NETGEAR Switches Reviews

The solution is used as a networking device.

The solution is good.

The security features must be improved.

I have used the solution for ten years.

The tool is stable.

More than 200 people were using the tool in our organization. We were using it regularly.

We have upgraded to Cisco because it has better security features.

The setup is not complex, but it is not easy. The deployment can be done in half an hour.

Our network engineers deployed the solution.

Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.

We use this product for the entire IT network and for CCTV. We have many integrators and are resellers of NETGEAR Switches, and I design solutions for our customers. Our company is based in India, I'm an information technology professional and we are end users of this product. 

NETGEAR has most of the good security features that other switches have and it's cost-effective. 

I'd like to see a more robust solution. They need to focus on sustainability and security at the port level with more visibility and controllability of the switch. I'd like to see a warranty similar to that provided by other solutions. 

I've been using this solution for 10 years. 

The solution is pretty stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

The customer support is good. They are responsive, fast, and they're knowledgeable about the product. 

The initial setup is not complex in any way. There's no maintenance required once the solution is deployed. 

NETGEAR is competitive and cost-effective in comparison to Aruba and other solutions. It's not the most expensive, but it's not cheap. You're getting what you pay for. 

Compared to NETGEAR, Cisco has lots of other features within the switch where you can include lots of securities. The switches are very sustainable and can run for  years and years if the environment is okay. There are a few securities that we use to build a firewall or some other level where we can put lots of security on the port, as far as the loop and hacking goes. If anything happens in the network, there are lots of things that can be controlled at switch level. NETGEAR has less of these kinds of options. 

My recommendation of NETGEAR to a customer would be dependent on the kind of solution they have, their budget, network size and the length of time they expect it to work. The product is more suitable for medium size organizations. Enterprise organizations generally look for other solutions in that sphere. 

I rate the solution six out of 10. 

Support needs to be improved.

I have been using NETGEAR Switches since January.

We contacted support, but they didn’t reply.

We are using Cisco. We worked with IBM too.

The initial setup is easy.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use Netgear switches in a flat network. All the computers are plugged into the same switch. We also have some Power over Ethernet switches from Netgear.

Netgear switches are highly reliable. We haven't done anything particularly sophisticated with them.

Netgear switches could be cheaper. 

I have used Netgear switches for about five years. 

I rate Netgear switches 10 out of 10 for reliability. 

I used different vendors in the past, including 3com and HP. 

Setting up a Netgear switch was incredibly straightforward in our case because we aren't doing anything complicated. We rack everything and plug it in. It can be done in minutes.

I rate Netgear switches nine out of 10. 

We're an IT services provider so we have them installed at various clients' sites, and for various applications. The primary use case is for local area networks.

We're able to pre-configure a device, before it gets deployed, in the cloud. We don't even have to open up the box, we can just preconfigure it in the cloud. As soon as we deploy it onsite, it automatically gets configured.

The most valuable feature is the fact that Insight is cloud-managed. The whole reason behind it is that there is one central place to manage it. You can pre-configure everything and you can get access to it without having to get onto the client's network. That makes it easy to use and deploy.

Remote troubleshooting is good and easy.

The remote management tools still need work. They're good, but they still need work.

One of the big drawbacks is that the whole tiered administration doesn't work. They've got a tiered user structure where there is a global admin, and then what they call a manager, and then there is a user. The problem is, if anywhere along the line somebody opens up a support ticket, all the correspondence winds up going to the global admin, it doesn't go to the person who opened up the support ticket. They can't seem to get that changed, even when you tell them specifically that the global admin is not the person dealing with this problem. That's very frustrating.

Another issue, a technical problem they can't seem to solve, is that it doesn't support multicast packets. In layman's terms, Mac computers can't print over the network.

Also, they've got some PoE models, but they need to expand that line a little bit.

Finally, it would be nice to have the ability to have SNMP enabled at the same time Net Insight. I would also like to see integration with Auvik.

It still needs some work. It's got a couple of quirks where it will shut off ports because it thinks there's an IP conflict when there really isn't.

The scalability is good. It could probably go to 100 connections. That would probably be the equivalent of 30 to 40 users.

We are a Netgear partner, so we get preferential support. Because we get preferential support, it's pretty good. We've had a few hiccups, but overall, they're good.

We were using Cisco and HPE. A big factor in our switch to NETGEAR vs Cisco Ethernet Switches is cost. Simplicity is another. Support is another because the support for HPE and Cisco is absolutely horrid.

The setup is straightforward. It's all done in the cloud and you can manage everything from there. It's a whole lot easier than the traditional way of doing it. Deployment takes an hour, if that.

The best strategy is to preconfigure it in the cloud before it gets physically deployed.

As to whether you need to be an IT expert to deploy it and support your network, it depends on the complexity of the network. For simple applications, no. For complex applications, like multiple VLANs, and QoS, and PoE power management, etc, you've got to know what you're doing to set all that up properly.

