Neat Netgear 5 port gigabit switch

Advantages: Cheap, reliable, simple to use
Disadvantages: None.

...I liked this switch so much, I bought two of them. Netgear have a reputation for cheap and reliable networking equipment, and this 5 port unmanaged switch is no exception. When I bought my two, they were retailing online for approx £35 each - but these days you should be able to get one for approx £25 (inc VAT.) The switch is more or less the size of my hand (yes, I have big hands). With 5 ports on the back - all are auto-sensing, as is the gigabit standard, so you don't have to worry about crossover cables if you're daisy-chaining switches... The only other port on the back is for power, which is the usual "wall-wart" plug in transformer you get with most home networking equipment. Given the switch is unmanaged, you can just plug desktop computers, laptops, XBOXes, network printers straight into the switch, and not worry...

sjhill 20.08.2007 · Read review
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Review of NETGEAR GS605 5-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch - switch - 5 ports

Netgear GS105 5 Port Gigabit Switch

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

...cables. Operation Compatibility: Most recent PC's have at least a single gigabit Ethernet port on them now. Now you can make use of it. Tested fine with Intel Pro/1000 MT cards and nVidia nForce cards Noise It contains no fans so operation is completely silent, however, as with all other Netgear switches, this unit gets quite hot. For peace of mind it would be best to keep it away from sources of heat (I tend to lay an old PII heatsink on the unit just to help with the cooling!) Troubleshooting The LED indicators provide you with all the information you could possibly need to help diagnose any connectivity problems - not that you should have any Conclusion Very fast, reliable equipment. With prices for gigabit equipment coming down, now is a great time to upgrade...

sj19uk 11.09.2005 (04.12.2005) · Read review
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Review of NETGEAR ProSafe GS105 - switch - 5 ports

Switch to Netgear

Advantages: Excellent quality. loads of features, easy to install
Disadvantages: None

...Netgear are well known for their networking equipment and it is for this reason I want to tell you about a great piece of kit. The 24 port switch. 24 ports of networking capability.... But what does that all mean??? Ok, let me tell you about what a network is. Even the internet is just one big network. it is simply just a collection of computers that are connected together and can communicate. Simple! But, how do you connect them together? Its not like they shake hands and have a chat is it? Well in a way, that is what they are doing but using some extra hardware to do this. To put a computer on a network, it needs a Network interface card or NIC. This plugs into your computer's motherboard. Its basically similar to installing a graphics card or sound card. You then need to connect the computer via the NIC card to...

andycharger 21.07.2003 · Read review
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Review of Netgear 24port 10/100 Switch

Switch to Netgear

Advantages: Easy to use, easy to install
Disadvantages: closeness of the ports.

...Netgear are well known for their networking equipment and it is for this reason I want to tell you about a great piece of kit. The 24 port switch. 24 ports of networking capability.... But what does that all mean??? Ok, let me tell you about what a network is. Even the internet is just one big network. it is simply just a collection of computers that are connected together and can communicate. Simple! But, how do you connect them together? Its not like they shake hands and have a chat is it? Well in a way, that is what they are doing but using some extra hardware to do this. To put a computer on a network, it needs a Network interface card or NIC. This plugs into your computer's motherboard. Its basically similar to installing a graphics card or sound card. You then need to connect the computer via the NIC card to...

andycharger 02.06.2003 (04.06.2003) · Read review
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Review of Netgear 24port 10/100 Switch

Neat gear from Netgear

Advantages: Cheap, Easy to configure
Disadvantages: SFP GBIC ports are shared with copper ports, loud fan.

...I haven't found a cheaper 16 port Gigabit Ethernet switch than this Netgear. This 19" rack or desk mountable switch has 16 copper ports and two SFP GBIC ports. The GBIC ports are shared with copper ports 15 & 16 - so you get to use either or, not both, which is a bit of a shame - but they do say it is a 16 port switch after all... They have at least given you the option of adding either short or long range fibre capability to the switch. The switch will work out of the box as if it were unmanaged, but then you'd be missing the point... The switch is manageable via its built in web server, which provides an easy to use interface to all the common functions you would expect - 802.11Q VLAN tagging, Quality of Service, Jumbo frame support, 802.3ad link aggregation. You can upgrade the firmware using the web interface too, keeping...

sjhill 18.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of NETGEAR ProSafe GS716T - switch - 16 ports

