NETGEAR Insight Access Points Reviews

My IT business is managed services for companies who are under 50 employees. It is deployed for offices, office buildings, and office suites, but probably no more than a small office building. Typically, an office suite could be as little as one or two access points or as big as 10 access points.

This solution helps an MSP, like me, manage my time better because I have more visibility and the ability to control things from a distance.

I use the WAX610 access points. It varies with the router, sometimes it is a BR100 router and a lot of times it is an SXK80.

I access it remotely. With Insight Access Points, this is important because I am a managed service IT provider. I am one person. I am not always onsite. To be onsite is costly. I can see when someone says the network is going down from my home office, look at it, and do some root cause analysis to see why it's going down. For example, on the modem, there is an issue with the circuit coming in. Or, I can see one of the access points hasn't gotten some firmware so it's not coming back online. That is all helpful, then I can do one or two things. I don't always have to go out there. Some of this stuff can be managed remotely or with the assistance of the client. We can solve the problem without all the labor, driving, and time.

My understanding is if I were to set up another network in England, then it would be the same thing as managing it here. It would just be a different time zone, but I should be able to access it in the same way. This is really important to me. Since COVID, people, like me, who are smaller providers need flexibility. We could be on the road. I could be at another client. I could be camping with my solar panels and gear. So, if I can keep the visibility of the network wherever I go, it makes for a better lifestyle.

A huge piece for small providers is getting away from things being mechanical and putting stuff into the cloud. Even if you can't replace something, seeing and understanding what is going on is 90% of the problem because replacing it is pretty easy. You could send someone an access point, then they could plug it in where you have one that was down, and you can walk them through it. Like, "I want you to give me that serial number because I am going to add it to Insight," and away you go.

If I was on the road and saw that the network had an access point that was broken, I could theoretically get them the access point. I don't have to drive all the way back or drop everything I am doing at another client. It is very good in that way.

It frees me up to do other things, because I am less reactive and not going on site as much. It creates a lot more time in my day to attend to real fires. I can take on more and not have to hire someone. As a young business, that is really important. It's not that I don't want to hire someone. But, at the beginning, you're trying to build something and do as much yourself. So, it enables me to work without needing to have as much help.

Once the network is set up, you have the ability to:

• See when things have gone online and offline, because you want to know about things before the client. 
• Know if a firmware update that you have on a schedule, and you manage, was successful or not. 
• Look at traffic, e.g., what are these access points being hit with as far as traffic? Looking at traffic visualization, you can see how many devices are hitting it and when is its peak usage. That's helpful.

Where you have lots of access points, you can see which ones (over time) are getting hit more than others. It's like, "Hey, wait a minute. For the most part, these guys are using two access points. They tend to be congregating in this area. So, do I need to add a third to take some of the load off?" You're being cognizant of how the network is being used. You can see all that remotely and don't have to be there.

When I first go onsite, I implement the router and access points. Then, I add them to a site that I have created on the Insight management solution. I create a portal, then I add the client's devices and manage as many of these portals as I need to. So, as I'm spinning up a network, I'm always creating a little home for it on Insight.

The Insight management solution provides network management, monitoring, and service deployment across multiple remote and local sites. This makes it so I can take on a lot more. It has taken it from a very mechanical kind of world of having to be there to one where I can, within reason, do a lot of things remotely. This means now you can do more with less, i.e., you don't need as much staff.

The user-friendliness of the Insight management solution is good. Like everything, it has its idiosyncrasies. Sometimes, it is a challenge when adding a device. Certain devices have been harder to register. I'm not trying to knock it. I'm just trying to say everything has its areas of improvement, and device registration might be one area. NETGEAR is on this and addressing this issue.

The registration is annoying. I have to go back to NETGEAR and log tickets. Access points and router registration are something that they need to address in Insight. They need to fix the bug of getting the devices activated and enrolled in Insight without fighting with them. I have probably done about six of these in the last month. You get to see patterns. However, once it is up and running, it's so useful to me that I don't mind. I'm a tech guy, so I don't mind dealing with small glitches.

I use the Insight management solution app on my phone. Though, it is not as good as managing network access points on my computer. 

I have been using it for a little over a year.

The throughput on the server serves up the GUI to show me the network. Occasionally, there is some lag. In all the cloud apps that I use, I would rate them very well. I would rate Microsoft a little bit lower down in their apps. 

I have never had an issue with throughput on the actual devices. It has only enhanced their network from the customer perspective of the device.

