Any questions for the Netgear switch team?

[Patrick]

Looks like I am meeting someone from the Netgear switch team early next week. I wanted to see if anyone has questions/ feedback. Alternatively, are there products you want to see on STH? I bought the XS712T and they sent the GSS116E. I am going to see if we can get more product to review since it becomes expensive to purchase items.

 

[PigLover]

An earlier version of the GS116 was my first "home" Gbe switch many many years ago. It was a rock solid device (literally - it got knocked off a shelf and fell 10 feet to concrete floor with no ill-effects).

Ask them what they have for low-cost 10Gbe coming - 8-12 port count, lower cost than XS712.

 

[andrewbedia]

Can he/she hand out free samples? to us forum members

 

[Scott Laird]

1. What does the industry expect 10Gbe pricing to do over the next few years? When will it start taking over from GigE?
2. WTF did they do to the GS108T? That stupid little thing has caused me so much pain at home. Why does it strip STP BPDUs but still forward non-STP traffic? Why does it automatically drop Android TV devices on the voice VLAN and blackhole traffic without warning? And WTF is up with them and multicast forwarding, which seems to break non-GMRP multicast discovery protocols, like Apple's mdns and Google Cast?

 

[Blinky 42]

I'm curious if the pricing on their 24 port 10G models will be coming down soon, or if they are going to not worry about them and move on to a newer base chip set instead. The M7100 (XSM7224 w/ 24 10Gbe + 4 SFP+) & the M7300 (XSM7224S w/ 24 SFP+ + 4x 10Gbe) are interesting but in the same $5k range we can get a Quanta LY9/LY8 and have 2x the ports with a common chip set and (assumed) higher performance.

If you could get the chance to review the 7100/7300 and compare them to your Quanta's that would be a good article. Comparison of the CLI for each, Web interface on the Netgear and if it is worthwhile to configure or just see the status of the switch. Points of comparison that are hard to find on the website spec sheets like can they sustain line rate PPS on all ports and small packets, max sizes of Route/igmp/mld/vlan tables etc, noise levels in real use, is it easy to to swap out "hot swap" parts or a pain, and what is included in "advanced" licenses when applicable.

As many of us are moving more ports to 10G and beyond, solid info on switches that can handle more than 4 10G links will be excellent as the hardware rotates out into the ebay universe and the prices drop for new equipment as it becomes more common.

 

[cesmith9999]

What is their 40Gb roadmap/timeframe?

What is their plan to get a sub $400 switch with 16+ * 1 GB and 4+ * 10 GB ports?

Chris

 

[BackupProphet]

Ask them about small and quiet 5-8 port SFP+ switches. I know several people that want a switch like that.

 

[Patrick]

Notes taken. Keep them coming.

 

[mstone]

I'd ask how they can be part of a model that delivers hardware with known bugs then stops supporting it without notice, leaving customers to either live with the bugs or throw out the hardware (but I wouldn't expect a good answer).

 

[Jeggs101]

I want to know when 24 port 10g gets under $1000. When do we start seeing 40gb uplinks? Wave 2 ac is going to demand faster backhauls.

 

[azev]

I want to know interoperability between netgear switches and others primarily cisco.
I have a netgear switch that are dropping packets on trunks between cisco/netgear and their support cannot figure out the issues.

 

[Scott Laird]

Ahh, the Wave 2 question brings up another question: do they see Wave 2 802.11ac APs using 10G, or will Nbase-T actually appear in the market?

(That's 2.5 / 5 Gb Ethernet)

 

[Andre Blumberg]

Any plans for a *quiet* 10GbE 4 - 6 port switch for home environments?

 

[JamieSinn]

Any plans for SFP(+) only switches, especially for home use if not too late

 

[Patrick]

Any plans for a *quiet* 10GbE 4 - 6 port switch for home environments?

I might be looking for something quiet next year even in the larger 8-12 port range.

 

[Patrick]

Ahh, the Wave 2 question brings up another question: do they see Wave 2 802.11ac APs using 10G, or will Nbase-T actually appear in the market?

(That's 2.5 / 5 Gb Ethernet)

I think that most of the industry is going Nbase-T but then 10Gbase-T still for the backhaul cabinets/ datacenters.

 

[Patrick]

I'm curious if the pricing on their 24 port 10G models will be coming down soon, or if they are going to not worry about them and move on to a newer base chip set instead. The M7100 (XSM7224 w/ 24 10Gbe + 4 SFP+) & the M7300 (XSM7224S w/ 24 SFP+ + 4x 10Gbe) are interesting but in the same $5k range we can get a Quanta LY9/LY8 and have 2x the ports with a common chip set and (assumed) higher performance.

If you could get the chance to review the 7100/7300 and compare them to your Quanta's that would be a good article.

I was told on this one that these models are approximately 5 years old. I would think that it could be an opportune time to refresh them soon given newer technology.

 

[Patrick]

An earlier version of the GS116 was my first "home" Gbe switch many many years ago. It was a rock solid device (literally - it got knocked off a shelf and fell 10 feet to concrete floor with no ill-effects).

Ask them what they have for low-cost 10Gbe coming - 8-12 port count, lower cost than XS712.

I do not think $50 8-port 10Gb switches are coming next year. I do think we are going to see a good amount of refresh in the next 12 months.

 

[capn_pineapple]

What is their 40Gb roadmap/timeframe?

This.
Already rolling out 10Gb in the home (4k Media, backups of 5+ devices) and would love to link it to a 40Gb Storage or at least have the capability to do so in 2-5 years with SSD getting both bigger and cheaper WITHOUT having to upgrade switches.

As an aside @Patrick, thought of getting any other vendors in like this? Extreme Networks (mmm purple) or perhaps Juniper would be awesome to see a "homelab" offering from their camps.

 

[TechIsCool]

Why can't we get a 24 port switch with something more than 4 ports at 10GB. I would love to see a 24 port switch at 1GB with say 8 10GB and the 16 at 1GB this would allow a home lab with 10GB interconnect but also allow the accessories saving power.