Ideal switch for the small business or developers

Advantages: Easy to set up, configure and use
Disadvantages: None

...We currently run an 80 user network in our office. While the main traffic of our network is handled by 6, 24 port rack mounted switches, my little IT office has 7 PCs in it with not enough ports on the wall to connect them up. this poses a problem. To connect to our network, you need a network connection on the Wall. There are 4 connections in our office and 7 machines. Obviously 7 into 4 does not go so a solution was needed. The answer? A small desktop based switch that would allow us to connect up to 16 computers to one Network connection on the wall. The Product? Well we use Netgear equipment in our office because you know with Netgear, you are buying quality at an affordable price. So we opted for the FS116 Desktop Switch. The size of it? Well its about an inch high and about a foot long. It is about 6 inches from...

andycharger 06.05.2004 · Read review
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Review of NETGEAR ProSafe FS116 10/100 Desktop Switch - switch - 16 ports

Belkin 2-Port KVM Switch With Built-In Cabling

Advantages: Advantages: Cheap, all in one solution
Disadvantages: No manual overide or audio support

...stops autoscanning and lets you use the currently selected PC. The Belkin claims support for scrolling mice but I did find sometimes one PC would start up without recognising this facility if it wasn't the currently selected one when booting up and in extreme cases, wouldn't recognise the keyboard and mouse at all. Previous KVM's I've used send the PC fake 'There's a keyboard and mouse here' messages when not selected and it seems this unit does not, which is a pity. Conclusion The Belkin 2 port KVM is a well built unit that works nicely and provides a great way to save desk space and the cost of a second monitor, keyboard and mouse. The long leads are useful and despite the niggles with scrolling mice and the lack of manual switch. I'd say this unit is worth considering at this price if you can live with those shortcomings...

ilaskey 21.03.2007 · Read review
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Review of Belkin 2-Port KVM Switch with Built-In Cabling - KVM switch - 2 ports

Share your printer wirelessly

Advantages: Nice looking, good selection of features
Disadvantages: Can be tricky to set up, no support for bi-directional printers

...The WGPS606 is an unusual combination of a bridge with a four port switch plus a wireless print server. What does that do for you? Good question! Most people would want this for its wireless print function, more on that later. The WGPS606's other feature is that it can act as a bridge allowing you to add wireless connections to an existing wired network. It also sports 4 network ports for adding more wired devices to it. On the wireless side it supports both 802.11b and 802.11g as well as the proprietry Netgear RangeMax standard. It also copes fine with both WEP and WPA-PSK encryption, the latter being more secure and should be used if at all possible. The device's main selling point though is its ability to let PCs communicate with a printer wirelessly. The device has 2 USB ports allowing you to connect and use two different...

ilaskey 05.12.2006 (07.03.2007) · Read review
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Review of NETGEAR WGPS606 54 Mbps Wireless Print Server with 4-Port Switch - bridge

Switch it !

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

...No, no, not like your Switch card or Visa card... You're in the Networking section now :-) Although I'm sure if you're reading this you have SOME idea about networking, I will explain first the basic difference between a switch and a hub (Network experts please forgive the following paragraphs) >>> A hub will usually work at an elementary level, making a verbatim copy of all data it receives on each of its ports to all of its other ports. As you can imagine, for a 10 port hub, this means that 80% of all its output is completely redundant (reaches a destination that simply ignores it) >>> A switch is a LITTLE more intelligent. A switch will check the unique "MAC" address that the data is destined for, and assuming it has seen the machine that that MAC address belongs to connected to one of its ports, it will pass on received data...

one47 09.07.2001 · Read review
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Review of NETGEAR ProSafe FS105 10/100 Desktop Switch - switch - 5 ports

Belkin 2-Port KVM Switch With Audio Support

Advantages: Cheap, all in one solution, audio support
Disadvantages: No manual overide

...It's surprising how many people have more than one PC at home although even more surprising is that many of them each have their own screen, keyboard and mouse. In many cases this makes perfect sense but sometimes, you know you'll only ever use one or the other - perhaps one is your general PC and the other your music workstation. In these situations you can save a lot of space and money by investing in a KVM switch. KVM stands for Keyboard, Video and Mouse and allows you to use one keyboard, mouse and screen shared between two PCs. This particular unit from Belkin is unusual in that it also includes audio support and also comes with all the leads permanently attached instead of being supplied as a separate cabling set. Wiring it Up Installation is simply a matter of taking each of the two main cables and plugging the sets...

ilaskey 26.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Belkin 2-Port KVM Switch with Audio Support and Built-In Cabling - KVM / audio switch - 2 ports