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NETGEAR’s New Advanced Smart Switches Deliver IP Network Convergence with Scalability and High-Performance for SMBs

SAN JOSE, Calif. — June 29, 2009 — NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR), a worldwide provider of technologically innovative, branded networking solutions, today announced two new ProSafe® Advanced Gigabit Smart Switches, the GS724TPS and GS748TPS. They are the industry’s first and only Gigabit Smart Switches designed for Small- to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) that combine Gigabit connectivity, Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) and stacking, all on the same platform, making them ideal for supporting converged networks.

More and more SMB customers are recognizing the benefits of converged networks that include wireless, VoIP and data, not only for cost-savings, but also for business efficiency and enhanced services. The GS7xxTPS series is designed to help SMBs easily migrate their current infrastructure to a converged network that may include wireless LANs, VoIP phones or IP-PBXs and video teleconferencing. With PoE capabilities on all ports and Auto Voice VLAN features, the switches can help customers to easily set up the PoE-enabled IP phones and wireless access points wherever they want, without changing the wiring infrastructure. In addition, the first four ports on each switch can also support PoE+, based on the IEEE802.3at draft standards, providing up to 30W to higher-powered PoE devices such as multichannel wireless access points, pan-tilt-zoomed IP cameras, and touch-screen IP phones. One GS7xxTPS switch provides SMBs with all their PoE needs now as well as for the future.

“As SMBs continue to leverage VoIP, wireless and other converged network technologies to make their businesses more productive and streamline their networks, they require advanced switching infrastructure that supports their needs now and in the future,” said Maggie Wu, NETGEAR’s product line manager for Smart Switching Products. “Our ProSafe GS7xxTPS Series of Advanced Gigabit Smart Switches meets these requirements to support key applications such as VoIP-based call centers, branch/remote offices and organizations with unified wireless and wireline networks. The GS7xxTPS series offers performance, ease-of-use, scalability, and reliability by supporting the right combination of features at an affordable cost.”

Designed for high performance, easy management and scalability, the GS7xxTPS series are the industry’s only Stackable Smart Gigabit Switches. There are two dedicated HDMI ports delivering up to 20 Gbps stacking bandwidth on each switch. Customers can stack up to 6 switches or 288 ports together and manage them with a single IP address. The stacking features also include redundancy and are hot-swappable. Since they are extensions of the same NETGEAR Gigabit Stackable Smart Switch family, the GS724TPS and GS748TPS can be stacked with the GS7xxTS switches (GS724TS and GS748TS), and provide greater investment protection to customers.

As members of the NETGEAR ProSafe Advanced Smart Switch family, GS724TPS and GS748TPS also come with a complete suite of advanced features such as access control lists (ACL), 802.1x port authentication, enhanced QoS, rate limiting and IGMP snooping, among others, to provide SMB businesses with more robust security, higher quality of service and high availability. An intuitive, Web-browser interface provides simple yet comprehensive management, making it a snap to fully realize the potential of the rich feature-set offered by these switches.

“Until we went with NETGEAR, we were unclear how to approach a converged network deployment, since the infrastructure features we needed were out of our price range,” said Gary Howell, managing technical director of Morgan Walsh Consultancy Limited. “Since installation, the GS7xxTPS Stackable Switches have operated flawlessly, providing high performance network connectivity across multiple VLANS, with really easy administration. We couldn’t have asked for a better solution.”

Additional features for the GS7xxTPS line include:

“Smart” Management Features:
SMBs can manage all ProSafe Gigabit Stackable Smart Switches as though they were one unit, from an easy-to-use Web console that can be used to configure all features, as well as monitor and troubleshoot. (Features include single IP address, automatic master back-up, automatic firmware synchronization across stack and master maintains configuration for entire stack.) These switches also have SNMP (v1, 2 and 3) to collect and track data to monitor the network health, as well as manage devices, and more easily enforce critical IT controls and policies. SNMP v2c is most commonly deployed, as it provides better reporting capabilities than SNMP v1. Companies interested in more robust security may opt for SNMP v3, which provides data encryption. These switches can also be managed with NETGEAR ProSafe Network Management Software (NMS100) and work with other SNMP-based management software.

Advanced Security:
These switches also provide advanced features that provide more robust security to SMBs. These include 802.1x for authentication and ACL filtering to permit or deny traffic based on MAC and/or IP addresses.

