Control Network Newsletter

Finally, a Managed Switch at a Manageable Price

January 2012 – Contemporary Control s has announced that the EISK8M-100T managed switch. It will be one of the most affordable managed switches available and packed with features including RapidRing and all the Management functionality usually only found in high-end switches.

The EISK8M-100T is a compact, rugged managed 10/100 Mbps Ethernet switch with eight copper ports . Intended for cost-effective SNMP managed applications, the unit is extremely compact and rated over the industrial temperature range.
Besides having the standard plug-and-play features found in unmanaged switches, this unit supports management features usually found only in high-end switches, including authentication, IP Address assignment, trunking, port mirroring, virtual local area network (VLAN), port forwarding, Quality of Service (QoS), programmable fault relay, cable redundancy, rate limiting, port security and internet group management protocol (IGMP) snooping.

Each unit can be configured via its web pages – and can be powered either from a low voltage AC or DC source.
The EISK8M Series provides standard plug-and-play features such as auto-negotiation and Auto-MDIX – allowing for quick and simple installation. However, these features plus full-duplex can be individually set for each copper port. The copper ports can auto-negotiate 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, half- or full-duplex. With Auto-MDIX, either straight-through or crossover cables may be used to connect any of the copper ports to similar ports on another switch.

In addition to one power LED and one CPU status LED, each port has LEDs showing link/activity/data rate by colour: green for 100 Mbps and yellow for 10 Mbps. Flashing indicates port activity. The EISK8M Series is designed for DIN-rail mounting. There are several low-voltage AC or DC powering options from 24 VAC or from 10-36 VDC. Provisions exist for redundant power connections.

For more information, visit the EISK8M product page.