okay so today i'm going to be unboxing a netgear 8 port gigabit Ethernet switch
and the reason for using a switch like this is that most people already have a
router if they're doing internet connection sharing which normally
includes a 4 port switch but four ports isn't always enough for all of the
computers and other devices in the house for example in my house we've got four
desktop computers a media pc
any number of laptops as well as a home server so by that point you're
connecting potentially as many as you know six to eight devices by wired
Ethernet so what that means is that you can use a switch in order to split the
connection out to a bunch of different computers so i have one cable going over
power line into another room where it goes into a gigabit switch just like
this one and then splits out to three different four different computers
within that room it's a very convenient way to network and it also allows you to
take advantage of full gigabit speeds between any computers that are connected
to the gigabit switch without upgrading your router so without further ado why
don't we start getting this switch open here and i'll talk a little bit more
about it this is a trend that we're seeing quite a bit of lately actually
and i want to open the plastic first and then talk
more about the product later there we go
okay and that is this green movement here so most of the switch guys are
coming out with green models of their switches and what that means is that
they consume less power because a switch is intended to be an always-on device
you never really want to have to go and
manually turn on your network switch when you want to transfer a file between
a computer or like set up an internet connection right so a switch is always
on so the reason for these green switches is that it'll use less power okay i've talked
way too much about that at this point all right here's what we have included you have a netgear installation guide so
they estimate that it'll take about five to ten minutes to set up they show you
where to plug things in awesome okay thank you
okay then you have a warranty and support information card to register
your warranty all right and then you have the switch itself but let's have a
look at the accessories first not a whole lot in terms of accessories
so you've got a wall wart or a power brick or whatever you want to call it ac
to dc adapter then you have a stand that
was it that was all and normally i'd expect a product like this to include an
Ethernet cable but maybe that's part of their part of their green initiative is
that they're not including an Ethernet cable because i don't know about you but
i already have like a million and one Ethernet cables and if i'm buying an
eight port gigabit switch i probably already have an Ethernet cable okay so
let's take off this little plastic cover there we go and this the unit actually
feels quite heavy and solidly built which is always kind of nice because
when you buy something and it feels like there's nothing to it it's not usually
quite as satisfying so why don't we have a look at the side of the unit to start
so you can see that it is compatible with ten hundred and one thousand megabit per second okay so that means
you can get in real life transfers actually on mine i get up to about 90
megabytes per second between my computer and my home server so it makes for very
very quick file transfers over the network okay there's your branding
there's a power light that turns on when you plug it in one two three four five
six seven and eight these will light up in accordance to which plugs are plugged
in at the back then around to the other side there is nothing on the top you've
got some netgear branding on the bottom you have a diagram that's a very handy
diagram and it also gives you a color code so blinking means you've got
activity on a particular port if the land is green that means you're
connected at one gigabit per second and if it's yellow in the light here that
means you're connected at either 10 or 100 megabit per second that's kind of a
useful feature to have anyway thank you for checking out my unboxing of the
netgear green gigabit switch
yeah so the cameraman raged at me because i never showed the back i never
actually showed the business end of the switch these are the ports where you
plug in your Ethernet cables so up to eight normally the way you'd configure
it is coming off your router you plug into one of the ports and then that can
split that router connection out to seven additional computers as well there
is your power plug thank you for checking out my unboxing of the netgear
gigabit switch