ProSafe 8 Port Gigabit Switch

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out of 5, based on 10 reviews

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The switch is itself is nice. However, the “lifetime warranty” is just not true. Sure it says lifetime but try calling and making a warranty claim. It will take no less than an hour to talk to anyone and just as soon as you tell them you are making a warranty claim they tell you that there is a special department that handles those claims and you are put on eternal hold. As I sit here today, this is my second time calling and I have been on hold for one hour and fifty-five minutes. So, the bottom line is you will be buying a nice switch but don’t plan on making a warranty claim despite their assurances of a lifetime warranty.

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This review covers the 24 port JGS524Ev3 model.As a.basic Ethernet switch it does what you’d expect. Plug it in, connect network devices, and go. No problems.There are a few things to be aware of/1. This switch runs some management software and has a default password. If you know that password, you can change switch configuration from any device connected to any port. There’s even a handy utility to help you find these switches on a network. Moral of story: change the password if you don’t want folks messing with your switch.2 the web management interface is accessible from any port on the switch, regardless of VLAN configuration. If this switch is connected to an open internet connection, you run the risk of having people on the internet manage your switch. There’s no settings to limit IP address ranges for management or to restrict management access by port or VLAN.3. The web management function cannot be turned off, and it appears to only work using non-secure HTTP. This functionality can’t be turned off, so pick a really, really nice password, and make sure no one can see your management traffic.4. It’s called an unmanaged switch since it doesn’t offer SNMP support; you can still configure Link Aggregation, VLANs, some traffic shaping etc through the web interface. No L3 switching of any kind; VLAN support is kinda odd to configure but it does work. You can’t see MAC maps or any spanning tree information.5. Configuring VLANs was confusing; there are different modes and the ineffable is not obvious. I finally ended up using the 892.1Q Advanced mode; that was the only way I could find to get both “I tagged” ports with default VLAN assignments (so I can stick any piece of gear on and it’s intagged reaffirmed ends up in the VLAN I want it in) and tagged ports (so I can trunk between switches and use servers which can tag traffic). The configuration spans about three screens and is confusing, but it does work, offers access to 4096 VLAN IDs, and interior rates with other gear flawlessly.6. Link Aggreation works, but it’s not easy to configure. Be aware that you’re limited to 8 aggregation groups, so it’s not possible to aggregate 12 dual-link connections on this model.7. Check your firmware. Mine did not have the latest version out of the box. Upgrades through the web interface were fairly straightforward.With 2 four port link group and 4 link groups of 2 ports, several VLANs and using jumbo frames, the throughout is quite impressive for a switch this inexpensive. I could push north of 3Gb/s on the four port link groups while pushing over 1.5Gb/s on the dual link groups at the same time, which is as much traffic as I could reasonably generate. Impressive for under two hundred bucks.

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Didn’t come close to the listed performance specs. It cut my max LAN speed in half and reduced gigabit Internet connection from around 940 Mbps to wildly fluctuating 200 to 450 Mbps speeds. Plugged same cable into my Edgerouter and I get 900+ Mbps downloads every time. Plug into the this switch with a 3 LAN ports in light use and performance stinks.I thought paying a little more for this GS108 would ensure nice performance but I was mistaken. I have a Ubiquiti Unifi 8 switch on the way to replace it at twice the cost. I’d recommend going with a $25 switch to save money, or pay more if you want true 1000 Mbps throughput.

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I have used these same network switches for about 11 years. I have 5 in my home for my network system. It is a large home with three floors and two offices. I tie in 3 servers, 6 tower computers, one laptop, 4 laser printers, digital scanners, 2 digital security video systems, ROKUs, and multiple AP systems to cover my home and yard. I also have two WIFI systems with high power AP points.I have had great luck with these switches. I did have one fail after 10 years and I called the company and I was sent a replacement at no charge and it arrived within 2 days. Since then I have purchased two more as spares and for expansion into our finished basement.I will only purchase Netgear switches based on the product quality, performance and great customer support I have seen. They stand behind their lifetime warranty and because of that I am a loyal customer. This is a very reliable company and they stand behind their company’s products with a first class warranty! It is installed as a network hub in my basement and it is working fine. Great quality product. I highly recommend this unit. I like that these hubs are no maintenance and they are plug and play. They work well and last without any issues. Top quality with nice support and a great warranty! What I like is that they work so well you almost forget about them being in your network system.Why buy a second class product when you can have a top quality product at a great price and with the best warranty around? My past experience with this product has proven to me that it is superior quality with extremely nice product support.I have purchased more of these units for use in my home as I like the quality and customer support.It is nice knowing that this is a reliable high-tech supplier that stands behind their product.

