Netgear xs512em review in Spanish (full analysis)

Technology advances and with it the demand for ever faster and more secure network connections. Netgear has made a strong commitment to high-speed connections with its Netgear XS512EM, a switch intended for the business environment, but also for users in need of high-speed connections, with ports fully capable of working at 10 Gbps and with support for interfaces Fiber optic. A few years ago, 10Gb connections were the domain only of large and medium-sized companies, these were the only ones that could afford the hardware necessary to achieve these speeds on their internal networks. But this has changed substantially and with UHD multimedia content, the domestic 1 Gb connections are practically getting smaller, and this is why more and more users are betting on high-speed interconnection devices.

We have had the opportunity to get the glove on this Netgear XS512EM to see what it offers us. Let's start with our review!

And first of all thank Netgear for trusting us to give us this product.

Netgear XS512EM technical specifications

Unboxing and design

Netgear XS512EM is stored in a white cardboard box with the full color image of the product on the outside. It also highlights the most important characteristics of the product such as its 10 Gb ports, information on its user interface and other properties.

We open the box and we find Netgear XS512EM protected at both ends by two polyethylene foam couplings, elements with better performance than traditional polystyrene corks. In a product of almost 1000 euros it is the minimum.

In turn, inside this box we find the power cable for the switch and the documentation, although in this case we have not been able to access it. Under normal conditions we will have it without problems and if we want more information we could also go to the official website of the manufacturer where we will have very detailed documentation.

The exterior of Netgear XS512EM is completely metallic, both in its lateral areas and in the lower and upper part, so that in this aspect its benefits are perfect. In addition, we must bear in mind that it is a device that can be mounted in rack cabinets, its measurements are 328 mm wide, 204 mm deep by 43 mm thick, and weighs 2.51 Kg.

As for the loudness section, it is a device that makes its presence known since in the measurements we have obtained 32 dB with its fans turned off. If we have it right next to us it may become quite annoying.

On its left side this switch mounts two fans for the expulsion of hot air from its interior. We must say during the conduct of our tests, at no time has it been necessary to activate them, we must also take into account that it is winter and the temperatures are quite low.

The operating temperature for this device is in environments between 0 and 50 ^o C with a humidity of up to 90%. This section is especially important for server rooms and rack cabinets, but the device supports quite extreme conditions that will practically never occur.

On the right side of Netgear XS512EM we find the vents to allow air flow to the other end of the device. It does not have an anti-dust filter and this is because its construction is oriented to particle-free environments, so if we consider placing this switch outside cabinets without protection, we will have to pay attention to its correct cleaning gradually.

On the back we find the power connector with a typical three-pin interface with a generic 230 V plug. On its left side is the access to block physical access to the device.

Next to the power connector we have a label with the device model, the software version that comes from the factory, its MAC address and its serial number. The consumption of Netgear XS512EM is between 36.5 W in idle state without active connections and 76.56 W in maximum load state and with all its ports and active ventilation, which is quite low consumption despite the power offered by this switch.

At the bottom Netgear XS512EM has no rubber support elements or anything like that. The most interesting information that we can find on this label, in addition to the aforementioned product information, is that of access for the user to its interface manageable through a Web browser. For this access we will need to put the IP address that the device has obtained in the network that is connected by DHCP and the factory password that will be "password"

This switch is just the little brother of the Netgear XS724EM model which has 24 10 Gb ports. We say this because we will find the shared instruction sheet in these two models, which could initially mislead us.

In its front Netgear XS512EM has a total of 12 ports with 10Gb Ethernet capacity divided into three groups to better identify the connected elements and the configuration of functionalities of these.

These ports are capable of working at different speeds and latencies, depending on the components connected to them:

100 Mb and 13.63 µs average latency1 Gb @ 3.76 µs 2.5 Gb @ 7.1 µs5 Gb @ 5.2 µs10 Gb @ 4.3 µs

Total bandwidth stands at no less than 240 Gbps. We see that its benefits are excellent for all available speeds.

The necessary information to recognize the status of the device and its connections is located in the left area of this switch. We find two LEDs that indicate if the device is started and if its fans are running. Right below we have the access slot to RESET the switch.

Continuing further to the right we have the indication panel to know the representation of the different speeds available. This legend will correspond to the LEDs located in each of the ports, in this way if our connection is 1 Gb Ethernet both LEDs will light up in orange.

