Netgear FS605NA 5-Port Fast Ethernet Switch Reviews

• Inefficient power supply

  
  By on 2004-04-09
  Switch is fine, but power supply is the least efficient I've ever seen, producing 6 watts out with 23 watts in. There's no excuse for 26% power supply efficiency, when an 80% efficient design costs nearly the same. This power supply will add about $3/month to your electric bill.
  
  

• works well, runs a little warm

  
  By A3Q4TYJVAM4IRM on 2003-06-22
  This switch is as advertised. It works out of the box, without any problems, setups, uplink switches, or anything else. Just plug and play.

  Silent, fan-less operation. However, it does get a bit warm to the touch. If fully loaded (using all ports at high volumes of traffic) and running in warmer room, overheating may become an issue. Even so, I'll take that possibility over yet another noisy fan in my office.
  
  

• Great Buy

  
  By AYMD77ITD15PT on 2002-12-01
  The Netgear FS605 is a great 5 port switch. Simply just plug it in and your on your way. I have one at home and have one that we use at work. The unit is sleek and has good quality for the price. I would highly recommend this unit for anyone looking for a basic switch.
  
  

• Works great

  
  By A2703EHG232FG9 on 2003-04-21
  When you review a switch either it works or it does not. I have the Netgeat FS605 installed two switches down stream from my cable modem and it works without a hitch. The next issues with a switch is noise and heat. In these categories the netgear FS605 is awesome. It is operating 24 hours a day and cool to the touch. Best of all I cannot hear anything when it is turned on. I have some netgear switches with fans that let you know when they are on. Not this one. Great for the home theatre area where you want quite. I use it to pass the ethernet from my playstation to my server that uses QCast to play avi on my TV. Netgear FS605 is a keeper.
  
  

• Excellent Ethernet Switch

  
  By A1F77OPK085OOJ on 2007-01-14
  I tried using a D-Link router with my Direcway/Hughes satellite Internet connection with absolutely no success. With that connection the only thing that will work is a hub or switch. A switch is more advanced because it is able to feed all the outputs with fast connections instead of having to share the input as a hub does.
  The Netgear FS605 (which currently has a $10 rebate) is very simple to set up since all it really does take an input and feed it to everything else. No IP addresses of Ethernet names are required. The enclosed paper Installation Guide estimates the setup time to be 5-10 minutes and that's about right. No problems whatsoever.
  I would recommend this to anyone having satellite Internet.
  
  
• Their products have no warranty
  By A1N6WFGDUNG88S on 2003-08-04
  Contrary to their claims, their products have no warranty at all (unless you pay for it). I have a 2 year old gateway router that had a 5 year warranty that stopped working one day so I called their tech support. The tech support person told me that since the product is over 90 days old and they do not manufacture it anymore, then I would have to contact their pay tech support line to get an RMA. If they are able to fix the problem over the phone line, then they will charge me, otherwise they will offer me an RMA number for a return. So basically you have to pay to use their warranty. A friend who is a lawyer is currently handling this situation.
  
  
• Great value, great switch
  By on 2003-09-24
  This is a great switch, I use it to share my ADSL, it was just plug an play, no fuss, in three minutes I was running three computers, its also very compact and nice looking, the silver finish is better looking than Lynksys and Dlink. Well worth the price.
  
  
• Wonderful little device!
  By A2BDZ3BF0YCG1O on 2005-09-24
  Absolutely plug-n-play. No set-up required. I have had to unplug and plug it in again after moving devices around but not a problem. Makes my life so much easier. Yes, you can probably buy a router but they are not the same thing. If you just want to be able to plug multiple devices into one network connection, this is the thing. I have my computer and a LinkStation server, with a printer on the server, working seamlessly on this switch. For a while I even had a wireless router on it, at the same time. If I have to plug in a laptop briefly, no problem, I just use a short cable and plug into the switch. Saves me crawling around unplugging and plugging stuff in. I couldn't be happier. I hope it lasts a very long time.
  