Advanced Quality of Service (QoS):
Priority queuing ensures high-priority traffic gets delivered efficiently, even during congestion from high traffic bursts. Companies implementing network telephony or video conferencing, for example, need to be able to prioritize such voice and video traffic and other real-time applications over less latency-sensitive traffic to ensure reliability and quality. The ability to prioritize traffic ensures the quality of latency-sensitive services and applications despite increasing traffic loads. The ProSafe Gigabit Stackable Smart Switches provide an extensive set of QoS features such as 802.1p-based prioritization; Layer 3-based (DSCP) prioritization; and rate-limiting.

“SMBs need solutions that are powerful enough to help growing networks support converged applications, but that are designed for companies without enterprise IT resources,” said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst of enterprise voice and data at Infonetics. “Products such as NETGEAR’s Stackable Smart Switches feature SMB-focused tools that streamline network operations while still delivering enterprise functionality, thereby enabling SMBs to transition to converged networks.”
// NETGEAR Inc. View full post on Press Releases of VoIP Gateway

LONDON – January 13, 2010 – NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR), a worldwide provider of technologically innovative, branded networking solutions, today introduced a unique family of ProSafe® Wireless Management solutions to meet the demands of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), schools, and enterprises with up to 1,500 users. As the first solution set in the market designed specifically for growing businesses, this NETGEAR family of products will, for the first time, enable growing businesses toeasily and affordably manage their wireless network from one place, with a clear upgrade path as their company grows and their needs change.

The suite of ProSafe Wireless Management Products includes:
ProSafe 5-AP Wireless Management Software WMS105;
ProSafe 16-AP Wireless Management System WMS5316;
ProSafe 20-AP Wireless Controller WC7520.

The NETGEAR ProSafe Wireless Management Suite will be on display for the first time this week at BETT, the world’s largest educational technology trade show, opening today at the Olympia exhibition center in London.

“Most wireless networking vendors offer either expensive solutions designed for the FORTUNE 500 or single AP solutions – neither of which is suitable for a growing business,” said Laurent Masia, NETGEAR product line manager for managed infrastructure products. “The management of wireless networks has been identified as a top priority for growing businesses, and NETGEAR has responded to this request with leading price/performance solutions. We are now the only company delivering a family of wireless management products that exceed the requirements of the majority of businesses worldwide.”

The ProSafe Wireless Management Suite of products enables growing businesses and mid-size enterprises to easily and affordably deploy a scalable, secure, feature-rich wireless network. They deliver enterprise-class connectivity and secure wireless LAN functionality, as well as the ability to configure, control and manage seven different access points (APs) ranging from SOHO-class IEEE 802.11g APs to professional-caliber dual-band IEEE 802.11n APs. The ease-of-use simplifies wireless deployments and network expansion with best-in-class wireless reliability, coverage, bandwidth and performance. These new management products also provide centralized management and robust security, but are installable in minutes.

“As the IT administrator of a growing business where wireless networking is critical, I need a lot more than standalone AP vendors can provide in terms of management. On the other hand, previous solutions designed for a much larger environment have not been cost-effective to implement,” said Chris Hemmings of Penguin Internet. “NETGEAR has bridged the gap between the ‘all or nothing’ choice I previously had to make, with a very easy to manage solution. At this affordable price point, a centrally managed solution will very quickly pay for itself due to the immediate labor savings inroutine maintenance and management of access points.”
// NETGEAR Inc. View full post on Press Releases of VoIP Hardware

LAS VEGAS – January 6, 2010 – NETGEAR™, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR), a worldwide provider of technologically innovative, branded networking solutions,today announced two full-featured new routers for connecting to 3G/4G/WiMAX cellular networks. The 3G/4G Mobile Broadband Wireless-N Router (MBRN3000) combines 802.11n wireless with connectivity to a high-speed cellular network via an external 3G/4G/WiMAX™ modem. The second router is the Wireless-N 300 Router with DSL Modem – Mobile Broadband Edition (DGN2200M), which not only combines 802.11n wireless andsupport for 3G/4G/WiMAX cellularconnectivity, but includes a built-in ADSL2+ modem as well, making it the industry’s first Wireless-N router to enablea DSL connection along with a 3G/4G/WiMAXfailover option. As evidence of its industry-leading features, the NETGEAR Wireless-N 300 Router with DSL Modem – Mobile Broadband Edition (DGN2200M) is an honoree in the Home Networking category of the Consumer Electronics Show Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Awards, the industry’s highest accolade.
The award-winning Wireless-N 300 Router with DSL Modem – Mobile Broadband Edition (DGN2200M) is the first wireless-N router in the retail market tooffera dual Wide Area Network (WAN) option for a failover 3G/4G/WiMAX Internet connection in case of DSL outage – ideal for small businesses that need a reliable backup Internet connection with zero downtime. Competing routers do not offer failover; are regionally focused with limited mobile operators; have shorter wireless range; are limited by how many wireless devices can connect simultaneously; or are without the capabilities of a full-featured router. The Wireless-N 300 Router with DSL Modem – Mobile Broadband Edition addresses all of these issues, and sets a new bar for features and performance combined in a single router.
// NETGEAR Inc. View full post on Press Releases of VoIP Hardware

