NETGEAR MS108EUP Ultra60 PoE++ Multi-Gig Plus Switch review

The NETGEAR MS108EUP is an eight-port copper switch. Every port runs at 100M, 1G or 2.5G. It also supplies PoE on all eight ports, with a 230 W total budget. It is managed through a local web GUI under NETGEAR's Easy Smart line.

That combination points at a specific job: powering PoE devices and moving traffic to them at 2.5GbE, in a box with no fan.

All eight RJ-45 ports support 2.5G, so every port can feed a 2.5GbE device without a split between fast and slow ports. The switching capacity is listed at 40 Gbps.

The gap is uplinks. The manufacturer specifications list no SFP or SFP+ port, and the spec sheet shows no other uplink type. Every connection, including the one back to your router or core switch, uses one of the eight copper ports. Fewer ports are left for devices as a result. If you plan to link switches over fibre, this model does not list the port for it.

Easy Smart management gives you a local web GUI. The listed features are 64 VLANs, port-based and 802.1Q VLAN tagging, four LAGs and IGMP snooping. That covers basic segmentation, for example keeping cameras or IoT devices apart from the main network, and link aggregation across up to four groups.

There's no controller-based management and no layer 3 features listed. For a site that needs only VLANs and a few LAGs, the listed set is enough. Firmware 1.0.1.5 added a management VLAN feature and an auto-camera VLAN, which fits the camera-heavy use that the PoE specifications suggest.

PoE is the strongest part of the specification. Ports 1-4 deliver up to 60 W each under 802.3bt. Ports 5-8 deliver up to 30 W each under 802.3at. The total budget is 230 W.

The per-port maximums add up to more than 230 W. Not every port can run at its limit at once, so the budget needs planning if you connect several high-draw devices to the four PoE++ ports. With four 60 W ports, the switch can power devices that need more than standard PoE+ provides. Firmware 1.0.1.5 fixed a PoE scheduler problem, and 1.0.1.9 added a Longer Detection Time PoE option.

The switch is fanless, with zero fans listed. That suits a desk, a living-room cupboard or a quiet office, where fan noise would be a problem. The spec sheet gives no power consumption figures, so efficiency is not covered beyond the cooling design. Firmware 1.0.2.2 disabled Energy-Efficient Ethernet by default.

NETGEAR gives the switch a limited lifetime warranty. Between them they fixed security issues, changed the default IGMP snooping setting to off, added the PoE detection option and improved 2.5G interoperability. That shows ongoing attention to the product.

Owner feedback is less positive on the process. The recurring complaint is that firmware updates are slow, or that the new version fails to show after the update. If you rely on updates for security fixes, allow time and check the version afterwards.

It suits a small setup with several PoE devices, such as cameras or access points, that benefits from 2.5GbE and VLANs and needs a quiet switch. With no listed SFP or SFP+ uplink and Easy Smart management, it suits a single-switch network more than a larger fibre-linked one.