NETGEAR Insight Access Points Reviews

Our use case is to provide WiFi access for my customers with remote management of their WiFi devices.

The feature I consider most valuable is to be able to configure the WiFi devices and to see utilization remotely, or from the cloud.

A con is the backend system which is very, very slow. I don't understand why that has to be so slow when this is 2021. There should be no web application that is slow, especially from a company as large as NETGEAR. I would suggest they speed up the backend portal.

Another con is with the Insight Portal, and I've heard other people talk about this before as well. It's not too user-friendly. It's a nice UI, very user-friendly to the eyes, but as far as usability, I think it needs to be revamped. I suggest giving it a little more functionality and  revamp the way that the user interface is designed to be a little bit more user friendly.

I've been using it for about a year.

I've had no stability issues with the solution. There a few instances when the switches will go offline and I'll have to ask the customer to reboot them. Everything else seems to be more stable than the switches and pretty much rock solid once they are set up and configured. They just run.

I think it's something you can scale easily with. The scalability is there because it's based on how many devices the client will need. The switches are, for example, the 24-Port and 44-Port and have SFP+ ports. So that's good and gives me 10 Gigabits between switches.

I think technical support leaves a little bit to be desired. I do get quick responses, but it's very difficult to come to a complete resolution with the support. I don't know if it's because I'm getting a first tier guy for something that may be needed a little bit higher tier, but the support definitely needs to be ramped up.

Prior to NETGEAR, I was using switches and WiFi devices from Open Mesh. I switched to NETGEAR because Open Mesh had a licensing model I did not like. Also, their production for newer technology was kind of stagnant. For example, they still don't have a WiFi 6 solution yet, and most of their switches don't even have 10 gig ports in them.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. I used the cloud backend to configure everything and then I either send the WiFi devices to the customer or I go on premises to install. Once you set up that first or second device then it's pretty quick and easy.

Usually when I get the device, like a switch, I'll bring it into my test lab and plug it in. I then register it under that customer in the portal backend, configure it, and then turn it off and ship it out. If it's just one switch and one AP it probably takes 30 minutes.

It's a well-priced solution for smaller businesses that have five to 80 devices. I definitely think my clients have seen a return on their investment.

In terms of pricing and licensing, the NETGEAR solution is reasonable. I usually get the Pro license, which is a little bit more expensive. Their pricing is perfect for smaller businesses who are money and budget conscious. There are a lot of other solutions out there that are two to three times more expensive.

Prior to NETGEAR, I didn't evaluate other vendors as far as testing them or anything like that. I just researched a few other vendors like Cisco Meraki. Meraki has excellent firewalls, which I use, but their switches and WiFi devices are too expensive.

I researched Ubiquiti Access Points heavily, but I do not like them because of the fact that one, you have to have a controller to control them and two, their support is email only.

I use the NETGEAR Insight management solution and in terms of user-friendliness, there are a lot of pros and cons. The pros are definitely that I can see a complete overview of all of my devices out there. The ability to configure the devices from the cloud is a huge plus.

The Insight management solution provides me with network management, monitoring and service deployment without having to go site to site. The solution enables me to manage my entire network from anywhere in the world. This increases my effectiveness. I have basically built my company to be mobile first. We rely heavily on taking care of our customers, via iPads and iPhones, versus having to run to a computer every time something happens.

It's awesome that the Insight management solution doesn't require additional cloud controller appliances. It's a big plus and one of the reasons I chose the solution. If I don't need another piece of hardware somewhere then that's a big plus for me.

One of the reasons I switched to NETGEAR is for their awesome Access Points throughput speeds. I was definitely using another brand before and I was getting twice the bandwidth through the NETGEAR devices.

We also use the Insight Pro management tool and it's great for managing multiple sites and businesses from a single interface and login. We can see an overview of all our customers on our phone or tablet screen. It's a great tool for us.

Being able to configure an Access Point and ship it to another location and then manage the device remotely definitely helped us a lot rather than having to truck out to somebody. It also allows me to have customers in various areas of the country where maybe I would not have had them before.

My organization uses the solution for video surveillance through CCTV camera connections.

The solution's price point can be considered a very attractive feature.

Due to certain shortcomings in the solution's stability, I feel that the solution's stability requires improvement.