I am only doing the very small SMB market. However, my impression is I could scale, if I needed, to a full hotel or office building. It wouldn't make me shy. I might be using different routers and different firewalls, but the access points have no problems scaling, as far as I can see.

The technical support is very good and responsive. Nice thing is I have built some relationships with the people I call because there are often the same people when I call back. I like that. Even though it is a big company, I get some of the same people. It is always nice when you have a relationship and accountability.

I have called them at various times. During the day is a popular time. However, I might be at a veterinary hospital, then I'm calling them at eight o'clock at night, and the consistency has to be there. So far, it has been there.

Imagine you are onsite and trying to troubleshoot a problem on a network. If I'm not onsite, I could call NETGEAR because I have Insight. I can look at things like, "Hey, you know what guys? I'm seeing that this one access point is just not coming back online." I don't have to be there to do that. It is an app that they are conversant with. If I called them up with a third-party app, then I would be like, "Well, unfortunately, can you get to the site to be able to login to the NETGEAR equipment?" Or, they might say, "Do you have Insight?" So, it provides that level of efficiency.

I was using a hodgepodge. I was using a lot of Linksys and D-Link. I still do use some D-Link, because I have other services and what is important to me is selling phone systems too. Before I went to NETGEAR, I wanted to be sure that their network would work well with my Voice over IP systems, and I'm satisfied that it will. However, at first, I was using a lot of D-Link and Linksys.

There is a clear disadvantage for keeping multiple pieces. I still do keep some Linksys where it does not make sense to do NETGEAR. When you can consolidate around a vendor, your efficiency and understanding of the product, as well as how it's deployed, get better and more efficient. If you have lots of different vendor solutions, you have to understand how each one works.

I have used Ubiquiti. There are a few tech firms in the area that love the Ubiquiti product.

The initial setup is very straightforward. 

For the flat networks that I am setting up, it is pretty quick. If it is just an access point and router, then the biggest amount of time is waiting for the system to get its updates and apply them. Your time is a function of the system getting its updates and enrolling it, then you have to hang the access points. If it is a simple network where you don't have to get up on ladders and install too much hardware, then it could be in a small office in about an hour. It does depend on how complex the network is. For example, a gym had a Comcast router with about 100 people probably getting on that system, and everything was dropping. They have TV and biometrics through WiFi on their clients, but it was not working. Within an hour or two, we could bring up a new network, they can be back doing their classes, and everything is running without stuff getting dropped. This is an example where speed helps because people are using the space the whole time with a lot of devices. They want it to be resolved quickly.

For things like heat maps, I can take the building and give them the materials, layout, and what I'm trying to achieve. I can go back to one of their engineers who knows their equipment really well and we can put together the proposal, e.g., how many access points we will need, what type of router, and if we need additional third-party products like a firewall. I can do that all with NETGEAR. It is good because two eyes are better than one, and I am one person. So, I rely on them.

I am all about simplicity. With the Insight management solution, I don’t need an additional cloud controller, appliance, network manager, or PC/server to configure and manage my access points. You have to look at cost, and everything has a cost. There is a cost to using Insight. But if the cost is reasonable, I don't want another layer. The ability to deploy a network and then have that software built-in, without having to go to a third-party, is big. Also, the less pieces that I have to call in on, the better. So, when I'm calling NETGEAR, it's not like I'm using some third-party piece of software to manage their product. It doesn't add that layer of complexity, which is key.

This solution has been a big return on investment. The big thing for me is I can deploy a system in a small office for under $1,000. I do not have to pitch a big networking organization coming in with a $10,000 solution that is unneeded. I can pitch something that is a couple of grand and make some decent money off of it, then move onto the next one. I am not a big fan of using enterprise equipment, like Cisco, in small companies who don't need a lot of their feature set. 

For a little guy like me, it is very cost-effective. I am able to have the tools of the enterprise networker on a pretty reasonable budget. 

The Insight management solution’s pricing helps to get people onboard because the first year is free. On bigger networks, you need to have clients who buy into managed services. If you don't, meaning someone is not going to buy managed services, then at $10 an access point, or whatever it is on a big network, I can't maintain that. However, for people who buy into having someone monitoring their network, it is at a reasonable price point.

Maybe they could monetize it for a big network, not every single device, or make it a lower amount. For example, if you have six or seven NETGEAR devices, they should cut a break on how much it costs per device, because that is where it gets costly. When you have a NETGEAR switch, a NETGEAR router, and NETGEAR Access Point, you don't want to bring everything online because it cuts into the managed service fee, i.e., what you are charging the customer. I'm selling the customer on having network monitoring, but there has to be a happy medium. It can't be so expensive. Otherwise, NETGEAR loses and I lose.

