NETGEAR Insight Aims To Simplify SMB Network Management

[Julio Urquidi]

NETGEAR’s new network solution offers SMBs app-based plug and play setup and management, making it easier to install, monitor, and change settings on select NETGEAR products.

Insight is free to download for Apple and Android and offers network managers a single-pane-of-glass view of their networks without having them to be on-premise or rely on a cloud controller.

Insight offers automated discovery, one-tap registration, in-app firmware updates, email and push notifications, and in-app support for compatible devices.

Products compatible with Insight include newly introduced switching and AP products, as well as currently available ones, including an access point and several NAS devices.

New products include four 8-port managed switches, three of which are POE+, but all designed to be silent and compact for easy installation and flexible deployments. Each desktop/wall-mountable switch also has two SFP ports. These include:

• GC110 – No PoE, fanless
• GC110P – 62W of POE power and fanless
• GC510P – 134W of POE power and fanless
• GC510PP – 195W of POE power and has a fan designed for silent operation

These Insight-managed smart cloud switches include VLAN and LLDP support, port trunking/link aggregation, IGMP snooping, QoS, priority queuing, rate limiting, ACLs, storm controlling, and per port POE controls, amongst other things.

The company also added the AC1200 WAC505 smart cloud wireless access point. The WAC505 is similar to the already existing WAC510, except that the newer AP doesn’t have the router controls its predecessor has.

Both APs are small in size and are PoE powered, making installation easier and giving installers more options. Note that the WAC510 requires a firmware update to work with NETGEAR Insight.

For storage, currently available NETGEAR ReadyNAS products need to run at least OS version 6.0 to be compatible with Insight. Supported models include rack mountable 2000, 3000, and 4000 series, and desktop 420, 520 and 620 series ReadyNAS products.

There was no word on pricing or availability for the Insight managed switches, or the new WAC505 AP. Check out the NETGEAR Insight page for updates.