We performed a comparison between Dell PowerConnect Switches and NETGEAR Switches based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two LAN Switching solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."There is high reliability since we have used them for close to twenty years and only had possibly one failure."
"The features I've found most valuable are that the product is very easy to configure and inexpensive."
"Its throughout and compatibility are the most valuable."
"This solution comes with a lifetime warranty."
"Dell PowerConnect Switches have a VTL feature similar to Cisco's VSS. With VTL, using this technology, you can cluster two switches together to increase redundancy in the environment."
"The most valuable feature of Dell PowerConnect Switches for me is the throughput. I also like that the product has more compatibility with Dell infrastructure, especially with EMC and new generation Dell servers. Dell PowerConnect Switches can also easily integrate with Dell servers, and this is another pro."
"When the price is competitive the customers tend to choose the cheaper brand and then look at the features. So having a competitive price is a plus."
"It's easy to set up. We can put it in production in a couple of minutes."
"We have one client that has three Insight switches and when we make a change to their network... we can make the configuration change and push it down to all three switches at once. We don't have to individually log on to each switch to make the change."
"The most valuable feature is the fact that Insight is cloud-managed. The whole reason behind it is that there is one central place to manage it. You can pre-configure everything and you can get access to it without having to get onto the client's network. That makes it easy to use and deploy."
"The tool is very easy to deploy as it is a very basic switch."
"The solution is simple to use. I am also impressed with the tool's GUI and CLI."
"The big winner for NETGEAR is their modular switch: the 96X version. That is something that you don't see in the market anywhere else, except for Cisco who has it at a high level for a high expense. The ability to customize your own switch with their modules is a big plus for what we do in the market right now. Instead of having to piece together standardized switches, trying to make something work, or fitting the design into the mold, the modular switches are aware that you can make a mark in the industry because you purchased one switch and design with different modules added and removed later on for functionality."
"You are not limited in terms of stacking ports, and especially, if you're using the 96X as a core switch, the scalability, I could see this being very large. If you're using a type of a hybrid topology with a core switch going out to multiple switch stacks, or something like that, I could see the scalability of this being very good, especially considering the kind of backplane switching capacity on the 96X."
"The most important feature is the failover, the LACP links. That's the dual set it allows. We have redundant core switches and, if one fails or one network adapter fails, the other one can take over without problems."
"The most valuable feature to me is the modular side of things, being able to replace a module and a transceiver at our beck and call. If something goes down, or a piece of equipment is broken, I don't have to replace the whole switch. I can just replace the part that's broken or the part that is no longer working. I can get them back up and working within a matter of minutes, versus having to replace everything and reprogram everything. It's a huge time-saver."
"I can't think of what we would want in the next release."
"An area for improvement would be that it's very hard to configure if you're not familiar with the UI or CLI of the product. The UI itself could also be improved."
"The configuration should be improved."
"When it comes to the configuration, there should be documentation and interactive help available to assist people who have experience with products from other vendors."
"I would like to see better scalability and more features on these switches in the future."
"The solution's ROI for generic networking is not extraordinary."
"Not a ten because I have to do a lot of testing on it. The correlation is okay."
"There should be more port options in this switch. Currently, it has 24 or 48 ports. However, some of our customers require only 8 ports, but I have to put a switch with 24 ports. They should provide smaller solutions and complimentary access point for companies like ours with a low quantity of work. The main issue with this product is branding. They should improve their branding and promote their brand more in Mexico. Customers are more aware of brands like Cisco as compared to Dell."
"The security features must be improved."
"The web interface has been a little sketchy on occasion. Sometimes I have to reload the page to get things to show up properly, but the switch itself seems fine. The web user interface is a little wonky at times."
"One thing I have asked for, something that NETGEAR lacks that I would love to see — and from what I understand it's in the works — is a REST API to programmatically interface with multiple switches. That would be a great feature."
"The tool needs to improve its network management. The tool can be also more simplified."
"There is a technical problem they can't seem to solve. It doesn't support multicast packets. In layman's terms, Mac computers can't print over the network."
"NETGEAR Switches could be more secure. Scalability could also be better. This infrastructure is a bit old, and we need something that will be more secure. Something that will introduce WLAN, and we will need the knowledge to go with that. Some of the switches were used for more than seven years. I think it was just their lifespan that was exhausted. But other than that, there haven't been any issues that required us to complain or get concerned."
"Their old firmware was a problem for us and we're still working on it. It didn't apply correctly so it took about half of our switches offline, which meant we couldn't use some of the functionality like the firmware updates. Unfortunately with that firmware, which they've sorted out, if you don't go through all the firmware and make sure it's past that point and back online, that's an issue with them. It's something to cautious about"
"The ‘how-to’ guides could do with some improvements. We got in trouble following the stacking and Dante set-up guides. If these would have been accurate, we would not have lost three days."
Dell PowerConnect Switches is ranked 3rd in LAN Switching with 30 reviews while NETGEAR Switches is ranked 5th in LAN Switching with 50 reviews. Dell PowerConnect Switches is rated 8.0, while NETGEAR Switches is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Dell PowerConnect Switches writes "Excellent support, good pricing, and easy setup". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NETGEAR Switches writes "You can stack different models of switches which makes the scalability great". Dell PowerConnect Switches is most compared with Cisco Catalyst Switches, Cisco Nexus, HPE ProCurve, Arista Networks Platform and Dell PowerSwitch N-Series, whereas NETGEAR Switches is most compared with D-Link Ethernet Switches, Cisco Linksys Ethernet Switches, Cisco Ethernet Switches, Ubiquiti UniFi Switches and Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches. See our Dell PowerConnect Switches vs. NETGEAR Switches report.
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