The three gigabit switches are part of Netgear's ProSafe Advanced Smart Switch line. The vendor is migrating features typically found in higher-end managed switches into more affordable, but less complex products, says Vivek Pathela, the company's vice president of product marketing.

The new ProSafe 24- and 48-port models include the company's first support for static routing, which lets a customer site offload inter-virtual LAN (VLAN) traffic from a router. They have either two or four shared SFP ports for optional fiber connections. Netgear is targeting these at 100 to 200 user sites.

Both are available now, via Netgear's channel partners. The 24-port model lists for US$925; the 48-port model for US$1,665.

A separate new 24-port gigabit switch lacks static routing support but does introduce the several new features for this class, such as support for voice VLANs and IP access control lists. It's priced at US$575.

All of the hardware products are covered by Netgear's lifetime warranty.

Later this year, Netgear will release a upgraded version of its ProSafe Control Center, first introduced in 2007 as a simple to use management application for customers to easily manage a Netgear network. The first version of Control Center was narrowly focused on managing individual switches. The new version, a Windows application, will create views of the entire network, handle tasks such as scheduling and executing firmware updates, and remotely manage switches at other locations. The software is sold with any Netgear SmartSwitch, including licenses to manage as many as 10 other switches at no additional charge.

The new ReadyNAS Pro 6-bay desktop storage device includes Netgear's patent-pending software code, dubbed X-RAID2, which automatically handles volume expansion when news disks are plugged in. It supports up to six SATA I or SATA II hard drives, with a total capacity of 6 terabytes. There are USB 2.0 ports.

The new storage unit will be available in the third quarter of 2008, starting at US$2,000, covered by a 5-year warranty.