I can source the stuff pretty quickly wherever I go through the distributor. There is pricing available at NETGEAR if you can spend between $2,000 and $5,000 on a solution. So, there is special pricing that they can help with. The vendor's reps are very responsive. They have a good channel system, and I don't know about Ubiquiti and Meraki pricing. As far as partnering with me, they do a very good job.

About 10 years ago, I was using Cisco Meraki extensively when I was working at a big WiFi vendor. I haven't used it a lot recently. Those guys blazed the trail on a lot of stuff. They came out with managed access points way back. Their app wasn't as developed as what Insight was, but I also judged it many years ago. I would say the solutions are about the same. I don't have Meraki's current product line to test, so I can't do a current apples-to-apples test.

I like simplicity. I am not a Cisco network guy. I think that this stuff gets overused. For its cost and place, it is great and better for clients that have more complicated networks. However, I find NETGEAR products a lot easier to work with. So, I would go with NETGEAR.

Set up a relationship with NETGEAR and get yourself a relationship with the rep and engineer so you have that back-end support for the pre-sale solution. Set these devices up in your house first, add them to Insight, and get to know the idiosyncrasies. Then, when you get into the field, you will be well-prepared.

You don't have to do all this yourself. There are a lot of resources. Once you find a partner who is a good channel partner, i.e., one that wants to work with smaller guys like me and has good resources, then you don't need to figure it all out yourself. You have a team if you partner with someone like NETGEAR. This is not just a product plug. I have worked with different vendors and some vendors want to collaborate and have a lot of resources, and some don't. They work for the little guy, and that is very important to me.

It can say, "Heads up. I have an access point." I could do it that way. However, in a lot of these flat networks, I wouldn't have to do it that way. So, I could bring an access point to me first, plug it in, put it onto Insight, and then have the customer literally just put it in place. I could do that. In most cases, I wouldn't need to, because in these flat networks where they're not requiring too much programming, I can ship it directly, have them plug it in, and do it remotely with their help. This is more efficient, depending on the client. I can do this with tech savvy clients, but not everyone.

It gives me enough information for what I need, but there is a lot more I can do with it. It would provide me more if I had more things deployed. For example, they make captive portals, but I don't tend to deploy many captive portals.

Most of my clients are pretty small. As they scale or get more complex, the captive portals would be something I would be setting up to collect customer information. That would be more data that I would be able to provide. At the moment, it is more:

• Are these access points getting overworked? 
• Are they getting their firmware? 
• How is the uptime on these things? 

It's those kinds of things that I am looking at for my business.

I would give it a solid nine out of 10. The only reason it is a nine is the frustration with registering the product to get it on Insight. That is it.

We primarily use NETGEAR for home and office to allow internal network sharing among devices and people. It really is the backbone of the entire network. There is no need for servers or for other equipment beyond what we know is registered in the inside portal. As such, we just get a feed from our ISP and it goes directly into the access points. That's it.

The population for our use case is pretty small. While there are three or four employees who utilize the Insight access points concurrently, there are many more who make use of it throughout the day.

When it comes to remediation, we have rid ourselves of downtime. The metrics demonstrate that NETGEAR really does a good job of balancing the load between the various access points on the network and this results in an elimination of downtime. While a device may conceivably fail in respects to an access point that is in a different room or in a different part of the facility, there have been no instances in which we've been down without internet or network access. Prior to using the Insight access points, this was an issue every other week. 

I am also impressed by the speed and the feature range. It has allowed us to venture beyond the confines of the standard office space. 

Moreover, it is critical that the Insight Management solution saves us from needing to utilize additional cloud controller appliances, network managers, PC servers or to configure and manage our access points. Were this not the case, we would be left with the option of using home grade equipment. This would simply be too complex and require more maintenance than would be feasible for a business of our size.

Also, I use the Insight Management app on my phone. We occasionally utilize the internet portal for more complex concerns, although 99 percent of what I do is on the iPhone app. I am actually looking at it right now on YouTube. It's just great. It provides real-time changes, with real-time monitoring of what's happening and what needs to be changed. It's the way to go for sure.

Additionally, the solution provides live updates on network status and alerts us when there's an issue. Real time alerts are delivered via email and push alerts. We get emails whenever there's an issue on one of the access points on the network.