LAS VEGAS – January 6, 2010 – NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR), a worldwide provider of technologically innovative, branded networking solutions, today announced the worldwide launch of the Digital Entertainer Express (EVA9100), a powerful and flexible digital media player that enables consumers to easily enjoy and seamlessly stream personal digital media collections and Internet content over home networks to high-definition televisions. Providing all of the playback performance and video reliability of the Digital Entertainer Elite (EVA9150), the Digital Entertainer Express is an ideal solution for the serious media enthusiast. It incorporates the latest video and audio technologies to deliver an unparalleled home theater entertainment experience.

The Digital Entertainer Express adds to the NETGEAR family of Internet-connected set-top boxes, which also includes the Digital Entertainer Elite (EVA9150) and Digital Entertainer Live (EVA2000). NETGEAR will highlight its family of Digital Entertainers along with its home media storage server, Stora, at two press events today in conjunction with the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
“Consumers’ digital media collections are growing every year. And, more and more, they have digital content stored on their computers, USB hard drives, network storage devices, iPods®, digital cameras, etc.,” said Lionel Paris, product line manager for NETGEAR entertainment products. “The Digital Entertainer Express scans all the content connected to the player either directly via USB port or over the home network so that it is easily accessible for immediate playback – all with the latest video and audio decoding. When combined with NETGEAR Stora one of our routers, the Digital Entertainer Express completes the ultimate connected home entertainment solution for our customers.”
// NETGEAR Inc. View full post on Press Releases of VoIP Hardware

LAS VEGAS – January 6, 2010 – NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR), a worldwide provider of technologically innovative, branded networking solutions, today expanded its award-winning family of powerline networking solutions withtwo new devices incorporating HomePlug® AV-certified powerline technology: the diminutivePowerline 200 AV Adapter Kit (XAVB2001) and the Powerline 200 AV+ Adapter Kit (XAVB2501) with a filtered “pass-through” power socket. These networking kits incorporate the latest in design and technology innovations to support performance surpassing that of existing solutions by as much as 20 percent. These solutions enable high-performance applications such as HD video streaming, Voice over IP (VoIP), Internet gaming, and large file transfers to networked devicesover existing electrical wiring in environments where wireless network performance may be challenged.NETGEAR will introduce its new products at two press events today in conjunction with the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Powerline technology enables consumers to create a 10/100 Ethernet connection from any ordinary electrical outlet, thus eliminating the need to run new cables and lowering the overall cost to deploy a high-speed data network. Consumers can extend the range of their home network with these affordable, simple-to-install adapters, especially those consumerswho use Internet-connected devices that demand high bandwidth, such as the new NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Express (EVA9100), Elite (EVA9150)and Live (EVA2000) digital media players, Blu-ray™ players, TiVo®, AppleTV®, Xbox 360™, PlayStation® 3, DVRs, and network-enabled TVs. Moreover, because these new NETGEAR powerline kits are HomePlug AV-certified, they can easily and affordably extendany existing HomePlug AV network.

“Powerline has become an increasingly popular option for an always-on infrastructure because of the explosive growth in connected AV devices, and the high speeds and reliability required to support these demandingapplications,” said Chris Geiser, NETGEAR’s product line manager for in-home distribution consumer products. “Home theater products need constant, shared and faster access to the Internet and the home network. You might have wireless dead spots in your house. You probably don’t have Ethernet in your walls. But chances are, you’ve got at least one electrical outlet in every room in your house. Powerline can boldly go where no Internet connection has gone before. Besides, you can’t beat powerline adapters for simple set-up and ease-of-use.”
// NETGEAR Inc. View full post on Press Releases of VoIP Hardware