NETGEAR 5 Port Gigabit Network Switch, Managed Ethernet Switch GS305E

Needed a basic switch to share one ethernet cable for Internet access among 4 other devices in one room and it does that perfectly. 1 Gbps ports. No issues so far.

Great piece of kit to expand wired network connections. Easy to set up and takes up no space at all.

Does just what I'd hoped it would - in helping to extend wired internet connection around the house.

Despite the mesh wi-fi system I have installed in my home, I still like to have a good wired connection for some devices and I needed a small edge switch to reach into a corner of the house so I could connect up a couple of devices that had no wireless capability. As I'm a bit of a Netgear fanboy and have several of their managed switches already, I opted for this particular model, which at the time was cheaper than the roughly equivalent GS105E. Setting up is straightforward enough, and if you wanted you could just connect this to your network and do nothing else with it. But if you're going to do that, I'd strongly recommend you go for a cheaper unmanaged one as you're basically paying for things you're not using with this. As I like to keep a close eye on my network setup and plan to extend to using the VLAN functions at some point (mainly to segregate my home automation system), this was pretty much the best solution. They're great switches, but they aren't the easiest to work with. One of the issues I've noted is that they don't grab IP addresses from DHCP quickly enough, so they tend to go with their default IP address, which is 192.168.0.239. I don't use a subnet which this address falls into, so it's not a big issue, but if your network does then you may well find you've got an address conflict. Not ideal. And if you buy more than one, you could end up with issues. Again, I believe the unmanaged switches don't have this issue as there's no need for them to have an IP address, so if you're not planning on doing anything to these then look for something else. There is an inbuilt web interface which is used to change the various settings, from the password (hint: change this straight away!), to per-port VLAN, QoS, mirroring and a multitude of other options. The interface looks like it was designed in the mid 1990s, but it's pretty clean and agile, so it's not a chore to work with and once set up, you're probably never going to look at it again. On the downside, it does miss out on some of the enhanced features of its bigger brothers (the ones with 16 or more ports), but a 5 port edge switch is hardly going to be the backbone of a complex network purely because there's not enough ports, so this shouldn't be a problem. The switch is made of metal and is very sturdy. It's finished in a deep grey colour and looks very understated and unobtrusive, with the sole exception of the oversize Netgear logo on the top. It is fanless, so it is silent in operation and it generates very little heat, being barely warmer than room temperature. It throws network packets around with aplomb and despite being three hops from the router, there's virtually no slowing down of the data rate. The only problem I have with this switch is that I should probably have got the 8 port one instead, as I've filled this one already. But aside from my own lack of foresight, this was a very worthwhile purchase.

great little box for improving the network , I decided to install a 2nd access point to run the IOT in the house , and needed a managed switch for the virtual channels , it does that job , plus the monitoring tools that are built in , on top of that its even faster than my old 5 port switch .... impressed with the price , will consider it the thing to buy for any other upgrades ..

Great devices for extending the network - managed so works with VLANs. Have bought 4 now - completely reliable as you’d expect.

I bought this for one reason and one only - to reduce the amount of Internet bandwidth used by streaming services such as Netflix, NowTV and Amazon Prime which can cause frequent lag spikes when I'm gaming online on games such as Battlefield. The lag was so bad that games would become unplayable whenever my misses was streaming Netflix. I tried everything on my Router using the QoS features without any improvement at all. As all of my TVs are connected to the router via ethernet cables (over powerline adaptors) I used the rate limiting feature of the Netgear switch to limit the amount of bandwidth used by my TVs when streaming so they didn't hog the bandwidth and hopefully reduce gaming lag. The TVs are all connected via the same ethernet cable from the powerline adapter next to the router. And it has worked a treat. I've limited the two ports connected on the Netgear switch to download at no more than 8Mbps which is enough for HD streaming and now I have no lag whatsoever when gaming - and I mean a consistent 30ms when playing Battlefield. Changing the limit to 16Mbps and I get some moderate lag (the occasional 50-70ms spike) now and again but not game breaking. Any rate limits 32Mbps and above - on my 50Mbps broadband connection - and I get game breaking 100-300ms lag spikes every few seconds when the missus is streaming. The Netgear switch interface using a Web browser is very simple and easy to use and I can change the rate limit very easily with my phone without interrupting the connection at all. One thing to note is that BT TV won't work for rate limits under 16Mbps. This switch has been a revelation.

This was very easy to install and maintained the quality and speed of my current setup, connecting simply and compatible with the various bits of equipment I use to live stream and monitor. Perfect port capacity for my current needs.

worth buying

Plug and play ethernet switch works great.

POE mentioned in description not working

definitely makes a difference and great product. very easy to setup and way better speed is distributed on each ethernet.

Thanks