3BT POE services.
We reviewed the DSS-200G-28MP model, which is located on the rung below, and offers a 370W power budget and a 30W 803.2AT service available in all 24 Gigabit ports. Both have four pairs of unpowered copper and double-person dual-character gigabit ports for use in network video recorders (NVRs) or servers.
This switch can power any POE-compliant device, but D-Link is mainly focused on Monitoring usage. It combines a 6kV surge protection circuit to protect external cameras from lightning strikes.
A common feature of the DSS-200G series is the blocks of the previous five DIP switches that are used to hard-set certain functions. The first switch sets the entry priority function, so that packets entering port 1 have the highest priority, while packets entering port 24 have the lowest packets.
The second switch enables POE expansion mode on the first eight ports. By allowing the power equipment (PDS) to be placed up to 250 meters away, but same as all POE expanders, it can reduce the speed to 10mbits/sec, overcoming the 100m POE cable length limit.
The third switch activates the isolation function, so packets entered on the “controlled” port are forwarded only to the specified uplink port. This is a convenient security feature; this means that if the IP camera is compromised, the intruder will not be able to access any other person attached to the switch.
Next is D-Link’s PD-Alive function, which checks the IP address of the device that is available, and will reset it if it does not respond at a specific time. POE Services And send notifications, although for traps, only support for less secure SNMPV2. Finally, the fifth tilt switch enables STP, which uses a redundant path to restore connections due to link failure.
Two management modes can be used, and then selecting the standard options from the Quick Start Wizard renders a web interface that provides access to each switch function. From here, you can configure all layer 2 features, create monitoring and voice VLANs, assign one of three POE priorities to each port, and enable global ONVIF service to discover all merged IP cameras and place them in a separate in VLAN.
Monitoring mode displays a completely different interface and has an intelligent graphical topology view showing all ports and additional devices. After connecting the three D-Link POE IP cameras, they are identified and automatically assigned icons with the correct model photos.
Add non-D-Link cameras, and as long as they meet the opinion, the switch will assign a universal camera icon, but it will not be recognized for its manufacture or model. Wait for equipment NetGear Wi-Fi 6 APS It is simply classified as “other”, but in all cases, the POE service can be recycled manually to force a remote restart.
Graphics theme continues to use the console, providing a filtered view that displays only the IP camera and its IP address and power consumption. Instead of using the fourth DIP switch, you can keep a close eye on total power consumption and switching statistics from the Monitoring Overview page, set a schedule to control powering the selected port and configure the PD-ALIVE feature on a single port.
The web console is mainly related to monitoring functions and greatly reduces access to switch settings. However, this is not a problem, because if something needs to be adjusted and then returns to monitoring mode, you can switch back to standard mode.
The DSS-200G-28MP is a worthy competitor to the business surveillance duties as it provides a large number of smart IP camera management and monitoring capabilities. The value looks good, too, as it includes a generous POE budget, but you need to focus on D-Link’s IP cameras to get the best out of it.
