Netgear GS608 Gigabit Green 8 Port Desktop Switch Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2010-05-08
·
921 words · ~4 min read
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okay so today i'm going to be unboxing a netgear 8 port gigabit Ethernet switch
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and the reason for using a switch like this is that most people already have a
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router if they're doing internet connection sharing which normally
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includes a 4 port switch but four ports isn't always enough for all of the
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computers and other devices in the house for example in my house we've got four
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desktop computers a media pc
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any number of laptops as well as a home server so by that point you're
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connecting potentially as many as you know six to eight devices by wired
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Ethernet so what that means is that you can use a switch in order to split the
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connection out to a bunch of different computers so i have one cable going over
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power line into another room where it goes into a gigabit switch just like
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this one and then splits out to three different four different computers
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within that room it's a very convenient way to network and it also allows you to
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take advantage of full gigabit speeds between any computers that are connected
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to the gigabit switch without upgrading your router so without further ado why
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don't we start getting this switch open here and i'll talk a little bit more
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about it this is a trend that we're seeing quite a bit of lately actually
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and i want to open the plastic first and then talk
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more about the product later there we go
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okay and that is this green movement here so most of the switch guys are
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coming out with green models of their switches and what that means is that
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they consume less power because a switch is intended to be an always-on device
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you never really want to have to go and
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manually turn on your network switch when you want to transfer a file between
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a computer or like set up an internet connection right so a switch is always
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on so the reason for these green switches is that it'll use less power okay i've talked
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way too much about that at this point all right here's what we have included you have a netgear installation guide so
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they estimate that it'll take about five to ten minutes to set up they show you
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where to plug things in awesome okay thank you
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okay then you have a warranty and support information card to register
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your warranty all right and then you have the switch itself but let's have a
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look at the accessories first not a whole lot in terms of accessories
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so you've got a wall wart or a power brick or whatever you want to call it ac
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to dc adapter then you have a stand that
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was it that was all and normally i'd expect a product like this to include an
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Ethernet cable but maybe that's part of their part of their green initiative is
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that they're not including an Ethernet cable because i don't know about you but
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i already have like a million and one Ethernet cables and if i'm buying an
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eight port gigabit switch i probably already have an Ethernet cable okay so
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let's take off this little plastic cover there we go and this the unit actually
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feels quite heavy and solidly built which is always kind of nice because
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when you buy something and it feels like there's nothing to it it's not usually
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quite as satisfying so why don't we have a look at the side of the unit to start
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so you can see that it is compatible with ten hundred and one thousand megabit per second okay so that means
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you can get in real life transfers actually on mine i get up to about 90
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megabytes per second between my computer and my home server so it makes for very
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very quick file transfers over the network okay there's your branding
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there's a power light that turns on when you plug it in one two three four five
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six seven and eight these will light up in accordance to which plugs are plugged
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in at the back then around to the other side there is nothing on the top you've
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got some netgear branding on the bottom you have a diagram that's a very handy
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diagram and it also gives you a color code so blinking means you've got
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activity on a particular port if the land is green that means you're
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connected at one gigabit per second and if it's yellow in the light here that
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means you're connected at either 10 or 100 megabit per second that's kind of a
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useful feature to have anyway thank you for checking out my unboxing of the
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netgear green gigabit switch
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yeah so the cameraman raged at me because i never showed the back i never
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actually showed the business end of the switch these are the ports where you
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plug in your Ethernet cables so up to eight normally the way you'd configure
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it is coming off your router you plug into one of the ports and then that can
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split that router connection out to seven additional computers as well there
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is your power plug thank you for checking out my unboxing of the netgear
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gigabit switch