NETGEAR GS108 ProSafe 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Switch
by Netgear
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List Price: Our Price: $59.95 You Save: $10.04 (14%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $34.95 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of NETGEAR GS108 ProSafe 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Switch
Customer Review: Good but Wrong Switch
Summary: 4 Stars
Netgear makes a number of models of GS108, make sure this is the one you want.
I came to this product based on a Google search for a GS108T. For that switch, this would have been a great price. But less so, for this switch. So, if you wanted an enhanced or managed/smart switch like the GS108T, GS108T-200, GS108E, GS108PE, etc., this isn't it. But if you just want a fast, dumb, switch, this is probably a good choice. On the other hand, this isn't the slower FS108 or FS108P either, so that is good. (they are both 10/100 only)
I tried to gave the vendor fair marks as it wasn't thier fault that Netgear uses similar product numbers or that Google didn't differentiate, or that I wasn't careful.
PROS:
Metal Case which should help keep electronics cooler and longer life than many plastic cases. Metal cases also tend to be more durable and less subject to breaking.
Fast 8 ports of 1G networking at an affordable price. (does 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet)
Really like having the LED indicators next to the ports. Other vendors should do this too.
Small and portable. Great, if you are a consultant/tech and may want to take it with you.
Has slots on bottom for wall mounting.
CONS:
None really, as long as you want a small gigabit unmanaged desktop switch.
For many users, this is the right product as those extra management features are not needed. And they are just opportunities to "tweak" things that the "tweaker" doesn't understand and really hose up the network. I wanted them because I'm an IT consultant. But I've seen too many cases where those extra features have been used in ways that cause problems and where a basic switch would have been a better choice.
And, of course this doesn't come with rack-ears. But then it doesn't claim to be a rack-mountable switch either. And they are typically more $$$$.
Customer Review: What a difference!
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently had a big workstation crash that forced me to revisit my home network after 10 years. One of the additions was a Western Digital ShareSpace 4 TB 4-Bay Gigabit Ethernet Network Attached Storage with RAID 5 - WDA4NC40000N. When I plugged in the array and started moving files back onto my NAS, I found that things were going too slow. The new NAS has gigabit ethernet. So I started looking around. Well, I quickly figured out that my home routers and switches were way way out of date. I had a 10MBP switch and a 10/100MBPS fast switch and a 10/100 routher: wow slow stuff.
So I went on Amazon and ordered two of these netgear Gigabit switches and a Linksys by Cisco WRT320N Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router.
Well, in less than 20 minutes literally I now have a network that screams!!! I'm getting about 350MBPS so things are nice nice.
I'm really glad that I've upgraded my network equipment.
On these switches:
PROS
-metal construction very solid
-cool to touch even when running
-autocrossover - so you don't have to have special cables to link switches or lose ports to uplink use
-very durable (one of my fast switches was a netgear and it's been going strong for 10 years alone in my basement!!)
CONS
-none (other than technology does age so expect to have to replace in 5 to 10 years with the next big advance)
Customer Review: Completely fails in some environments
Summary: 1 Stars
I installed this switch in a home network with four PCs and a network-based printer. All in-wall wiring and patch cables had been upgraded to Cat6 wiring. I am an expert user with over 15 years experience setting up networks.
After running for a few minutes, all of the lights on the GS108 would start flashing on/off/on/off once per second, including lights on ports that were disconnected. All of the PCs connected to the GS108 would report that a "network cable was disconnected."
I contacted Netgear support. This is apparently a common problem because Netgear didn't even ask me to troubleshoot anything. As soon as I described the symptom, they said they'd need to replace it.
Netgear offered me the choice of inexpensive ground shipping (7 to 10 days to receive the new unit) or a very expensive price for an overnight replacement. There was no middle ground such as two or three day shipping.
The replacement I received had the same problem.
This problem has been reported by other users on other sites. Given Netgear's inability to solve the problem and their ridiculous shipping rates to replace a critical network component, I recommend staying away from this GigE switch.
I threw away the GS108 and purchased a Dell PowerConnect 2708, which costs 50% more but has better performance and includes free overnight replacement shipping if you run into a problem. The 2708 has run flawlessly since I plugged it in.
Customer Review: High Failure Rates
Summary: 2 Stars
RELIABILITY
Out of 6 Netgear GS line switches, I've had 2 fail outright and one requires reboots.
2 GS108 isolated for iSCSI. One requires a reboot every few months.
2 GS108 switches at a different site. One failed such that all of the link lights flash at the same time, network drops each time, completely unusable. Power cycle doesn't help. Power it off and unplug it for an hour, and it will work for 20-30 minutes. It took 12 months to fail, but I had swapped it in the middle with the working switch during a facilities move.
One GS116 uplinked to a JGS116 and used to feed the back office PCs and laptops failed the same as the one GS108 failure above. This is in a different city than the GS108. This worked fine for 6 months.
One GS105 which works fine after 2 years, but is not left on full-time.
One JGS116 (bigger case, has heat sinks and fans) works fine for several years.
All switches have plenty of ventilation.
In summary, the GS1xx line seems to have a 50% failure rate after 6 months of power-on time. The retail versions have a lifetime warranty, but cross-ship is $20. The JGS1xx switches (with fan) seem to be much more reliable.
PERFORMANCE
iperf 94-96MB/sec - Source Linux (Lenny), Celeron D 2.0, Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5754
iperf 41-45MB/sec - Source WinXP SP3, P4 3.2GHz, Intel Pro/1000
Summary: Pretty good for a desktop switch.
Customer Review: quiet, reliable, not hot
Summary: 5 Stars
UPDATE:
I originally rated this five stars, but I'd lower my rating to four. This is a rewritten review.
We have used several of these and also the GS105 (5 port version) both at home and in a small business network. They work very well but we have had issues with them failing after many months of use. We have had three fail at different times in the same way. They go into a state where they keep resetting themselves continuously; all of the link lights will blink on and off, and the switch is essentially non-functional.
We returned (RMAed) one without issue. On the bright side, there was no difficulty obtaining a replacement from Netgear, but it does take some time and effort to go through the process and send them the failed unit, and we haven't bothered with the two others that failed. At current prices, here on Amazon for example, the cost of buying a replacement versus the time and cost of going through the RMA process has gotten to be about comparable for us.
Unconfirmed reports from other sites indicate that Netgear claims to have addressed the underlying cause of this issue and that units manufactured in 2008 should not display this problem. It is the case that all of the units that failed for us were purchased in 2007 or 2006.
I still like these boxes overall, but would be great to hear from others either of better alternatives or experiences with recently purchased (2008) units.