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We ended up replacing a computer thinking it wasn’t working when in fact it was the port on our switch that was bad. I did loop tests and determined that only 3-4 of the 16 ports were working. Created a ticket on Netgear’s website, got an email that I would be contacted. Now I see that they closed the ticket without contacting me and the reason they gave was that they didn’t receive an RMA. I was never given instructions to mail it back and now I have an $80 pile of junk. There is no phone number to call and even though Amazon says it has a limited lifetime warranty, when I registered the product it had a big red “X” next to hardware warranty, phone support, and email support. Supposedly I have chat support but guess what? There’s no chat feature on their website. Unfortunately, these are not reliable.

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I have three of these switches in service in a very heavy internet traffic household. Multiple PCs, laptops, smartphones, consoles, media and game streaming boxes, etc running at once. I bought these instead of the trendnet I reviewed previously, as the trendnet stripped some important features from their 8 port switch; namely wall mounting holes and different lights indicating 100 or 1000 mbps connections. This netgear switch has both features, and a lifetime warranty to boot. For those reasons, along with the fact that it was currently on sale, I decided to invest in them.Performance has been flawless for anything connected to them. No stuttering, freezes or disconnects. There’s really not much else to say regarding performance. It’s been perfect for the year I’ve had them.Regarding the capacitor issue mentioned in a previous review, you need not worry. These switches no longer use capacitors, or at least the ones that were the problem area in previous revisions of the internal hardware. I uploaded a pic displaying this.

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I bought this model, GS108, because of the lifetime warranty. It’s a 100% premium over the non-lifetime model but I thought worth the piece of mind as my home gigabit backbone can’t suffer a single point of failure. Well, it did fail after several years (its probably the same tech as the non-lifetime version). That said, the low rating is for the technical support. It required almost two hours, between finding the right steps on their website to register the product, and then executing them, and then calling for an RMA (no way to do by email or chat), then waiting, for two different teams on hold, then getting the RMA via email, and then listening to a sales pitch for upgraded RMA service. Those two hours of my life were not worth the $20 premium for lifetime warranty. Save money, buy two GS308 for the price of one GS108 and keep a spare in case of failure.

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This switch is perfect for my needs. Purchased with supplies to make my own Ethernet cables, I was able to set up my network the way I wanted. I was expecting a little bit slower network speeds but I’m surprisingly getting the speeds that I’m paying for from my ISP (500Mbps). Setup was extremely simple since there are no configurations to set, it’s literally ‘plug and play’. Just have a desktop computer and a wired access point connected to it, but i don’t expect to get any loss of performance by filling the last two ports. I think this switch would suffice for 95% of households that need a few extra Ethernet ports to hard wire devices or to have extra ports at a more remote location in the house. Direct connection with Ethernet is definitely the way to go if the device has a network port. Wireless is very convenient, but, speed-wise, it can’t compete with Ethernet just yet. Your paying for a certain amount of bandwidth from your ISP, you might as well take advantage of it. This switch is definitely worth the price. I’m in an apartment right now so a 5 port switch works fine but i would consider getting the 8 or 16 port version if you own a house, just in case. ***Highly recommend***

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I needed more ports on my non-gigabit Verizon router, and this did the trick. It also helped improve speeds in the network from device to device. Alas, I had to retire it when I got the RT-AC88U, but I’m keeping this as backup, and might install it by the TV/multimedia center to run the PS4/4K smart TV/Steam Link/etc. Zero problems, unmanaged switch handled all the traffic perfectly without any hiccups.Keep in mind, if you’re ordering a gigabit switch and the majority of devices in your network do NOT have gigabit NIC, you’re wasting your money. Get a 10/100Mbps switch, instead. Remember, your network is only as fast as the slowest device. If I have a gigabit server, a gigabit switch, and another computer with only 10/100 Mbps NIC, I can’t be mad when it’s only transferring data at 13MBps.Also, this will not improve your up/down speeds from your ISP.

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This is an unmanaged ethernet switch. Plug it into an available ethernet port and you suddenly have more ports into the one you plugged into. Unmanaged means it does not assign IP addresses. Your managed device (most likely router) does that. I learned that by troubleshooting. I read a lot of reviews and ended up with the same issues some of the reviewers had. However, I managed to figure it out after reading articles about this (painful). If your current set up works, plug this into an available port and you’re nice to go. Otherwise, you’ll end up researching articles about how managed and unmanaged switches work. Finally, this is a gigabit switch, meaning that in theory you can get 1Gbps by connecting to it. The caveat is that your ISP has to be providing you these speeds. You also need to make sure the device you plug this switch into supports Gigabit. Everything trickles down if the speeds are supported.