I have been using NETGEAR Insight Access Points for fifteen to twenty years. I use the latest version of the solution.

Stability-wise, the product is okay since we have to reset them many times in our company.

I won't be able to talk about the solution's scalability since my company has not done a very complex installation of the product anywhere. Generally, what happens is that whatever point is inaccessible through a wired connection, we use wireless for that.

My company has around five to ten users of the solution, and it is important to note that we don't offer connectivity solutions but rather video surveillance solutions, so we don't face much of a user load at your end.

My company does plan to increase the usage of the solution since we look forward to taking up some extra jobs in the future.

Our company sometimes uses the solution's technical support, and we have seen that they sort out our general problems quickly.

My company has experience with switches from Cisco, apart from D-Link.

Cisco's licensing costs were problematic for my company since we had to buy a license separately for every device we purchased. I know that Aruba's licensing costs are not problematic, like Cisco's licensing costs that need to be renewed every year for uninterrupted services, including the setup phases services.

The initial setup of NETGEAR Insight Access Points is very easy.

The initial setup phase of the solution takes five to ten minutes.

The implementation phase of the solution is carried out in-house by one of our organization's teams. We also implement third parties since we are a company that acts as integrators of the solution.

My company does not need to pay anything related to the solution's licensing costs.

Performance-wise, the solution is good. Reliability-wise, the solution is okay.

I would tell those planning to use the solution that it is easy to use and easy to deploy while being reasonably priced. The solution's price point is its greatest plus point in a market like India, where whoever sells the product at the lowest price point gets the most sales volume.

I rate the overall solution somewhere between six and seven out of ten.

I use it for troubleshooting. If I see anything go down or anything come up, I log in and check. I reboot to get awareness of what's going on, and I do configuring too. I've been having a lot of issues with the routers. I don't use the VPN solution because it's not secured. Since I'm far away, at home, I don't have a VPN built-in, so I use Insight for everything I do remotely.

I use the solution's mobile app on my phone and the web portal on my desktop.

The biggest benefit is its remote capabilities. That's the most important factor for me. Having remote situational awareness of what's going on, on the devices, and being able to do a minimum level of troubleshooting, are the big factors.

The GUI is pretty stable—I haven't had any issues go down— and it's pretty user-friendly. I'm able to do a lot of things, because the GUI is designed very well. I'm able to remotely make certain changes via my phone and apply them right away. It makes life easier when it comes to managing the equipment. The Insight management solution phone app is very good. It enables me to do what I want to do.

The fact that I don't need an additional cloud controller, appliance, or network manager is the point, exactly. I specifically bought everything with remote capability in mind. That's number-one for me. Without that, it would be completely useless.

I use the Insight Pro management tool and so far it's been great. It provides live updates on network status, and alerts when there is an issue. The majority of the time it's accurate and gives me a sense of what's going on. I can also use it to troubleshoot remotely, which is very important.

In addition, I can configure an access point and ship it to another location and then manage the device remotely. I love that ability. You can take your phone, scan in it, add it in, and when you ship it, as soon as it gets there and is connected, you can see it pop up on the app. I've used that a lot.

I also like the two-factor authorization.

When it comes to Insight Access Point's throughput, sometimes there's a lag. Sometimes, when you apply a setting, it takes a few minutes, but the majority of the time it goes well.

Also, there's a big difference when you remote into a switch or a router. When you're not remote you have more options, configuration-wise. With Insight you can do some of that initial setup without any problem, but not everything.

They have to keep their game up with the physical products. Not all physical products are compatible with Insight. You have to buy certain products. Configuration-wise, they should include more capabilities for configuring the physical products. They have some, but not all. They need to expand it more.

I've been using NETGEAR Insight Access Points for approximately 14 months now.

The stability is pretty good. If they keep up what they're doing today, it's going to be a good product. I have had no problem with Insight.

It's scaling fine for me. I only have 45 devices. I don't know how it would work for a large environment.

I have a ticket open right now with their technical support, which I sent in last week. They responded back with basic questions and I replied back, but I haven't heard anything at all. I bought a new switch and I'm trying to figure out whether the issues are a product limitation or a device issue.

