NETGEAR SWITCH IS A HUB!!!

[Michael Steele_2]

Just a heads up to all. Bought a Netgear FS605 switch and found two alarming problems with it. First and foremost it has no MAC address!! This makes it a HUB and not a switch!! So commands like "...arp -a or arp -s..." aren't going to work with this Netgear switch. Second, port lights have to be steady on for connectivity which is a contradiction to the Netgear user publications and web guidelines. Watch out for this Marketing Falsehood!

[Ron Kinner]

I don't see why it would need a MAC to be a switch. The main thing that a switch does differently from a hub is that a switch only sends unicast packets to the port where it thinks the destination PC is located whereas a hub would send the same unicast packets to all ports.

You might expect it to have a MAC if it had the capability to be managed remotely but otherwise the MAC is only useful to talk to it and if you can't manage it you don't need to talk to it.

This should not cause a problem with the arp command. If you want arp to work you just have to have something else plugged into your hub or switch so that there can be something to put in the table. (it also needs to be in the same subnet) On a window box the arp table times out in about 4 minutes (if I remember correctly) so if you want to see something with arp -a then ping another local host first.

Can't comment on Netgear's documentation but normally connectivity is present when the Link light is a steady green.

Ron