We see ROI in labor savings. Deployment time is probably cut in half. We're billing for a regular deployment, but it only takes half the amount of time. That's $200 profit for us.

There are two parts to the pricing. There's the pricing of the device itself, which is good. Their licensing model needs work, though. The licensing model doesn't fit the way MSPs do business. They need to revise it to something that makes more sense for an MSP. And here, I'm specifically talking about Insight Pro licensing.

The cost of hardware and additional service is low. That helps our business because it's easier to make a sale.

We were aware of lots of other options, but we didn't do any formal evaluation of any others.

If you are an MSP, you should definitely look into it and plan to use it. I would recommend it.

Overall, we're very happy with the product. It's become our standard going forward. But there are some exceptions. One being the tiered administration. The other one is lack of support for support multicast packets.

Regarding staff for deployment and maintenance, it depends on if you're looking at our entire fleet of these Ethernet switches, which is scattered across multiple clients; then it's probably a tenth of a person. If it's one switch, it's less than a tenth of a person. Switches are low maintenance as a device, it doesn't matter whose they are.

We've got half a dozen deployed at various clients right now. And there will be more because we've got projects in the queue.

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten. The issues I mentioned that still need to be resolved come to mind, as well as the licensing structure that doesn't really make sense for us.

NETGEAR Switches is great because it comes preconfigured and designed specifically for AV and that suits our needs. NETGEAR offers multiple port options, is simple to configure, easy to handle, reliable and stable. The most valuable feature for us is the reasonable price. 

I expect we’ll continue to see an improvement in the configuration which could be simplified further. I would also like to see switches with more ports that provide room for new protocols of communications. It would be great to have more bandwidth.

Our primary use case of Switches is for work with a data protocol for audio or AVB protocol for audio. We also use the AVoIP, Dante, and Control.

NETGEAR is a preferred partner for our company which has offices nationwide and offshore. I work as a project engineer for an audio video integrator company.

The solution is stable and scalable. You can link multiple switches and create a bigger network.

We recently used Araknis and sometimes also use Cisco or Extreme Networks. Araknis is about the same price or even cheaper than NETGEAR, but they do not offer as many options as NETGEAR.

Licensing cost depends on the model and number of ports, whether it’s POE, POE Plus or POE Plus Plus. There are certain Cisco switches that are about the same price. 

AVB licensing is required to purchase separately on NETGEAR and Extreme Network.

I rate this product nine out of 10. 

My company uses NETGEAR Switches for internal networking purposes.

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is easy to use.

The product's stability has certain shortcomings that need improvement.

I have been using NETGEAR Switches for more than twenty-five years. I don't remember the version of the solution.

It is a scalable solution.

More than 200 employees in our company use NETGEAR Switches.

I have contacted NETGEAR's technical support for help with routers and not switches. I like NETGEAR's technical support.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

A team of three people formed from those who work as managers, admins, engineers, or developers in our company help with the deployment and maintenance of the solution.

Our company's IT department carried out the product's installation phase in-house.

I have seen my company experience a return on investment from the use of NETGEAR Switches.

It is a slightly expensive product.

My company needs to purchase no licenses to use the product.

I use D-Link Switches and Wi-Fi routers from NETGEAR.

If the solution can be made available at a better price, then I would recommend the product to others who plan to use it.

I rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.

• QoS
• Port trunking
• PoE+

Netgear has solid, cost-effective switches with enterprise functionality that I am very happy deploying on my network, and on SMB customer networks.

I put together a mesh configuration of GS108E and GS110TP switches for several customers to allow them to setup a full High-Availability (HA) configuration between two different ISP devices (modems/routers with only a single customer link each) so there was complete failover between each firewall and each ISP device.

The devices are easy to deploy, easy to configure, and easy to upgrade, especially with their Smart Control Center (SCC) software.

A slightly, more featureful CLI interface would be great.

I have deployed this specific config for over a year across multiple offices.

The deployment went smoothly, but we have had to revisit the overall configuration to allow remote management of the outside interfaces (for unmanned sites).

Stability has been fine.

We have not needed to scale in this config, but the other switches we are using (GS724Tv3, GS728TP) have been well able to handle our traffic.

I have only had to use live customer service infrequently over the past four years.

On the few occasions I have needed support, technical support has been top-notch.

This was a new deployment, based on good experiences with Netgear switches in other areas. We have replaced Dell PowerConnect switches with Netgear ones.

It was straightforward to get the devices connected to the local network, updated to the right firmware, setup with the right configuration, then get that configuration replicated to other devices (with minor changes).

I implemented it on behalf of my customers.

The project did not have a direct ROI consideration. It was implemented to reduce the labor necessary to handle various failover scenarios.

Netgear costs are very straightforward. There is very little in the way of separate licensing costs.

No, I recommended a solution based on my experiences with quality and functionality of switches in the mid-tier market.