It's very hard to get a hold of people in support. Emails go back and forth. Phone support is a bit hit-and-miss. If you buy something new, they give you attention for 90 days, and after that they don't give you free support over the phone. Sometimes I do my own research and figure things out.

I did not have a previous solution. This was a new build and I looked at my requirements and tried to figure out what the best solution was. Remote capability was one of the primary requirements that I was looking at.

The initial setup was straight-up and easy.

But over time, as I have expanded, I have seen issues come up. If it's a small setup, it's easy. Insight works fine. I'm not complaining about that, but I'm having issues with the physical product.

In terms of implementation, I had my network diagram figured out. I mapped out the physical coverage of the property and applied the access points for each environment. I had three buildings. I finished with building one, then moved to buildings two and three later on. It was straightforward.

It's not complicated to deploy it. You can deploy anything with the basic configuration. When you buy anything and plug it in, out-of-the-box, it works. But the complication happens when you want to secure it. I didn't want to keep some of the default settings. I wanted to have different VLANs, different networks, and different WiFi. That's creating a problem. With one, in the beginning, there was no problem. But as I have been slowly expanding it, I have seen problems come up.

I deployed it myself.

Insight management's pricing is comparable to Aruba and okay.

Aruba just came out with remote capability. I haven't seen many products with that feature. Aruba has more security capability when compared to NETGEAR. 

There are other vendors, but for a small business, the other ones are on a higher scale.

Look at the products. I think Ubiquiti is a very good company. NETGEAR should look at that model and expand on its remote capabilities. Ubiquiti seems to have a better product.

I put in a NETGEAR BR200 router and it gave me a lot of headaches when trying to create VLANs. I have a big WiFi on the property, and that's creating a lot of issues. I don't know whether the issues are connected to the Insight solution, but I think the product has a lot of room for improvement.

I use it for a residential small business. I have a BR500 VPN Router and four WAC540 Access Points. I also have three GC108PP PoE Insight Switches and a fourth that is their bigger brother.

I now have the ability to remote access my network. That works extremely well. I can access it from any place. I don't need to be physically at the device. This saves me on time and travel.

I thought that the Insight management software would be more useful for me. It is a little difficult to navigate. I have ended up using the web GUI more than I do the Insight management.

I have some frustrations with the ease of use. It tends to be sluggish. The graphical interface is pretty, but not useful. They have this tree that shows connected devices, which makes no sense whatsoever because the labeling field of the tree truncates all the items to the point that it's almost useless. You can't even tell what it is. I would prefer a spreadsheet list of the gear as opposed to a graphical representation.

It is sluggish. If I go to reserve an IP address, it probably takes about 45 seconds, which doesn't seem like a lot. However, if you are trying to enter 60 devices, then it takes forever because each time you enter a device it has to reload and reset it, and that never takes effect until you reboot it. It just seems to be cumbersome.

I have used NETGEAR for the last nine months.

I have only had one concern in nine months. Some of the gear reset to default somehow. I don't know what happened, but that is what happened. I discovered it, fixed it, and it has never happened again. I live in a very old neighborhood. My house is 120-years-old. We have electrical issues. I don't know if it was caused by a brownout or blackout, but we have experienced both. So, it happened once, it cleared, and it's never happened again.

NETGEAR has been a very easy company to deal with. Everybody has been extremely helpful with whom I have crossed paths at the company, whether technical or sales. I wish I could afford to add a few more products to my system. Then, I would really love it.

I switched from Luxul based on my company's recommendation. Before Luxul, we were with Apple Enterprise.

NETGEAR Insight Access Points were far superior. That is kind of an unfair apples-to-apples comparison because I assume Luxul probably has managed switches and that sort of stuff, but I upgraded my class at the same time.

I found the initial setup straightforward. The product seemed to be self-discoverable. It also integrated well.

I deployed it in stages. I was replacing a competitive company's gear. I replaced the router first, then I replaced the access points, and then I replaced the switches. So, it was not all done at one time. This took about three hours.

I have actually had some concerns and problems with the setup. However, I am in somewhat of a unique location, which makes it pretty difficult.

The pricing seems to be reasonable.

Anybody who has the need or desire to move beyond consumer-grade, big-box, store available gear will be very pleased with this product.

For all the different models combined, I would give it an eight (out of 10).