Technology by Jacob Dybala

I hate to sound like a Netgear basher but I stopped buying Netgear equipment at work. As a matter of fact, I banned my staff from purchasing the company’s products. Harsh, right? Well, consider this: 5 Netgears dead within 12 months. Not a single 3Com or Cisco didn’t died on me. Netgear does off the quality it once did and their products are more prone to breakdowns than ever before.  The recent problems speak for themselves. Before you blame power or the administrator here’s all the information:

Hardware:

4 Netgear WN802T dead
1 Netgear router dead (I don’t remember the model, but it was a recent one)

Installation sites:

3 x Work (WAP)
1 x Home (WAP)
1 x Customer site (router)

I think I have one more Netgear WN802T around in the building but I’m pretty sure I’ll find it soon when my users complain that wireless isn’t working. It’s going to die for sure. I mean with such a bad quality record I can’t believe that Netgear equipment is worth investing in. I try and keep my firmware up-to-date (those who know me know how true this statement is!) so the problem was not old hardware. With 3 different locations you can rule out power problems (30 mile distance between sites).

Damn flickering light

I just remembered: my Gigabit Netgear switch died at home not that long ago. Sure, it got replaced but I expect my equipment to work. Is that too much?