NETGEAR 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch

I installed Netgear 8 port to expand the Netgear R6700v3 router outputs with 1G port to improve my home network backbone to 1G to reach 4 corners of the house. This particular 8 port switch at the router and the center of distribution.. The switch performed wonderfully. Read on for how I evaluated the switch.
— These are very small and light, much smaller then the impression left from viewing the pictures.
— There is nothing more to the installation then plug it in and power it up.
— Its connects to all 8 ports almost instantly. I reach back to plug it in and view the front and all the ports were connected .
— The ethernet ports on the rear are well labeled and the numbers easily read.
— What is a true convenience is that the lights on the front phsically match the port on the back. Many other switchs reverse the order and its a total annoyance. On this switch draw a line from the port lights to the connector to know which connector is was activity light. nice!
— The front lights are easily seen. The ports show different colors for the speed, green for 1G and yellow for 100m.
— Very very light and can be easily attached to desktop using double side foam tape and it holds in place when cables are attached.
— How about speed performance? I have all 8 ports used to include a TV, Blu-ray player, 2 home security DVRs which (all 100M ports) are all streaming video for this test. The TV and the Blue-ray are streaming 4K UHD video. In addition I have a laptop (with 1G port) and the R6700 router (also 1G port) connected plus 2 standalone IP security cameras (100M ports). The port light colors were correct, Green for the router and PC and yellow for all others. I could tell no difference in the 4K streaming user interface or video performance when connected through the 8 port switch or when connected directly to the router. Every device connected through the switch performed perfectly without any hint of data slowdown. I did a speed test from my PC for the broadband service and I hit the maximum data rate provided by the ISP.

One thing could be improved:
— I wish there was something to attach them to a surface. There are no mounting holes . Its a smooth small box.

Conclusion: Other than some 2 sided tape for mounting this is a perfect, fast and economical plug and play 1G switch.

This switch has helped manage all the ethernet devices I have. My modem only has one RJ45 jack.

Bought this to support my NVR, gaming PC and second router. I always found that adding a switch like this increases all the wired lan speeds. We currently own a home hub 3000 from bell and being directly wired to it sometimes doesn’t give the full speeds but with this little guy, it makes everything better. Try to buy it on sale as it gets discounted quite a bit. Also this one is better for a clean setup as there is status lights for ports located in the front. The power and lan ports are in the back. I ended up buying some double sided Velcro to mount this to my NVR so nothing moves and it’s a completely clean setup. It lacks mounting holes but that can be easily fixed.

I got this Netgear GS208 as a replacement for a Netgear GS608 v2. After ~20 years, that older switch started to refuse to negotiate links at 1GBps. So this switch fixed all those problems. I plugged in everything I could think of – including a touchy USB-C docking port with built-in Ethernet. All devices connected and negotiated at 1GBps with various Cat 5 cables. The good part is that it is dead easy to install, works flawlessly, and I think it might use only a fraction of the power that the older unit did. The power supply is 12V .5A (6 Watts) where the old one was 1A (12W).

I dinged one star on quality of material for lack of metal shielding around the ports. There is not one piece of metal showing on this switch. The case, the ports, and the power supply are all plastic. The older unit had metal shields around the Ethernet ports, and these connected with the shielding found in some Ethernet cables. Even the similar GS308 has metal shields on the ports. I went with this choice because the it is the least expensive version that has the indicator lights opposite from the ports (and cables). I prefer to have the lights opposite the cables, because I place the switch under my computer, and this lets me see the status of the ports and hide all the wiring at the same time. (See my picture)

Which leads to a disappointment. The status lights are basically for link or no link. They do not show link speed. My GS608v2 had different colors for the indicator lights to show the speed in addition to the link. I was expecting this to be the same on the GS208 and was disappointed when it was not. I dinged a star for value because of this. While I was digging in to the documentation on the lights, I also noticed that this product (GS208) is end-of-life from Netgear.

Which leads to the overall rating. I don’t think I would buy this again, I would probably try to buy a used GS608v3 or earlier version of that switch which shows the link speed with dual color lights. I will keep this switch and will use it for as long as it keeps working. However, I have to give 4 instead of 5 stars for overall rating – especially since even Netgear isn’t interested in selling them anymore.

For the ecology minded – the packaging was entirely recyclable – both the paper box and plastic bags. No Styrofoam!

(As an aside, prices vary a lot on Amazon for all these switches, so you might be happier after you shop around.)

Had mine for 4 years. Not a single problem. Works great.