Customer Reviews

NETGEAR ProSafe 5-Port Gigabit Unmanaged Plus Switch GS105E

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I had read a couple of reviews here on Amazon and elsewhere about how the GS105E responds to pings destined to other devices. I really liked the features this switch offers so I went ahead and purchased it. When I received it I connected it up and started pinging "fake" IP addresses and the switch didn't respond with ping replies. I was happy thinking I got a model that had been fixed. I then did a scan of IP addresses in my local subnet. As soon as I pinged the switch, it began to respond to all pings to all other IP addresses. The earliest review I found for this problem was back in March. It is now June and they still haven't released any firmware updates for this switch. To be honest, I don't even know why this switch has an IP address assigned to it anyways. You can't ping anything from the switch and you don't manage the switch with the IP address. You must have your PC (sorry Mac & Linux users) connected to the switch if you want to manage its built-in features. You cannot manage the switch from another network like you would a higher end switch. You also must install WinPcap, Adobe Air, and Netgear's management software to manage this switch. You cannot manage it with telnet or a web browser.

This switch is suppose to have a cable diagnostic feature built into it, but it doesn't. I also purchased the JFS524E switch which is part of Netgear's Unmanaged Plus series. The JFS524E does have this feature. It's pretty cool because you can use it to tell you how long a cable run is. Netgear might be able to add this feature in the future with a firmware update.

I wrote a separate review on the NETGEAR ProSafe 24-Port Fast Ethernet Unmanaged Plus Switch JFS524E if you want to read the differences between the two models. If it wasn't for the ping issue, I would have kept the GS105E.

I bought this as a replacement for a GS105 UNMANAGED switch, witch did NOT recognize Qos (Quality of service). This switch works just fine, with an XBOX 360 gaming system. In fact it cured the LAG on my home network. I do not know about the ping problem, at least it does not seem to have any negative affect on my COD-MW2 games. I have always had good experiences with Netgear's ProSafe product line. Downloading the latest FIRMWARE update cures any ping problems and adds cable testing(excellent!).

This device is a managed switch. I purchased it for the port mirror capabilities for a work project. Since it is a managed switch it has a MAC and IP address so that you can configure it. The device has a serious design flaw as confirmed with NETGEAR tech support. They indicate a firmware patch will fix the problem. They've known about the problem for several months and still no patch. The problem is that when you ping any device on your LAN segment the GS105E will erroneously send a response. Thus you get two responses. One real the intended device and one from the GS105E. For my network management station it accepts the first response it receives and causes all kinds of confusion on the network. I cant tell who is alive and who is not. DO NOT PURCHASE!!! SERIOUSLY and ADMITTEDLY FLAWED. NETGEAR should pull it from the market. They are ruining their good name.

I purchased and am returing this product because the management application will not install on Win 7 64-bit (I believe the error was 1628). I tried the app version on the CD and the latest downloaded one, both will not install. There is no web interface, so configuration via this (windows only) app is required. I looked on the Netgear support website and didn't see any mention of this problem, and don't want to spend the next 2 hours debugging it, so am returning it.

True story: I bought this 5-port switch for its port-mirroring capabilities. After plugging it in, I discover that there's no way to configure it, aside from the proprietary POS Windows app that according to other reviews:

* Doesn't work in Win7 64-bit.

* Doesn't work on Apple MacOS.

* The admin password is broadcasted (yes, UDP broadcast) in the clear.

The device also responds to pings sent to ANY IP ADDRESS on the network.

So look: I don't run Windows. Even if I did, having a network device that's tied to a specific piece of software that may not be available or even work on my computer in the future is asinine.

This is a network device. Just run a goddamned webserver on it. It even listens on port 80, and I don't even want to begin to contemplate why there's a non-HTTP server running on that port. Telnet suggests that it's an echo service. wtf.

Anyhow, the Amazon shipping time was superb, and the box came with a beautiful, glossy poster with all of the Netgear products, as well as the standards they support. If I had any plans on buying Netgear products in the future, I might've hung on to that. Guess I'll go the Cisco SLM2008 route.

We have bought about 50 of these to break out some offices which only have a few ports available in them. Good quality, havent really tested the features, as we use them like unmanaged switches.

Works great!
Inexpensive.
Should have bought it years ago...
What more can I say???