@Virgo 

Hi,

Thank you for your help.

First of all, I tried your suggestion, even though the other 24 port switch had a static ip. Connected it to a router that has DHCP, but it did not work. Checking the router interface showed no new equipment listed.

So I bought an usb to serial converter, in this case an Ewent EW1116, connected it to the console port and followed exactly the instructions in TP Link support page (How to reset the switch to the default factory settings using PuTTy?).

Strangelly, the console showed the correct default ip info:

Press CTRL-B to enter the bootUtil
                *********************************************
                *         TP-LINK  BOOTUTIL(v1.0.0)         *
                *********************************************
                Copyright (c) 2012 TP-LINK Tech. Co., Ltd
                Create Date: May 17 2012 09:45:31

 help                    - print this list
 reboot                  - reboot the system
 ifconfig                - config the interface
 ftp                     - config the remote host ip,the user name,user password and the image file name
 upgrade                 - upgrade the firmware
 start                   - start the system
 reset                   - reset the system to the factory config.

[TP-LINK]: ifconfig
ifconfig [ip] 192.168.0.1 [mask] 255.255.255.0 [gateway] 192.168.0.1
[TP-LINK]:

Well, nothing to loose here ... so I sent the reset command, followed by a reboot.

Gave the switch some time to recover, set again my adapter to the following manual settings:

ip: 192.168.0.2
mask: 255.255.255.0

Connected the cable and I was finally able to access the switch on the expected address: http://192.168.0.1/

Changed the ip address to 192.168.1.240 and then connect it to my network, now I was able to access it from my network, on that new ip, as expected.

This must have been something to do with too much time on the box. Next test was to disconnect it from power, and reconnect it again. Doing that I was still able to access the network and internet with my pc connected to the switch (the switch is connected to the router), so the switch is apparently handling traffic as expected. But, I was unable to access the web console again on that new ip.

Somehow it did not retain the configuration? Is there some kind of battery inside that must be changed?

@zecas 

Well, before opening the unit searching for some kind of cmos battery, I've peeked through the side holes of the switch with a flashlight (I really don't like to open devices unnecessarily). It didn't seem to have any kind of battery, it looked very similar to some unit that was opened on a youtube video.

After a new reset and reboot, I've flashed the firmware to the latest version. Then I changed the IP and some other settings on the switch, just to check if it stored them.

I've applied the changes, then I saved them, downloaded the settings and opened the file to check they were correct. At this point I didn't remember if I just simply applied the settings on the first try ... maybe I forgot to save?

Anyway ... second attempt, new firmware and some settings saved.

Power off ... waited 30 seconds ... power on ... and the switch retained the new ip address and the other settings changed!

Don't know if I just applied them on my first try and forgot to save, or if the firmware just corrected something, or both ... anyway the firmware upgrade was planned and at this moment, it all seems fine.

Now time to power it down and wait a couple of days before moving it to the network where it will be put to good use.

Hope it still works by then, but I'm feeling very positive about this :).

Thank you.

@Virgo 

I can't really remember if I pressed save, I know I pressed apply after changing the IP address and it was working fine.

On my second attempt, when changing other settings I saved them, and by then I thought that maybe I forgot to save the first time :)

Anyway, some days have gone by, the switch was powered off these days. I connected it today on the network it will be working on, and after power on, it was working without any problem. The IP is still the one I set, I'm able to access the web interface, the other settings I changed are also there.

So I'm assuming it was a user problem, forgetting to click save . Seems to be working perfectly so far, so now it's time for all the other configurations needed.

Maybe this post will help someone else having trouble of accessing the management console as I did.

Thank you.