  
• 2 Network Routers = Not Recommended. Instead go Router + Switch + Switch etc...
  By AD0J5KK4WQXNS on 2005-10-05
  No body is going to critic you for having a network backbone that is hardwired. Having an all-in-one wireless ADSL modem/router/switch means everything in one box serving your broadband to any wireless machine on your network. This method is great but has some problems. First and foremost is the fact that your network is limited to wireless only devices unless your router is built with Ethernet connections. Second is that you can not disconnect the router and have a modem only, unless your router is advanced enough to do this. So a lot of people will by a ADSL modem with USB and Ethernet connections (sign of a good brand) and connect this via the Ethernet to the WAN of the hardwired Router, sharing Ethernet out to devices on the network. When the router is full then it is time to get a switch in on one of the Ethernet outs. The switch is basically a splitter. It uses one Ethernet port of the router and gives you four more. Use a port of that switch for another switch and you get four more, minus one on the other switch that is used by the new switch. The network connection looks something like adsl line->adsl modem->router->switch->3 potential network access points + switch->3 potential network access points + switch-> 3 potential network access points + switch->3 potential network access points + switch. Now that setup required 5 switches. Now having 5 switches at this price is not such a good idea. Shop around and you will see 8 port/16port/24 port models on the market. You can hook up two 24 port switches and have 40+ access points. Start your own network café with that setup.
  
  Apart from having switches on a hardwire network, you can, at any stage, decide to have a wireless access point on your network. This can occur anywhere but requires a few conditions. Most Wireless networking devices are considered routers unless otherwise stated. In this case just connect the LAN of the wireless router to LAN of the hardwired router and do not use the WAN of the wireless router. Disable DHCP on the wireless router and make sure that you set up a non-conflicting IP address for the router and instead you have turned the wireless router into a wireless access point, maintaining only one router on the network with wireless capability. Nice setup. Have fun.
  
  
  
• Works as advertised
  By A226XJGYVQSR13 on 2005-11-03
  Setup of this device couldn't be easier. Plug in a power source, plug in your Cat 5 cables and go. I have a networked DVR and an Xbox connected, and both connections have been running smoothly.
  
  
• perfect
  By A1FZ64189D5WSH on 2006-03-01
  Works Great. No noise, no heat, no hassle.
  Exceptional value for the price (especially with rebate).
  
  
• Nice Switch
  By A3SCQV8BXC9XQX on 2003-06-25
  Its a basic but reliable, non-managed switch. Great when you need a simple solution with a good brand name.
  
  
• Nifty little unit - too bad it doesn't seem to work...
  By A1W5N8OT55A9Y3 on 2004-12-16
  I tried placing this unit behind my Microsoft MN700 wireless router (which sits behind my cable modem). I have a single cat5 run to the far side of my house, and I wanted to add this unit to that drop so I could have two devices connected in that end of the house. Well, unfortunately, the unit seems to drop the connections every 2 minutes for abou 10 seconds. It will do this for hours, and I have not been able to resolve the problem with new patch cables or rebooting PCs, power cycling the unit, etc.
  
  Very frustrating...
  
  
• Netgear FS605
  By A2Q1EL5VWJ10SY on 2005-10-09
  This is a great product. I wanted to have a way to plug in my X-box live and internet connection at the same time so that I didn't have to keep switching out one for the other. This product solved my problem quickly, easily, and it did it at a very reasonable cost.
  
  
• Overabusive college student
  By A34EBJ7E3B5RQU on 2007-09-21
  I have had my xbox 360, my laptop, and my two friends' laptops connected to this hub at the same time and it handled it no problem. None of them experienced any problems, and their connections were just as fast. This works great.
  
  
• Piece of Cake
  By A22WOITPKP3KHN on 2007-09-27
  I purchased this product because my Netgear wireless router was out of wired ports and I had another computer that I wanted to wire in. The price was low and I liked the fact that it was from the same company as my other equipment. Plug it into electrical, connect an ethernet wire from the new switch to the old router, and plug devices into the new switch. Done. Nothing to it.
  
  The only thing that would make this better is if it could pull power from the other router...if you could daisy chain these hubs together and share an electrical current as well would be very nice.
  
  
• Great little switch
  By A15XI2BEGGFEOW on 2008-02-09
  I hooked this up to my home network because we were running out of ports on the router. Worked fast and simple. Minimal setup and it actually looks kinda slick. No problems at all. Great deal.
  
