NETGEAR, a company that provides home and business networking products, is rolling out the industry’s first unmanaged 48-port (FS750) and the company’s first 24-port (FS726) Modular Fast Ethernet Switches. The new family of switches lets users migrate from fiber to copper networks, work with the flexibility to expand and grow their networks, and provide users with the technology to connect to the server or network backbone at Gigabit speeds, according to Patrick Lo, president and CEO of NETGEAR.
The FS700 series is the company’s first line of switches with higher port density and modular gigabit uplinks. The FS750 is the industry’s first unmanaged 48-port Modular Fast Ethernet Switch that allows up to 48 10/100 Mbps client users to connect to gigabit-speed servers and to gigabit-speed backbone networks that may be either fiber, copper or both. The two gigabit modular bays allow for the flexibility of the FS700 switches to connect to fiber and or gigabit networks when needs arise maximizing investment protection, Lo said.
The high-speed, auto-sensing, 10/100 Mbps ports of the FS726 and FS750 support Auto Uplink for ease-of-use and automatic configuration, he added. Flow control technology based on the IEEE 802.3x standard prevents any packet loss and supports maximum network performance, Lo said.
Built using chip sets from Marvell/Gallileo the NETGEAR FS726 and FS750 ensure non-blocking, wire-speed filtering and forwarding of traffic, giving both switches “maximum performance and the largest bandwidth available in the market today,” Lo said. Front-panel LEDs show ongoing switch status. The NETGEAR FS700-series switches require zero configuration, and come with a rack mounting kit. They’re priced starting at US$900.