This screen lets you modify each port's basic settings. Most of these are self-explanatory, but some, such as Reactivate Suspended Port, are not. The other way to get to this screen is by clicking on a port number link in the Port Configuration view (see Figure 6).

Figure 6: Port Configuration screen
(click image to enlarge)

There are a couple of issues here that have to go in the negative column. First is the Zoom view, which doesn't fit on a 1024-pixel wide screen; this could be an annoyance for admins using older notebooks. The second is that admin access is by HTTP only. The lack of secure HTTPS access to the admin server is a serious oversight for those on corporate networks, and I hope Netgear corrects this in a firmware update. (There is no Telnet access either, but that's an understandable tradeoff in a lower-end managed device.)

The other oddity that I encountered was that it's hard to tell when the switch is fully up, since there is no front panel indicator dedicated to this function, and port LEDs being lit isn't a reliable indicator. I clocked about 45 seconds from plugging in power until an uplink was established to my LAN's main switch (and DHCP server). It took about 5 to 10 seconds more for an XP client to complete its DHCP lease.

There are two other admin "features" to note. First, you can't change the idle time logout - this seems to be a recurring theme with Netgear products. Second, multiple simultaneous logins are allowed without any warnings given.