Introduction

In almost all of our networking reviews we have talked about Quality of Service or QoS. This handy little feature allows you to adjust priority for different types of network traffic. It makes keeping a network from becoming congested, easy.

However, the traditional setup for QoS is not always an easy task. You have to know the data types and packet tags (in many cases). You also have to understand how to set up the levels of QoS per data type. It is true there are some pieces of hardware with a more broad-based QoS, but they tend to be limited to a "per-port" type of QoS and are not efficient.

Enter the NETGEAR GS605AV; it is a 5-port GBe (Gigabit Ethernet) switch that has all the QoS done internally for you at the low price of $46.99 from NewEgg.com. All you have to do is connect your network to it in the proper fashion. To make things even simpler, they have also color coded the ports on the back so you almost can't screw up.

So let's dive in and see if it is as effective as it is simple.