If we move to the right side we will have two fiber optic SFP + ports that work in shared mode with two other 10 Gb Ethernet. This means that we will obtain the maximum speed of these two alone or the two ethernet also alone. We also have the legend of LED indicators right next to it.

Testing equipment

To perform the measurement and performance tests of Netgear XS512EM we will use the following components:

Netgear XS512EM Switch Computer 1: Intel Ethernet I219-V 1Gb

Team 2: Intel Ethernet I218-LM 1GbIperf version 3

performance

To test the performance of this Netgear XS512EM, we have used the Iperf3 tool. The tests carried out will help us see the speed of data transmission between two computers connected to a network. We will be testing the ports at a speed of 1Gbps as we have encountered technical issues with the 10Gb network hardware intended for testing.

Let's first see the results obtained with Iperf with the link to 1Gbps and 10 test threads:

We can see that the obtained result is close to 1000 Mbps although it could have been better. We have also used Jumbo packages (MTU 9000) and the results have been practically similar. This switch allows a maximum MTU of 9216 bytes.

Now let's see in a more practical way this transfer speed using a large file copied and pasted from one computer to another.

If we consider the conversion from Mb (Megabits) to MB (Megabytes), knowing that 1 Byte equals 8 bits, the transfer at maximum speed would be: 1000/8 = 125 MB / s. The result we have obtained is 113 MB.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to test the 10Gb connection due to last-minute technical failures in one of the computers with high-speed hardware.

Firmware and configuration

To connect Netgear XS512EM all we have to do is put your IP address in the browser and it will immediately ask us for the access credentials. The best way to do this is to go to the "network" section of Windows and double-click on our device. We can identify it by the model and its MAC address

All the management and configuration of this switch will be available from our Web browser and of course through GUI and command terminal from a Linux system. To do this, it would be necessary to identify the IP of the switch manually through our equipment and from the DHCP configuration of the router.

The default password as we saw earlier is "password" and is located at the bottom of the device. The most normal thing will be to modify this password for a personalized one at the moment we access its configuration interface.

We see a very clean and minimalist interface, with clear and well-structured options. We will have the following sections:

System: In this section we will have the most extensive range of options to monitor the status of the devices connected to the switch, for different configuration options, such as DHCP, port control flow, different equipment maintenance options, configuration of up to 8 LAG with 8 clients for each LAG, etc. VLAN: using this option we can configure the connection of the switch to a virtual network or VLAN, but we will not be able to create a virtual network with it as is logical. QoS: as its own name india in this section you can activate or deactivate the quality options for the detection and optimized routing of data packets. By default we will have it configured in DSCP mode, but we can also choose the option passed in the ports. We can also configure other options such as filters to broadcast to the entire network. Help: it will obviously be the help center that will take us directly to the official Netgear page.

Another of the functionalities that Netgear offers for its latest products is the possibility of interacting with the configuration of these through an app on both Android and iOS devices.

Final words and conclusion about Netgear XS512EM

Netgear XS512EM presents its credentials in the high-performance market as an excellent solution for small businesses and occasionally for other users with demand for high-speed networks.

Its compatibility with RACK cabinets, its low consumption and its high performance make this switch a serious option to consider. We have 12 Ethernet ports and two other shared fiber optic ports, capable of working at five different speeds up to 10Gbps and a maximum band of 240 Gb. This completely eliminates possible bottlenecks in the interconnection of different high-speed devices..

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We also highlight its simple and intuitive web interface that provides all the necessary configuration of the device from any equipment connected to it, as well as the possibility of managing it through mobile devices through its App.

We can get this switch at a price of 844 euros, something unthinkable a few years ago in a team with nothing more and nothing less than 12 connections capable of working at 100MB, 1, 2.5, 5 and 10 Gbps and with advanced utilities in QoS and capacity for 9216 byte MTU. Its easy handling allows users without high qualification to be able to carry out its assembly and maintenance.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ 12 10Gb PORTS AND TWO FIBER OPTICS	NOTHING HIGHLIGHT
+ MANAGABLE SWITCH ARE SUPPORT FOR LAG AND ADVANCED QoS
+ LOW CONSUMPTION AT MAXIMUM CAPACITY
+ MANAGEMENT THROUGH MOBILE APP
+ METAL BODY AND FORCED DISSIPATION