NETGEAR Sets a New Price For Performance Standard With Release of Managed Gigabit Switch

NETGEAR Provides Feature-Rich, Easy-to-Use Solution for Migrating Existing Network Infrastructures to Gigabit Speeds at the Lowest Possible Cost

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — September 9, 2002 — NETGEAR, Inc., a worldwide provider of easy-to-use, high performance networking products at prices affordable to homes and growing businesses, today introduced the NETGEAR Managed Gigabit Switch (GSM712), designed to be the most affordable solution to meet the needs of growing businesses for the increased network performance and productivity offered by gigabit networking.

Priced at $2,085, the feature-rich NETGEAR Managed Gigabit Switch (GMS712) offers high-speed gigabit networking at less than half the cost of the competition. With the introduction of this solution and the strong acceptance of the NETGEAR 24 Port Unmanaged Gigabit Switch (GS524T), NETGEAR is further strengthening its position in this rapidly growing market. In fact, NETGEAR gained the most market share over the last three months, moving up to second place in worldwide port count for Layer 2 Gigabit Ethernet Switches in Q2 2002, according to In-Stat/MDR’s Q2 2002 Final Ethernet LAN Switch Market Shares.

"More and more growing businesses are upgrading their networks to higher performance gigabit speeds, as demonstrated by In-Stat/MDR’s latest report detailing overall market growth," said Lauri Vickers, Group Manager LAN Networking of In-Stat/MDR. "NETGEAR’s increasing share in the face of challenging market conditions is even more impressive, and shows that they are delivering the right portfolio of gigabit products."

"Growing businesses are pushing their existing networks to their limits as they seek to expand networking infrastructure capacity and deploy applications that are increasingly bandwidth-intensive," stated Patrick Lo, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of NETGEAR. "Our new managed Gigabit solution allows organizations to migrate their existing infrastructures at the lowest possible cost to take advantage of the performance and productivity-enhancing features afforded by Gigabit networking while maintaining the benefits of management."

"Many of our customers ask for NETGEAR products because they deliver quality and reliability at an affordable price," said Ken Savage, President Waypoint Business Solutions of Houston. "The NETGEAR managed gigabit switch builds on this reputation and allows us to continue to grow with our customers as their networking needs advance."

NETGEAR’s first managed gigabit switch is the newest member of NETGEAR’s growing family of high-performance Layer 2 managed switching solutions, and features a total of 12 gigabit ports, 10 RJ-45 copper Gigabit ports and two slots for optional Gigabit Interface Connector (GBIC) modules. Easy to use and administer, the GSM712, can be managed through browser-based and command line interfaces. The robust management feature set includes: SNMP, RMON, VLAN, QoS, port trunking, Spanning Tree, and port mirroring. Additionally, all RJ-45 ports on the two switches are auto-negotiating and support Auto Uplink™ technology.

The NETGEAR Managed Gigabit Switch (GSM712) accommodates many network users with the connection flexibility of 10 auto-negotiating RJ-45 10/100/1000 copper Gigabit ports and two slots for optional GBIC modules. The flexibility of the non-blocking switch is further enhanced by GBIC slots that can accept the AGM721F GBIC SX module for 1000BASE-SX connections with SC connectors, and the AGM721T GBIC Copper Gigabit Module for 1000BASE-T connections through an RJ-45 connector. The switch is ideal supporting either a gigabit server farm or connecting several stacks of FSM726S Managed Stackable Switches- or a combination of the two

The NETGEAR Managed Gigabit Switch (GSM712) is backed by a five-year warranty, comes with 90 days free premium support including 24/7 technical phone support, and is available via value added resellers, direct marketers, and e-commerce sites.

About NETGEAR Inc.
NETGEAR provides branded, easy-to-use, reliable and technologically advanced networking solutions for homes and small businesses. Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara, Calif., NETGEAR designs and develops products that enable home and small business users to share Internet access, peripherals, digital content and applications among multiple personal computers and other Internet-enabled devices. NETGEAR primarily markets and sells its products through distributors based in North America, Europe and the Asia/Pacific region to a network of resellers, including more than 4,500 retail stores, mail order catalogs and online retailers. NETGEAR was recently named to Deloitte & Touche’s "Technology Fast 500" and to its "2001 Technology Fast 50" for Silicon Valley. For more information visit the company’s Web site at www.netgear.com or call (408.907.8000).

For more information:
Doug Hagan
NETGEAR Inc.
(408) 907-8053
doug.hagan@netgear.com

Ken Hagihara
Integrity Public Relations
(949) 768-4423
ken@integritypr.net