Hardware Reviews
Netgear FS308 Fast Ethernet Switch (8-port) Netgear, winner of a homePCnetwork Editor's Choice for the outstanding FA310TX network adapter, once again delivers a maximum quality product in this Fast Ethernet switch. The FS308 is rock solid in every way: construction, features and performance. Certainly it isn't the cheapest 8-port 10/100 switch on the market. Yet at a street price of about $180 (We found it for $176 + shipping at buy.com), it is within range of some of the cheapest 8-port hubs with a lot more to offer for the extra bucks. Among the many Fast Ethernet switches we've reviewed (see our roundup Which Switch for a quick summary), the FS308 is the clear Editor's Choice winner. This is, by the way, the first eight-port network device that we've tested. For many users, eight ports will be overkill. Others will find ways to quickly fill up more than four or five ports, the "standard" on many devices targeted at home networks. As with most computer products, we wouldn't advocate buying more capability than you need since the price will ultimately go down. You could, for example, buy a five-port device now and buy another five-port device down the road and daisy-chain them together. On the flip side, if you have enough home network devices to connect to four or five ports already, get a switch with at least eight ports. Trust us, you'll add another device before long. And if you can't believe ANY home network would need more than five ports, consider this simple setup: two computers in the home office (that's two ports), another computer in the kids room (now three ports total), a cable modem or router (four ports), an Ethernet printer connection (five ports). Uh oh, no place to connect the work laptop into your home network! You get the idea. Overview
The Netgear switch comes in a large, information-packed box. Product features and benefits, a typical network setup and lots more information are displayed on the box. Inside, you'll find the switch, a power cord, a 12-page user manual, a warranty card (with a generous 5-year warranty) and contact card with phone numbers and web site addresses for tech support. The user manual is packed with information on typical configurations, how to set up the switch, and troubleshooting guides. The switch itself is extremely well built and has a bunch of nice features. Tops on our list is an internal power supply so there's no power brick to deal with; just a regular power cord. The switch also doesn't have an internal fan so there's no noise factor. And, unlike other switches that use curved tops and other fancy designs to help with cooling, the Netgear switch is in a nice, squared off case. That may not seem like a big deal, but try stacking an external modem, router or other device on top of a "curvy topped" switch and you'll get our point. As we prefer for desktop switches and hubs, all eight ports are on the back of the switch. There's also a push button that allows you to set the last port as a regular port or an "uplink" port allowing it to be connected to another switch or hub. There are also a set of dip switches on the back that allow you to manually set the duplex mode. For most uses, you'll leave these set to auto select, allowing the switch to go to full duplex mode if the network cards and other devices support it. Each port can auto select whether a 10Mbps or 100Mbps device is connected and small LEDs above the port (one on each side) indicate which speed has been selected. These lights also flash to indicate activity on that port. The front panel also has lights to provide a wealth of information on switch and network activity. Three rows of lights provide information on each port's activity. One row indicates whether a 100Mbps link is made to another network device (such as a computer's network card). The light blinks when data is being received or sent. A second row provides the same information for a 10Mbps link. The third row indicates whether the port is operating in full duplex mode (when it glows green) or if there have been data collisions on the port (when it glows yellow). Installation As with most Ethernet switches, installation was easy and problem free. We simply plugged the included power cable into the back of the switch and then plugged it into a power outlet. Next, we plugged the Category 5 cables from our network computers into the ports on the back of the switch. That's it. We were up and running. Remember, it is possible to connect and disconnect devices from a switch when it's powered on, but do NOT connect or disconnect cables from your computer when it's powered on. Also, if you have ANY trouble after connecting or disconnecting cables, always try to power off and power back on the device and your computers before starting any other troubleshooting steps. Performance Once again, to test the true performance of a network switch, we ran a number of tests. First, we used our standard file copy test to check performance with just two computers on the network. Each of our test computers used a D-Link DFE-530TX+ network card. (This is the same card used in the latest D-Link kit.) For this test, we copied a 30 meg file back and forth between the two. We used TCP/IP, IPX and NetBEUI in turn, making sure to remove the other protocols before each test. In the chart below, we compare the Netgear switch to the D-Link switch. Since both test setups used the same computers and network cards, the performance is quite close, but the Netgear switch clearly provides the best performance. For most real-world applications, you probably would not notice the difference. On the other hand, play an intense network game with fast computers connected to 4, 5 or more ports and you might be able to perceive the enhanced performance of the Netgear switch.
Next, to test the true full-bandwidth performance of the switch, we used a test that we devised earlier. We used four computers connected to the switch. We copied two 30 meg files and two 13 meg files across the switch at the SAME time. This puts significant stress on the network and the switch. We ran the same test twice and averaged the results, shown below in seconds to complete all file copying. For comparison, we also show results for the D-Link DSS-5+ switch (part of the new DFE-910 kit) and the Linksys EtherFast switch (part of the Linksys EtherFast Switched 10/100 Network in a Box). In testing the Netgear kit, as mentioned earlier, we used the same adapter cards used with the D-Link switch. The Linksys switch used the cards that came with the kit. Thus, as you can see, the Netgear switch clearly outperforms the D-Link switch and the Linksys switch. In fact, the Netgear switch turned in the fastest result we've ever had for this test.
Finally, we ran two subjective tests on the setup. First we played an AVI file across the 4 computer network. Specifically, we played an AVI located on the hard drive on one computer from another computer. We did that from all four computers on the network at the same time, again to test the full-bandwidth capability of the switch. With the Netgear switch, all of the files ran quite smoothly. Second, we played a network game that requires a lot of data thrown back and forth between 4 machines. Again, using the Netgear switch, we never had any problems on any of the machines playing the game. By the way, regular readers of our reviews may notice that we did not include test results using Qcheck, a freeware networking testing utility. That's because Qcheck, which can only test results between two machines, did not reveal any differences in test results. It's a neat, free utility but it appears to not put enough stress on the 2-computer network to show any difference in these high-speed devices. The company that provides Qcheck also has a full-fledged network testing utility, but they won't provide us a copy for free and we don't have a spare $14,000 to buy it. For now, our "real-world" tests will have to suffice. Technical Support Netgear has extensive on-line technical support, including FAQs and driver downloads, as well as e-mail, fax, and phone support. Phone support is toll free. Summary Overall, the Netgear FS308 switch is one of the highest-quality, feature-rich switches we've tested. Yes, it's far from the cheapest so we wouldn't rate it a "best buy." Yet, if you're looking for a large switch that will be a rock solid backbone to your home and/or home office network, we'd seriously consider the few extra dollars for the Netgear. We simply can't think of how anyone will beat this switch. The Netgear FS308 is the quality/performance leader among the switches we've tested. It deserves a top rating and we award it our homePCnetwork Editor's Choice award. Grade = A+ Details
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Photo courtesy of Netgear