Advantages: small compact size, metallic body, passive cooling=no noise
Disadvantages: gets a bit hot during summer

...Windows 98/2k/xp over samba, which unfortunately only 50-60% efficient. Transfering files over FTP is gonna be miles faster than samba (windows file and print sharing) They are all auto MDI-X on every port, so it doesn't really matter if you';re using a cross over cable or not, as the switch will sort it out The LEDS on the ports indicate 1000mb or 100mb and the status LEDS on the panel indicate 10mb connection and blinking = activity. It's silent, as it's all passivly cooled, unlike 3com switches/hubs, which is good when you have these in the bedroom! It's solidly built and i really can't fault it, and I feel it's worth the money as most other switches are all plasticy and cheap looking/feeling. 1gb transfer over samba takes around 3-4 minutes... which is fast - as you'd expect for gig ethernet.... and ftp transfers are even faster! go... Read review

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Advantages: Well-Made, Fast as Hell.
Disadvantages: None.

...There isn't much you can normally say about a Network Switch and what you can say is already spoken for. The GS108 has 8-ports which all Gigabit enable (1000Mb/s or 125MB/s) which all have embedded LEDS in. The right hand one lights up if the connection is operating at 10/100 Fast Ethernet and the left LED lights up if the connection is at 1000 Gigabit. The LEDs blink with activity. Also the left of the ports there is another two LEDs per port, the top row lights up with collision (I have never seen any yet) and the bottom if the link is active. Finally there is a Power LED on the far left. The GS106 is inside a very nice metal case which gives it its excellent quality as most switches come in a horrible plastic case. Its painted a very smart blue and would not look out of place anywhere. It is very small and as it has no fans... Read review

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Advantages: Easy installation, small, sturdy, quiet, auto uplink
Disadvantages: Runs quite hot

...This is a 10/100/1000Mbps switch with 5 auto-sensing ports Visual Description A compact unit measuring 16cm x 10cm x 3cm (approx) Housed in a very sturdy blue metal casing with venting slots on the side and back Looks very professional 5 Front mounted UTP sockets Rear mounted PSU socket (12 Volt, 1.2 Amp, Centre Positive) and Earth tag LED indicators to display 10Mb, 100Mb, 1000Mb connection, Activity, Full Duplex, Collisions and Power Installation The GS105 switch comes supplied with manuals, 12 Volt (1.2Amp) PSU, ethernet cable, and the unit itself. Installation is very simple and requires no configuration as this is an un-managed switch. Simply connect your existing CAT5 cables from your PC to the switch, it will detect the connection speed and cable type. No need to worry about using cross-over cables or straight through cables... Read review

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Advantages: Performace at an excellent price
Disadvantages: 4 ports may not be enough

...to that one port only. To add to this, Switches can support "Full-Duplex" networking, which means sending and receiving data at the same time, effectively doubling your network speed under the right conditions. >>> So what? So, that's immensely more efficient, and particularly in a high-traffic environment (even online games played no a LAN qualify here) it can have a perceptible positive impact on performance. >>> What's the FS-105 then? This is how you get this wonderful technology into your home! This £69 beauty is half the cost of its competition, will auto-detect 10 and 100Mb/s connections and has 5 ports, one of which can be used as an uplink. Even a good hub will cost £50, and for the larger office, the FS-108 (8 port) version can be bought for only £88 (if you can find one in stock anywhere!)... Read review

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Advantages: Looks great, performs well, easily installed
Disadvantages: Gigabit networking is unavoidably expensive

...switches and other network devices. I run the switch 24 hours a day 7 days a week and it has never crashed or powered down on me unexpectedly. I always obtain the highest transfer speeds between my two gigabit computers, I've never obtained a gigabit transfer because the two machines don't have hard drives fast enough to do so, they both max in at around 60MB/s so this is the fastest I've ever seen the network go. Also note that with any networks the 100M or the 1000M doesn't mean megabytes per second it means megabits per second so this has to be divided by 8 (8 bits to the byte) for the understandable speed, which on gigabit networks is 125MB/s. Linkspeed.exe provided with the Windows 2003 Server resource kit reports the connection between my two gigabit machines as 953Mbps. I can copy a 700MB file between the two computers in around 10... Read review

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Advantages: 8 Port
Disadvantages: Static.

