| NETGEAR ProSafe GS110T Gigabit SmartSwitch |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Network | |
| Written by Bruce Normann | |
| Tuesday, 08 January 2013 | |
|
Page 1 of 11
NETGEAR GS110T Gigabit Smart Switch Review
Manufacturer: NETGEAR, Inc. Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been supplied by NETGEAR. Network switches are not reviewed by the press that often, but they are a necessary part of many home or small business networks, so we need to take a look now and then at what's available, what works, and how well they work. NETGEAR is a major player in the networking market, and they have several different product lines to choose from. Today we're looking at one of the less expensive offerings in their ProSafe SmartSwitch line. First, let's clarify what a network switch is. It is strictly a wired device, and is most often designed to switch Ethernet traffic. There are telco switches, and video switchers, and fiber optic switches, but the vast majority of network switches you and I will encounter handle Ethernet. In Wireless networks, routers and adapters generally communicate directly with one another, but wireless media bridges are starting to make that distinction a little fuzzy. You could use the couple of ports on the back of your router to connect a few devices together, but switches still have some advantages:
Until recently, there were only two types of switches, un-managed and managed. The first type is truly plug-and-play, there are no settings to make, no configurations to set, and they always work the same way, for every device plugged into one of their ports. This was the only kind of switch available to the average consumer, and they served their purpose well. The managed switches were strictly for the corporate LANs and data centers. They were configured by the high holy priests of corporate IT, called LAN Administrators. No one could make a change in the network unless one of them logged into one or more switches and made it, usually with cryptic command-line instructions. Nowadays, they can log in to a GUI via a web browser, but I know that some of them still use command line arguments. Today, there is a new class of switches, commonly called a "Smart Switch". It's a blend of the two previous extremes, and is targeted to both corporate users and what the industry politely calls "ProSumers". That's you and me, in case you didn't recognize your new title. If you've ever logged into your router, some months after you first installed it, and changed some settings you're a Prosumer. If the SSID on your router is still "linksys", you're not. Definitely not. The GS110T is a low-to-mid range model in the NETGEAR family of ProSafe Gigabit Smart Switches. It's got enough ports to future-proof most home network installations, plus some special interfaces. Most of what I'll be covering in this review is perfectly applicable to several other models in the ProSafe product line, so be sure to check out the full line in order to find a switch that meets your needs. Now, let's take a closer look at the GS110T, and see what it offers in both features and performance.
|
|
Comments
i am very happy to see you gave more than 9/10
i wonder what can be results of udp and tcp if you use 2 network cards in a teaming configuration
I will keep investigating, as new equipment is added to the test bench, but ultimately 10GbE or another standard that is faster than GbE will take over.
I am particularly concerned with energy consumption of all my computing infrastructure since much of it is left on 24/7 (SOHO).
Specifically for a "switch" I like to know power usage and power factor ratings at the wall plug with all ports in use and zero ports in use. Some switches like my DLINK DGS-1024G drop power usage to 2.5W when none of the 24 ports are in use, and detect cable lengths and reduce individual port power levels on shorter cable runs. Does the NETGEAR GS110T have any of these "Green" features? How about adding a "Green" rating to your reviews?
My application is home use. At any one time there may be 30+ active IP's. This covers VoIP, Media Centers, TV, MP3 players, Cell Phones, PVR's, Computers, Laptops, Printer... most are wired, but about 5 are wireless. I have 4 "green" gigabit switches running continuously, 1 "primary" and 3 "secondary" in high density drop locations.
With this much equipment running, "green" is an important purchase consideration to me. And I do spend more to get power conserving "green" equipment. For the NETGEAR GS110T, it appears the "Green" rating wasn't a design consideration and is N/A. Obviously if I need the NETGEAR GS110T features, this won't matter much, unless there is a competitor offering a "green" alternative with the product features I need.
Otherwise, a great review... Thanks!
Craig
The GS110T does support Auto Power-Down of unused ports, and Short Cable Mode. They are both configurable in the device management software. To access these settings, click System > Management > Green Ethernet Configuration.
Youre right about the Green features not being very prominently described in the Features and Specifications, I had to go to the 244 page Software Administration Manual to find the details. At this point, not every product in the NETGEAR line supports both of those energy-saving features, so it's important to do the research and get an explicit answer, if it's important to you.
I'll try and see if I can get the power measurements you're looking for... I have another switch on the testbed right now, a new, low cost 10GbE model. I'll try to pay more attention to the power usage while testing it.
#en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Efficient_Eth ernet
As it points out, just the network controller part of computing uses 5.3 terawatt-hours of electricity in the US as of 2005. I doubt this figure has gotten any better. ;)