  
• Appliance-like simplicity, reliability
  By A3LEP60OK2GKZF on 2003-03-24
  Pros: Simple setup, no configuration necessary--plug it in, and it works. Speedy, stylish, reliable, and cheap. Cons: (minor) no configuration available for tweak-heads (i.e., might not appeal to folk who like control at every level).
  
  
• Easy to setup/install and work well
  By A1SK01XQRFABE7 on 2005-09-14
  Setup was very straight forward and has been working with no problems for a few weeks now. The power adapter is a little big & chunky, takes space on the powerstrip, i wish they would make it a little smaller.
  
  
• ends well
  By A7XIEM8KROWTO on 2006-01-15
  not as fast as in the past but great quality customer service and the price..all is well..5stars
  
  
• Review of Netgear Switch
  By A1CU0SZG6B9QB on 2006-02-22
  This switch works very well. There is very little needed to setup. I just plugged in the wires and power. There is no software setup needed.
  
  
• So far, not so good
  By AXWIUGEH5J8PB on 2007-01-18
  I am having trouble getting both computers to work without having to unplug my modem each time. There were no instructions and no disc. I emailed the company but they have yet to respond.
  
  
• Plug and Play at it's best!
  By AJIF7ZB3FSDD8 on 2008-02-26
  This switch worked like a charm. I have a Belkin F5D7330 bridge / game adapter. I connected the belkin to my linksys wireless g router (using shared 64-bit WEP protection. Then I simply plugged in the ethernet connection to port 1 on this netgear switch and plugged in my downstairs desktop and my xbox 360 and voila! High speed internet downstairs without any holes in the wall or cables running across halls and stairways anymore. This is a much cheaper price to pay than wiring your whole house. Belkin F5D7330 802.11g Wireless Ethernet Adapter
  
  
• NOTE.. this is NOT a router!
  By A3JIQSRD7LDXE4 on 2008-07-01
  Well I bought this thinking it was a router which it is NOT.. I had no clue what the difference was so I am making this review so others dont make the same mistake.. You have to have a ROUTER to make this work...
  
  :-)
  
  
• Great!!
  By A3UJWCJ30ZCE7W on 2004-08-15
  This is a great switch, it does the Job, but actually there are some really good offers for wireless routers for around the price of this switch.
  
  
• Easy to use, stylish
  By A2ME8T5VNVJBW3 on 2005-09-19
  The Netgear FS605 was a cinch to use. Nothing to configure, just plug and use. Its smallish size allows for it to be hidden out of sight. At the time of this review, I have used it for about a month, no problems, none expected.
  
  
• Great Little Switch
  By A2CPXH77UOADSM on 2006-03-09
  Have several of these I use and they have all been great performers.
  
  
• Great!
  By A1LUYH44XM4AYT on 2006-10-17
  Plugged the cables in and it worked like a charm. I did speed tests just to be certain that it did not affect my DSL connection speeds, and it did not. It was nice not having to deal with a crossover cable or flipping a manual switch to configure an uplink port. Contrary to another review, my unit does not run warm, but mine is not fully loaded transmitting data continuously, but I doubt even that would make a difference.
  
  
• Netgear FS605 5-Port 10/100 Fast Ethernet Switch
  By A3I1C7I35YGUSX on 2006-11-14
  This hub is great. It works great if you live in a collage dorm, where you can't have wireless. Plus the price isn't to bad either (even if you want to share the price with a roommate). There is plenty of room to hook up your friends when you have your late night studies as long as they have an extra either net cord.
  
  
• Incomplete description led to much disappointment
  By A2EEN5VFJOE86Z on 2007-06-26
  This is only an adapter of sorts, it does not actually rout signal. So, one must have their high-speed modem connect to another box and then that box can connect to this. Based on its functionality, it is not worth it. I see products similar to this for under $[...] at major electronics suppliers. Amazon, of course, is great as they accepted it back easily! That's why I only buy items that [...] sells themselves.
  
  One of the downfalls of user-defined tags is the fact that I did a search for a router and got this product.
  
  

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