The configuration and monitoring have been very valuable features. When it comes to the pain points, the ability to monitor and address these is one of the best perks of the app. Setup becomes a breeze once you pass this stage. We only need to scan in a QR code for things to basically be set up.

Insight Management is extremely user-friendly and very relevant with the details that it gives. I'm not a trained IT person, but the layout of Insight or the capabilities of the Insight management tool have allowed us to build a pretty complex network with little formal knowledge on the topic, absent the need to conduct some internet research and follow the prompts.

Moreover, we can manage our entire network from anywhere in the world. This is important because there's no one else to do it. If something goes down or is not working, it's good to have the resources to know what the problem is and to have the ability to rectify it remotely. Since we don't have the onsite resources for engaging the services of IT people or consultants, the ability to be in command of the network and the access points from anywhere we wish is pretty valuable to us.

Furthermore, the throughput speeds are excellent. World-class throughput speeds with the WiFi Six is what we're using in all of our devices.

My impression of the user interface of the top tier version that we licensed is that it's very friendly, informative, and relevant. It has what we need to see and it's easy to access, maintain and monitor.

While the data throughput does provide us with full insight into data being used, we find that it's not very accurate. The numbers are just way off. I have already brought this up with NETGEAR Insight Access Points. As for the Insight portal and the Insight app, meaning the part of the app that allows you to see which clients are connected to the access points and how they're connected, these do not work at all. Although our main WiFi network has 50 devices on it, when we enter the app on the website it shows it to be zero.

When it comes to features needing improvement, the WAX610, WAC540 and the WAX610Y do not reliably stay online and this is especially true of the WAC540. This is why we have defaulted most of our traffic over to the SXR80 device, which is the company's newest and most innovative WiFi Six product. 

However, it has been months since the Insight app has acknowledged that there are access points connected to it. Unplugging and replugging it would only enable it to work for around fifteen minutes. It is constantly offline. Meanwhile, the 610s, which are simply the normal Insights, are terribly slow for WiFi six. As such, my praise for the Insight access points really must go to the SXR80 product. It has been phenomenal in every case.

I have four of the newer devices sitting under my desk right now. They plan to unplug the 610s. Since these are only three or four months older than the new SXR80s that have been introduced, I'm a bit disappointed that they're not as reliable and as fast as they should be. Fortunately, since we possess the proper tools and technological resources, we have mostly not been impacted by this. This is because we rely on the main SXR80 access points to a greater extent than those other access points and we consider these to be reliable and great to work with.

We have been using this solution for at least a couple of years.

The scalability and its potential is great. One can segregate different WiFi networks so that they can simply access other things on the network. If I had the time, I would play around with it more and do such things as captive portals for guest networks, and make things more fancy. I feel confident in my abilities to do all kinds of things with relative ease, such as being able to segregate different WiFi networks so that they can simply access other things on the network.

As for usage, we are unlikely to make increases. While I know this to be possible, as we have the infrastructure in place with the access points for the connectivity of thousands of devices, we have no expectation of doing so. I do know it's possible, though. 

When it came to deciding which route to take, we felt the scalability to be important, as it started with just one access point and then it grew to switches, then to multiple access points and then to Power over Ethernet devices, etc. Therefore, I consider this an important point, even though I don't foresee short term growth.

Moreover, I would say that it's worth spending a little bit more on these products. They provide future-proofing and enable scaling and perpetuation of its use as the network demands increase in pace with technological considerations.

Occasionally, I have made use of technical support, although the only time I talked to them directly concerned a switch, not an access point. More recently, I did send them an email about the issues I'm having with the model numbers I mentioned. This was two or three weeks ago. They told me someone, an engineer, would get back to me and this has yet to happen. I simply don't have the time to chase after them right now. 

Generally speaking, the solution is a good thing. It's money well spent. It's worked out well for us. I think it will continue to work out well for us. I just wish that, in light of what we're paying for ongoing licensing fees, the engineers or tech support were a little bit more accessible. For example, I told you that I emailed tech support two or three weeks ago. When I went into the app to create that ticket, all the devices that I had concerns with were still under warranty with a next business day replacement. Yet, for some reason, the phone and email support options had expired. I don't understand how one can troubleshoot and exchange a unit when tech support remains inaccessible. It was only when I clicked on one of the newer solutions that they responded to me. I explained that it was not the one giving me trouble, but that I felt I had no other means of getting in touch with them. 

