NETGEAR GS116

On the advice of the helpdesk, I chose the Netgear GS116 for installing a home network in a new-build home. Because science is still debating the harmful or not harmful effects of wireless networks, we erred on the side of caution and filled the house full of UTP connections. I use the Netgear Switch to connect to the modem of the internet provider. It couldn't be simpler: just hang it up, plug in the cables, plug in the power cable and you're done! Only remark: fixing the switch to the wall is done with two screws supplied. A little bit of measuring work is required to confirm the device properly

Situation sketch: At home I had a WiFi router from netgear and a NAS server from Qnap. Both my ISP's modem and my netgear router acted as DHCP, resulting in two different IP ranges. The Qnap has a double Gigabit LAN connection and I wanted to make the most of that, as far as my network allows.

Solution: This gigabit switch provides an extra boost in my network. All devices between which data must be exchanged (PC, laptop, NAS, AVR, ...) can now be neatly connected to one swtich. The future rooms can also each have their own network connection. To keep it simple, I set up my netgear router as an Access Point. Maybe a waste of the router but easier for the configuration of my network, there is now only one ip-range left.

Advantages

• much faster data transfers from my pc to my nas than before (the switch built into my modem was a 100Mbit)
• sufficient connections without having to branch further
• sturdy casing
• limited in size

Cons

• quite a bit more energy consuming than twice 8-ports. Fortunately, there is the intelligent energy consumption system.
• no router to hang in your living room or it's always Christmas with all the lights :-)

The big difference between this switch and its smaller brothers lies in the LAG capabilities. If you have multiple switches with LAG and computers with Network interfaces that support link aggregation ( intel network cards (internal and external) e.g. or any working card in Vsphere ( ESxi ) or Linux ) you can double your bandwidth, triple and more through multiple cables to connect.

The smallest gs105e is the only model that does not support flow control, the 8 ports and others do. Make sure to disable flow control on ports that have 100mbit cards attached and cards/switches that don't support flow control. At first sight it will work, but after some time you will see performance drops. If you buy new, opt for these 16 ports or at least 8 ports.

The VLAN capabilities of this entire family of switches are fantastic. gs105e gs108e gs116e and the various poe models.. Also full featured standard 802.1Q VLAN, no custom build. Suppose you have internet with a VDSL provider, you use the interactive services of Telenet, you have a guest network for when visitors come, then you use a separate vlan for each of these. You can then connect your switches with trunks, these switches have access to each of these vlans. You can then set port per port on which network you end up when you connect a device to it. With the necessary OS support, you can also connect a trunk to your device, which then has individual access to the different vlans. You see these as individual network connections. (in linux interfaces eth0.2 eth0.3 eth0.4 etc..)

If 10GBE networks are still a bit too expensive for you, but you still want to create 2 and 3 gigabit networks, this switch is ideal. Due to the fact that you connect your computers and switches with multiple cables at the same time, 16 ports are certainly not too much. Mix & match is no problem either. You can safely connect your file server with 3 cables and the rest of your devices with 1 or 2.

The price is phenomenal for what this switch can do.

In the latest iterations of the firmware (now installed by default with purchase) everything is also configurable via web interface. Linux / BSD / Apple users can now configure everything without needing a Windows computer (although for some troubleshooting scenarios the windows tool can do a little more with detecting the switch)

Images are the configuration screens via prosafe tool and via web.