NETGEAR 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS105NA) – Desktop or Wall Mount, and Limited Lifetime Protection

Lots of VLAN configurability, stable performance
A professional network engineer might scoff at this “prosumer”-grade switch, but it does actually have a fair bit of flexibility in regard to its VLAN configuration, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. I bought it so I could connect two Internet gateways (a cable modem and an optical network terminal) to my router’s single WAN port and two virtual LANs to my router’s single LAN port. Despite the two passes that packets need to take through this switch on their way between the Internet and my LAN devices, I can still download the latest Chromium sources from Google at over 100 MiB/s (average over the course of a 2-GiB+ download) through my gigabit Internet link, so I know the switch matrix is doing a good job at keeping the crossing flows from colliding.To pull off having two gateways connected to one WAN port on my router, I have two 802.1Q-tagged virtual interfaces configured on my router’s WAN interface with distinct tags that I assigned as the PVIDs of the two switch ports that the gateways plug into. Each of those two switch ports is configured to pass the traffic of its respective VLAN untagged since the cable modem and the ONT are not expecting 802.1Q-tagged Ethernet frames. Then the switch port that is connected to my router’s WAN port is configured as a member of both of the gateway VLANs and is configured to pass their traffic with tags so that my router can run its two virtual interfaces on its one WAN port. That switch port has its PVID set to a throwaway VLAN (of which no other ports are members) so that any untagged traffic coming from the router’s WAN port will be thrown away and will not leak to the remaining five switch ports that connect my internal LAN.Those other five switch ports, which I use for my LAN, are members of two more VLANs, one of which is set as their PVID, meaning any untagged traffic they receive gets assigned into that VLAN, and also they are configured to pass any traffic on that VLAN in untagged frames. The other VLAN is for my isolated Internet-of-Things network so I can have remote Wi-Fi access points hosting a dedicated SSID just for my IoT devices. The LAN switch ports are configured to pass traffic on the IoT VLAN using tagged frames, so the IoT network is “invisible” to other switches and hosts unless they intentionally connect to it. The router’s LAN port runs both the default (untagged) interface for the trusted VLAN and also an 802.1Q-tagged virtual interface for the IoT VLAN, and those two interfaces are addressed on separate subnets with some firewall rules to prevent IoT devices from connecting to trusted devices, but trusted devices can connect to IoT devices (to command them, read status, etc.).The reason I described my complex setup here is so you could get an idea of how much flexibility this switch offers. Sure, it may not have the kind of Cisco-esque management console that network engineers are trained to endure/love, but the switch’s web interface is actually shockingly capable of configuring almost any bizarre VLAN arrangement that you can imagine. And there are actually three other VLAN configuration modes that I did not even describe: a basic port-based mode, an advanced port-based mode, and a basic 802.1Q mode. (I use the advanced 802.1Q mode.)As far as the physical build of this switch goes, it looks and feels exactly as you would expect a Netgear desktop switch to look and feel if you are at all familiar with them. It’s a sleek metal slab with a line of Ethernet ports along the front edge and a 12V DC barrel jack on the rear. Each port has two LEDs that show link speed/status and activity, so you get your typical blinkenlights show. The 12V input is nice because it allows me to put this switch on my 12V battery backup along with my router and my two gateway devices. The four devices will easily run for many hours in a power outage.As for reliability, I have never had this switch hang or lose performance with prolonged use. It runs silently for months to years with no intervention required. It just works, even despite the crazy configuration I gave it. I have no complaints at all.

A solid switch. JGS524
I hate when Amazon groups similar products reviews together. Your not sure if the reviews you are reading are really for the specific product you intend to buy…Anyway my review is for the JGS524 24 port unmanaged rack mount switch.I purchased this to replace a ZyXel 24 port Gigabit switch. There was nothing wrong with my ZyXEL; it gave me many years of trouble free service and was still working perfectly when I pulled it out of service. I purchased it back in the day probably because it was a little cheaper at the time.Although the Netgear JGS524 has been around for a LONG time, its a solid switch. I’ve had a few of those or its variants kicking around at work, and they just work. Never a problem. Never a need to reboot.The MAIN reason I recently purchased the JGS524 was for its extra indicators. I am about to upgrade to fiber at my house and I wanted to make sure my network was indeed up to the task of faster speeds. With my old switch, the only indicators I had was ‘link’. Of course that is fine when hooking a PC to it as you can always check your link speed in Windows. However, switch to switch hookups (without a speed indicator on at least one end) I couldn’t be sure I was indeed running gigabit speeds throughout my network without manually speed testing. So I purchased the NetGear mainly for peace of mind.I popped the old one out, popped in the Netgear, and low and behold I had two network segments only running a 100 base speed. Troubleshot my network, and put new ends on my wall faceplate to device jumpers, and gigabit speed restored.I would have never really known my network wasn’t at top speed without manual testing or until doing large file transfers without the NetGear. So now I am good to go for the fiber install.When searching for info, I came across a lot of conflicting info. My unit is the ‘v2’ and does NOT have any fans (silent operation).For what its worth, the NetGear is still the dark blue color it has always been (for the unmanaged version), even though the item description says its black.If I have to nitpick, my only gripe with my purchase is they didn’t double box it. They just slapped some shipping labels on the neatgear box and sent it on its way. I normally like to keep all the original boxes to my PC equipment, so would have preferred it was double boxed like they usually do, but it arrived undamaged so its fine. But this has more to do with the shipping and nothing to do with the product.So if your looking for a solid rack mountable Gigabit switch and don’t need the advanced features of a managed switch, the JGS524 is a solid buy.-Alan

Simple, nice design.

That’s about it really. Awesome plug and play. If an idiot like me can use it, so can you.