Can't find managed switch on network, and one port is different (TL-SG105E)

Question

I recently got one of TP-Link's TL-SG105E switches for my home. It has 5 Ethernet ports, but the fifth is noticably different: It clearly has higher prongs, and its LEDs are labeled 1000M (green) and 10M/100M (yellow). My first thought was that that must be a high-bandwidth port that the other ports could use regularly to get to the router, but this thread suggests that the port has no special functionality, and that it's different just because the manufacturer stuck a fifth port onto an industrial standard of four. Then the labels apply to all the LEDs, I suppose, and all ports can work at either 1 Gbps, 0.1 Gbps or 0.01 Gbps. Just for good measure, I plugged the Ethernet cable coming off the router into that special fifth port.

This is a managed switch, and the manual stated that after connection, browsing to its local IP address (obtained by the switch dynamically via DHCP) would allow for configuring the ports. The tool our ISP provides to list all devices on the network, with MAC address and local IPv4/IPv6 address, doesn't list the switch, but it does list the devices connected to the switch. TP-Link's Easy Smart Configuration Utility software, which the manual suggests falling back to, also can't find the device. I tried getting the IP address using ARP, but to no avail so far. So, before I do anything else:

Are all Ethernet ports on switches interchangeable, or did I miss the memo about different Ethernet ports? How does one obtain the locally assigned IP address of a switch?

Edit: Since there seem to be various versions of this switch floating around, I'll provide the link from which I bought it and a photo of the box as it's sitting on my countertop:

Answer 1

How does one obtain the locally assigned IP address of a switch?

One resets the switch to factory settings, then uses the default IP address written on the sticker (or in the manual), making sure that one's computer is configured to be in the same subnet.

Note that there are several revisions of the TL-SG105E. It seems that revisions V4–V5 use DHCP by default, so it should show up in your router's or DHCP server's device list (assuming that it issues leases without restriction), but V1–V3 do not – instead their factory settings have static IPv4 configuration (although DHCP is available as an option).

So if the switch doesn't show up, it may be using the factory default address 192.168.0.1/24 – try configuring your computer to be 192.168.0.3/24 and check if ping 192.168.0.1 now works.

Answer 2

I had the same issue, when I first wired the new switch (TL-SG105E v5.6) directly to my router. What worked was to connect directly to my computer and use the default settings associated with the 192.168.0.x NAT, and update the default password. I also upgraded the FW to the latest while connected, and made sure DHCP was enabled (which it was already). Rebooted, and then reconnected to my router. After a few moments it came up with a DHCP assigned address different than the 192.168.0.1 address.