Question 1

Does this product provide a firewall (NAT) similar to that of the netgear fvs318/g?

Accepted Answer

No, this is a switch not a firewall. You really should buy a discreet hardware firewall always if you are connecting to the Internet. Netgear has solutions for the home but has since exited the small biz/enterprise firewall space. Is this for home or business?  Do you need wireless too?

Question 2

Would a switch like this work for a small gaming LAN party? If not is there something that I could use for that purpose?

Accepted Answer

It would work for a small gaming LAN party. But if that is all you would use it for, save some money and get a dumb 8port gigabit switch, or for a similar price, grow the party with a 16 port dumb gigabit switch.

Question 3

Is this switch mountable?  Or is this a desktop?

Accepted Answer

It has eyelets on the bottom, so with a few properly placed screws, you can hang it vertically or upside down. This is typical for all such devices from Netgear.

Question 4

Note: This switch has hard coded VLAN id's of 2 (Voice VLAN) and 3 (Video/Audio VLAN) and you cannot change them. If you use these VLANs internally you may have issues???

Accepted Answer

VLANs 1 through 3 are hard-coded which you cannot delete or change the descriptions for. None of the extra features for VoIP or IGMP snooping are enabled by default, so you won't have any issues using them as regular VLANs for any other purpose.

Below I further detail the default configuration and optional special features that can be enabled for VoIP and IGMP handling.

VLAN 1 is labeled the "Default" VLAN in the GUI; this is the firmware-default VLAN for all switch members and also the default for switch management. While it is generally bad practice to use VLAN 1 for other purposes, you may do so with this switch; further, if it's useful to change the managemnet VLAN used to communicate with the switch, this can be done as well.

VLAN 2 is labled the "Voice VLAN" in the GUI, and when you enable the "Voice VLAN Status" feature, it will monitor traffic from the specified VLAN and set the CoS field if the traffic matches a manufacturer OUI, a handlful of which come pre-configured; other OUIs may be added to match your VoIP devices. You may set any configured VLAN as the "Voice VLAN ID", and you may pick something other than the default of VLAN 2 for this feature.

VLAN 3 is labled the "Auto-Video" VLAN in the GUI. In the multicast configuration, this VLAN can be enabled for easier IGMP snooping queuier operation by simply setting the "Auto-Video" feature to be enabled. This can only be selected for VLAN 3 and is disabled by default. Note that you may still configure both IGMP snooping and queuier operation without this "Auto-Video" feature, so you're not required to run a queuier if you only need IGMP snooping, or wish to customize which VLANs are monitored for multicast group membership.

Question 5

The product description says Link Aggregation but does not list 802.3ad. duplex is not LAG. Can you really lag?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it is listed on the Netgear data sheet although it does have a Typo of IEEE802.3ad Link Aggregation (manual or LACP) vs IEEE 802.3ad.

Question 6

If you are using upstream PoE to power the switch do the other ports then provide downstream PoE?  Does it provide downstream Poe if you are using the power adapter?

Accepted Answer

PoE is only used to power the switch, it is not distributed to any other ports.

Question 7

"the GS108T supports IEEE 802.3af standard for Power over Ethernet (PoE). It can obtain its power from either a PoE source or from an external AC power adapter."   Does that mean I need a PoE injector for the port,  or are they referring to a AC power adaptor for the Switch?

Accepted Answer

If you plug  A POE capable switch or a POE injector into port one of this device using standard networking cable, the device will be powered.   This is only an option, however,  you may also power this device with a standard AC to DC transformer  that is included.  Powering the device this way will not take up one of the ethernet ports.

Question 8

This is have Spanning Tree Protocal because I can't locate it in the Specifications?

Accepted Answer

According to the admin manual, the GS108T supports Rapid Spanning Tree (802.1w) which is a much improved and compatible version of the older STP (802.1d).

Question 9

Is this version 1 or 2? I don't see a descriptor for it

Accepted Answer

Version2

Questions & Answers