Ethernet Switch, to be managed BY automations in HA? Need port on/off control

Sorry if this is asking in the wrong spot, but I am in need of a managed network switch such that I could use HA to control one or more port of the switch (primarily need on/off control).

At most, I would need a 5-port switch. This is going into a room where I need to be able to turn on/off internet to a couple devices.

I have attempted to use a Shelly1 mini to cut power to an unmanaged switch, and while it works, it’s not a very elegant solution IMHO.

There are many managed switches and most of them can also be managed with SNMP packets to read and write device settings.
SNMP is a standard protocol that HA also support pretty well.

1 Like

Unifi is likely going to be the easiest option. But any switch with snmp control would work.

1 Like

Thanks for the replies! Any suggestions for such a switch? It doesn’t seem like that’s a readily available piece of information in the datasheets/manuals of the switches I’ve been looking at.

EDIT: I think I found one: Trend-Net TEG-S50ES.

I have not heard of a single managed switch without SNMP support.
I think the reason why you do not find it in the listed specs is that it is such an expected part that the vendors expect it to implicit in the word “managed”.

2 Likes

I guess I don’t know much about networking, so that makes sense now, like asking for “vehicles with steering wheels.” :rofl:

Yikes. I’m all of 10 minutes into plugging in my HA Green, and already feeling like I’m WAY in over my head here… already locked out and having to reinstall HA, and not having any luck so far.

HA can have a pretty steep learning curve, but you have taken the first important step nd used the forum here.
Never hesitate to ask for help and you will soon be over that Hill on the curve. :wink:

1 Like

well, this is where I’m at right now: Lost macOS generated password, can't recover it, not sure how to recover?

I don’t know how to create a bootable image for this HA Green that arrived in the mail just hours ago. Screwed it up within the first hour!

Many SNMP-enabled managed switches do not let themselves be managed over SNMP, they just serve data over it.

If you are not familiar with networking and managed switches, the easy smart switch models from TP-Link may be helpful. I have found an integration in HACS, you can get additional information from here . I have these model switches but I haven’t tried this integration with HA yet.

I have never found one that do not allow it and I have used SNMP with many brands.
You will of course need to set a community or user with write permissions, which is easy.
You will also need to find the value to change for your desired action and that can be a bit harder.
A MIB file from the vendor can make it easy, but otherwise it is just trial and error.
A MIB browser, like the one from iReasoning, and then read the values before and after changing the value in the GUI usually reveal the right place.

Returning the Trendnet switch I bought. I have NO idea how to use it, and it doesn’t seem very MacOS friendly. Just ordered a TP Link TL-SG105E and a Netgear GS305E and will use whichever one I can use in MacOS.

Odds are good that the MacOS friendly one will be the one that can’y do what I need via SNMP, but I’m crossing my fingers.

MacOS friendly??

Switches are normally just managed by standard interfaces, like web pages, SSH and SMNP.
These interfaces should not be that different between OSes.

These TPLink models are web configurable and just need to define VLAN, etc if you are interested for. Otherwise enabling/disabling ports on default VLAN is not much complicated.

Yeah, MacOS friendly. I couldn’t figure out how to get to the admin page for the Trendnet switch. Nothing seemed to be working, even reserving an IP address for there switch by MAC address in my AirPort Extreme.

Netgear has an app to discover what IP the switch is on, and it only took a few minutes to get the switch’s basic setup, and a reserved IP by MAC address on my network.

Okay, that may be Apples Airport that is weird then or the fact that the switch comes with a fixed IP and subnet for the setup process which would then be listed in the manual.

I have my Airport setup for 10.0.xx.xx addresses, and the Trendnet was 192.168.10.200, I believe. I didn’t know what to do with that, even with plugging my MBP directly into that switch, bypassing the Apple Airport completely.

Normally you would plug in your computer to that switch and set tour network to an address on the address range of the switch, like 192.168.10.10/255.255.255.0
Then you would open up a browser and connect to the homepage of 192.168.10.200 where you can configure the switch

OK, so then what is it doing when connected to my network as a dumb/unmanaged switch? Is it automatically configuring to the 10.0.xx.xx addresses its receiving from the AirPort? If that’s the case, then I’m not sure what IP I could try to connect to try to manage it.

Once you are on the homepage then you can configure it to your likings, like DHCP or a static IP and also what services should be available on the network and what users should b able to access them with what rights.

Once you change the IP address of the switch and click save you can connect it to your normal network and connect to it there with the IP address you set up.