NETGEAR FS105NA Switch 5Port Metal
by Netgear
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List Price: Our Price: $13.96 You Save: $28.03 (67%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of NETGEAR FS105NA Switch 5Port Metal
Customer Review: If all life was this easy . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
This was so easy to set up that it was comical. I think just about anyone could understand the directions in the small installation guide. 1. Unpack the box. (OK, I was able to do that without instruction.) 2. Prepare to install the switch. (I did a few moments of meditation and was ready.) 3. Install the switch and connect the other devices.
That was it. Everything worked! Besides that, the unit is very well constructed and compact. Now, if it will just last. I wonder if some who had failures put it somewhere that prevented it from cooling. They warn about that in the "manual."
Here's how I'm using it. We recently bought a BluRay player that had Netflix streaming. This is a big house and I had to move the wireless cable router closer to the room where the player is in order to receive the wireless signal. When I did that, it caused two concerns. First, my older desktop Mac didn't have wireless so I went for a bridge. (Cisco/Linksys) The bridge is much more powerful sending/receiving than a wireless USB adapter. FAR MORE! Also, more expensive, but worth it. The desktop had been connected to the wireless router via ethernet in the same room.
The second concern was that the laptop Mac was in a corner location where it was very much blocked by several walls and it wasn't picking up a strong signal from the router on the far side of the house. I didn't want to use a repeater/extender because I understand that they cut the bandwidth, so I bought this switch. I plugged the bridge into one of the ethernet ports, the desktop into another and the laptop into a third. When I connected the power, everything worked with no further ado.
If all of life was this easy, I wouldn't have anything to complain about. It's so easy that even a caveman could do . . . Uh Oh! Sorry cavemen.
Customer Review: A good, solid switch. A little nicer than others.
Summary: 5 Stars
With switch prices coming down to about $10-per-port, it's hard to justify buying anything less than a 10/100-switch for all but the most cost-conscious buyer.As most 5-port 10/100 switches have the same capabilities and cost about the same, there's not much to distinguish one from another. Still, I particularly like the Netgear FS-105 5-port switch. Like other products from Netgear, this switch is a little nicer than the competition because it has:
- Nice sturdy metal construction instead of plastic. The case also has a grounding tab in case you're using the switch in a (electrically) high-noise environment.
- Connection status indicators built into the jacks, so you can easily tell which cable is connected and is active. (The "vistajack" feature.)
- Right-angled barrel power connector which reduce the likelihood of disconnecting power accidentally.
- An easy-to-access switch to toggle port 1 between station mode and uplink mode. Unlike some hubs where two jacks are wired together, this design prevents accidentally shorting a station to an uplink.
- Screw-mount notches on the underside allows for easy attachment to the wall, underside of a counter, etc.
With a 1000-MAC address buffer and 200 Kbytes-per-port packet buffer, this switch can easily handle the typical traffic load of small- and medium-sized networks.
The Netgear product is not the cheapest 10/100-switch (check out the D-Link Fast Ethernet Switch, for example), but for overall design and value-for-money, I still like the Netgear the most.
Customer Review: Super solid switch at a low cost -- 10/100, not gigabit ethernet
Summary: 5 Stars
This Netgear model has been around for a while. I use a lot of them in my small business. They're very handy to park on conference tables and desks to provide wired internet connections for multiple people. It's a very solidly built model (all metal), with a no-frills industrial design and small footprint. Installation is a snap -- just plug in the power supply, connect your PCs/peripherals with regular patch cables, and your done.
Two issues:
1) This is not a gigabit switch, just an old-fashioned 10/100 switch. If you're just using it for internet connections, that's probably fine, since you'll be limited by your internet speed anyway. But if you're running a gigabit ethernet and want to move gigs over the network quickly, you'll need a faster switch (assuming all the other gear on your network is also gigabit speed).
2) I have had a couple of this switches fail over the years, and it's always been the power supply that failed, not the switch. Given how cheap these are now, I'd suggest that you buy a spare, just to have the spare power supply on hand, if you can't afford to have a network failure for more than a few minutes. If the power supply fails, you can plug in a new power supply in under a minute, which is easier than replacing a whole switch. I don't want to make it seem like the Netgear power supply is unreliable -- I've had two power supplies fail over the past four years. I just wanted to provide a bit of useful "just in case" advice for small businesses.
Customer Review: So far so good...
Summary: 5 Stars
There isn't really much to say about a switch, it has one simple job and as long as it does it that's what counts (A switch for those who are not certain is easiest to explain by saying it is akin to a power strip, you can plug all the machines you want into to it, but if you don't plug it into a managed source of signal such as a router or server it is like expecting a surge strip to provide power and work when it is not plugged into an AC outlet). If you want to split one LAN Drop (Network plug in) at for example at your entertainment center and hook up your PS3, Cable/Satellite box, Internet ready TV, A/V receiver with internet radio, etc. This is for you because all a switch does is take the one IP address assigned to it by the host system and share it out over all devices connected to it (while they are turned on and seeking connection of course, it doesn't allot bandwidth to devices that are not currently asking for any).
Bottom line is this does the job so far and is well constructed, at this very moment unit has been plugged in for almost two weeks and is cool to the touch (I have it wall mounted behind my TV were it gets plenty of airflow) so time will tell but I have seen units like this in multiple brands at customer sites (I'm a network tech) work for years, if this one fails in an abnormally short time I will revise my review to reflect the time and details/circumstances of the failure.
Customer Review: Good, but aging
Summary: 5 Stars
So far, I am impressed with this switch. The small footprint and the ease of installation is really something to behold. It has been reliable as well, as a small, unmanaged switch should be.
I debated on whether to get a gigabit switch or a fast ethernet (100Mbps) switch. I decided to be cheap and went for this little switch. I also have an old 10Mbit ethernet switch by Netgear; that only had four sockets, and one had to be designated for uplink. That little switch was the part of a reason for taking the Netgear, though; it was small, and it was reliable. In that regard, the switch did not disappoint.
What did disappoint me was, though, the fact that file transfers between two peer computers (i.e. not to the Internet) took longer than expected. The peak transfer rate could not go beyond 10MB/s; that is expected, and totally fine for my DSL (and for streaming from one computer to another, to an extent) but I found it to be sluggish, as the transfer rate I had from an external USB to hard drive could go for 30MB/s or higher.
I gave full marks due to the fact that it was a great switch for its class. The problem is, though, that the class itself is showing signs of age. For those of you who would like to set up a home server, I recommend you make a jump to the realm of gigabit ethernet.