What is this?

[Walt]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering what I could do with the: netgear prosafe gs108 I found today. How can I use it? Is it a ethernet cable splitter? or What?

Thanks!

[MrMcMuffinJr]

its a switch

take one ethernet and spread it to many different devices. like a USB hub.

[minibois]

It's a network switch. Basically you plug one cable in it (input) and now you have 7 cables out of it (output). You can sort of see it as an ethernet splitter.

Make sure it's a Gigabit switch though, not 10/100. 

[LogicalDrm]

Google product number. Hub or switch from just looking at it.

[BlackHoleFox]

That is a gigabit un-managed switch. You put one Ethernet cable into the port labeled "1" and then how many cables it can fit into the others to connect several devices to a network. There good for adding more Ethernet capability to a existing router which may not have enough Ethernet ports for your needs.

[minibois]

12 minutes ago, BlackHoleFox said:

That is a gigabit un-managed switch. You put one Ethernet cable into the port labeled "1" and then how many cables it can fit into the others to connect several devices to a network. There good for adding more Ethernet capability to a existing router which may not have enough Ethernet ports for your needs.

You don't even necessarily plug in the 'input' into port number 1, the beauty of unmanaged switches is that they automatically see where it's getting input from  

 

[Walt]

@Minibois, @BlackHoleFox, @LoGiCalDrm, @MrMcMuffinJr

 

Will it lose some ms, up- or download speed? I mean if I use 2 computers will de speed go down?

[minibois]

Just now, Walt said:

@Minibois, @BlackHoleFox, @LoGiCalDrm, @MrMcMuffinJr

 

Will it lose some ms, up- or download speed? I mean if I use 2 computers will de speed go down?

Nah, I have multiple switches in the house and am experiencing no such things.

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, Walt said:

@Minibois, @BlackHoleFox, @LoGiCalDrm, @MrMcMuffinJr

 

Will it lose some ms, up- or download speed? I mean if I use 2 computers will de speed go down?

1 hour ago, Minibois said:

Nah, I have multiple switches in the house and am experiencing no such things.

 

I'm not expert so I don't know if switch has some enhanced features to hubs. But connection will be divided between devices using it. Much like with routers. We had hub before WiFi era and 2 PCs connected split speed of connection. But if you have fast network and multiple devices just needing tiny parts of it, not noticeable.

 

[minibois]

10 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

I'm not expert so I don't know if switch has some enhanced features to hubs. But connection will be divided between devices using it. Much like with routers. We had hub before WiFi era and 2 PCs connected split speed of connection. But if you have fast network and multiple devices just needing tiny parts of it, not noticeable.

The ports on a switch have 1 gigabit up and down per port (remember reading about that on Netgear's website on a specific switch), but of course most people still use Cat5e (or Cat6 too), which are limited to 1 gigabit per second, so that is where you bottleneck is.

[LogicalDrm]

1 minute ago, Minibois said:

The ports on a switch have 1 gigabit up and down per port (remember reading about that on Netgear's website on a specific switch), but of course most people still use Cat5e (or Cat6 too), which are limited to 1 gigabit per second, so that is where you bottleneck is.

I meant outside connection mainly. Like I said, far from being expert in these. Switches are more for LAN use then?

[minibois]

1 minute ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

I meant outside connection mainly. Like I said, far from being expert in these. Switches are more for LAN use then?

Oh yeah for sure. If we are talking switch, it's only for wired connections. Of course there are access points with multiple ports with the same use, but that is just an access point with added switch functionality.

 

But as of now, 99% of the people in the world will be bottlenecked by their 'outgoing' internet speeds, but it's also important to take in mind your 'in house speeds' (or LAN I guess), in this day and age of NAS systems, etc.