Netgear FS728TS: Smart Switch for the Masses?

Netgear burned me a while back. So with the news of a smart switch would definitely have me more excited if another manufacturer was involved. Maybe that sounds really tacky, but I am just a little wary of Netgear products right - reviewed or otherwise.

Switches are a product category that I’ve historically declined to review, primarily because they long ago reached commodity status - they differ mainly in terms of warranty details, pricing and physical port arrangement. I also can’t do performance benchmarking on switches, since meaningful testing requires equipment that is beyond the meager budget of the TomsNetworking labs.

That said, the recent slew of more affordable “smart” switches has made me rethink this stance (though I still won’t be doing any performance testing.) The main reason is that these products aren’t yet commodities, and have varying feature sets that you, the consumer, need to know about to make an informed buying decision. Source: Tom’s Networking

[tags]networking,benchmarking,netgear fs728ts,switches,port arrangement[/tags]