...Dlink DES 1008D Why a switch? Switches are the backbones of a network. They are the devices that at all the computers in the office have no choice but to use. They are a great tool in modern computer networks. The switch allows communication between computers, servers and network printers. What does a switch need to do? 1. Connect multiple computers 2. Be Fast 3. Be Reliable 4. Be user Friendly So will the DES 1008D model handle the pressure? 1. Connectivity The DES 1008D has a total of 8 ports witch means that you could have 8 computers connecting simultaneously, or you could have a variety or pcs, servers, printers, and other networks switches connecting to it. 8 ports will happily support a small office or home based network. 2. Speed So we have found out that it has 8 ports so what will the speed be like. Well... Read review

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Advantages: Probably the cheapest 8-port 10/100Mbit switch
Disadvantages: A little plain

...If you want to connect up more than two computers to make a network, chances are you'll need somehting like this switch. You simply plug the network cables from each computer into the back, and it lets them all talk to each other. This switch allows up to 8 computers to be connected, however more than one (they don't have to be the same model) can be connected together if you want a larger network. The unit is designed to be used with standard UTP cables with RJ45 connectors. I bought this model because it was the cheapest one available and I don't think there is really a lot of difference between one switch and another other than the maximum transfer speed and the number of little blinky lights. This switch will automatically select between 10 and 100 megabit transfer rates but automatically detecting how fast the network cards... Read review

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Advantages: very compact
Disadvantages: runs hot

...and i mean that litterally! Out of all the switches i have - I have to say that the Netgear stuff runs hot! I have to put a PII heatsink on it! - even though it has vent slots around it - it does got hot during the summer, and just nice and warm during the winter. It has link lights for all ports, and FDX lights for all ports too. ACtivity lights/collision you name it it has it. It has lots of lights for everything - so you know exactly whats being used on you entire network. It also has a 'auto HDX/FDX' switch at the back which I find very useful. There are cheaper switches, though they won't be made out of metal - like the netgear stuff - it'll be made out of cheap plastic. customer support is good - PSU died on me - but they did manage to ship a replacement within a couple of weeks from the US. Phil 00-9-24... Read review

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Advantages: Compact, Fast, Beefy, and Portable
Disadvantages: I cant think of any

...On a recent visit to the USA, I was advised to go and have a look at a company called Buy It, so off I went to have a look at Lap Top PCs well this particular one had my name on it...and at less than half the selling price of a similar spec one in the UK...it was an absolute bargain.. ~~~000~~~ what do you get ...??? almost 15" TFT liquid Chrystal screen 256 MBt SDRAM expandable Memory 56k V90 Modem Network Card 2 USB Ports 20 GBt Hard Drive Printer and Com Port CD/DVD/CDR-CDRW all in one Drive 8Mbt Video Card with Video editing sofware Video Out port TV out Port Stereo Speakers built in and Sound Card Synaptics touch pad Internet ready built in Keyboard floppy Disk Drive 2 PCMCA Ports Built in microphone AMD Athlon 4 Mobile Processor Microsoft XP operating system Quicken Accounts Package Microsoft One year free access to on line... Read review

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Advantages: So Easy installation, Simple and effective design
Disadvantages: None of which I know

...SPECIFICATIONS Total ports: 5 autosensing 10/100 Ethernet Media interfaces: 10/100BASE-TX, RJ-45 Ethernet switching features: Store-and-forward; full-/half-duplex autonegotiation Height: 2.4 cm (1 in) Width: 22 cm (8.7 in) Depth: 13.5 cm (5.3 in) DETAILED DESCRIPTION 1. Front Panel The switch contains 6 LEDs in the front 1.a. Power LED Indicates that the switch is powered or not 1.b. Five Port Status LEDs If the LED is on, the link between the port and the device is ok. This LED has different functionality as it is transform from green or yellow from stable or flashy to indicate certain connection type and activity. If the led is green, then the connection is 100Mbps, if yellow then it is 10Mbps. If it is flash green or yellow then there is data being transmitted. And if the led is off, then there is no device connected to this port. 2... Read review

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