I'm sure I could have spent an hour on the phone pressing prompts to speak with somebody, but email was the route we took. I would say there are positives and negatives. Yet, overall, I can't think of a better solution out there that would be without pitfalls. Like I said, I'm pretty happy with it.

Before using Insight access points we were using ones which are more basic and home grade. 

We switched because of the features, the scalability and the speed. A regular NETGEAR, spaceship-looking access point can cost a lot. However, after only a year or two it can give out and become slower and incapable of handling the number of devices we have. What I mean by devices are actual things connected to the network, not people. There are 150 things connected to these access points, but there are only a few of us using them here.

These devices include phones, computers, printers, smart devices such as TVs, and Amazon solution features. There exist many of what you would refer to as smart or automation-types of equipment. They comprise a significant portion of these devices and are connected to the access points. However, these are features that we're not using on a daily basis, even as they consume resources.

This is why we need something more robust and scalable, so that it can manage and sustainably carry that type of load. We don't deem these criteria to be met with the other solutions.

The initial setup of the Insight access points did not require us to have any special expertise or knowledge and there was no need to bring in somebody from the outside.

It took us a single afternoon to do the initial deployment.

Our implementation strategy involved us making use of adequate coverage with our requisite speeds. This was simply the strategy that was involved in the placement and purchase of the different devices. We did not make use of a third party integrator or consultant for this undertaking and I handled the deployment independently.

While I haven't made exact calculations, I feel that our ROI accrues to the elimination of downtime and the lack of necessity to hire someone external to build and maintain the network. Since we do not consider downtime to be an option, I find it difficult to quantify our exact savings. To properly address this issue I would first need a more detailed understanding of the disparity in licensing costs between our next best solution, Cisco, and the one we chose. I think that the money that we've put into the access points and that which we are investing in licensing them on the portal is well spent.

The yearly pricing is reasonable. For what you get, the price of Insight access points is very reasonable. I don't feel like there is anything cost prohibitive or difficult to operate or use. Overall, I am impressed with the Insight portal and how it works and maintains itself, as well as with its scalability. 

My only concern is that our costs will increase with continued use of the product, since they license us annually. This will probably result in some of the less reliable devices being taken offline. Should we not see satisfactory delivery, we will deem it not worthwhile for us to pay the ongoing fees. 

I did not evaluate other options prior to choosing NETGEAR. I did a lot of research before going this route. It was the cloud aspect of Insight and the fact that it didn't need to be managed on site with servers that sold me on the product. 

Nevertheless, the insufficiently reliable access points made me have second thoughts. However, once we got into the situation with the current setup, it's just been outstanding. Even when it comes to those devices that aren't functioning as well as I would like, the cloud capabilities make it easy to do troubleshooting and get them back on line. I find this to be the case even though it is not what I wish to be doing with my time.

As far as Cisco Meraki or Ubiquiti access points go, I did research Cisco a little bit online. I didn't undertake anything in person. However, I found it to be much too complex for the building and expanding of the basic infrastructure that we require. Plus, the licensing fees made it unrealistic and cost prohibitive.

Furthermore, a key factor in my decision to go with NETGEAR over Meraki was the lack of need to spin up a controller. The fact that it is cloud-based played an equally important factor in this decision. 

We are making use of three WAX610s, one of each of WAC540 and WAX610Y, and five SXR80.

I handle maintenance on my own and this is not a full time job. It's pretty straightforward and this is especially so as the units we have in place are up 100 percent of the time and are lightning fast.

The biggest lesson that I've learned from using the Insight access points is that there is no need for expertise. A master's degree and networking for their use is not required to put together a complex network for meeting one's needs. What we've got going here is pretty complex. As it turns out, it's been built up piece by piece, in a way that doesn't require much technical knowledge.

My advice to someone who is evaluating and thinking of implementing the Insight access points is that it has limitless uses. The solution can be as simple or complex as one wants. We started simple and built it up to be somewhat complex and that has worked out pretty well for us. 

I use it for troubleshooting. If I see anything go down or anything come up, I log in and check. I reboot to get awareness of what's going on, and I do configuring too. I've been having a lot of issues with the routers. I don't use the VPN solution because it's not secured. Since I'm far away, at home, I don't have a VPN built-in, so I use Insight for everything I do remotely.

I use the solution's mobile app on my phone and the web portal on my desktop.

The biggest benefit is its remote capabilities. That's the most important factor for me. Having remote situational awareness of what's going on, on the devices, and being able to do a minimum level of troubleshooting, are the big factors.

The GUI is pretty stable—I haven't had any issues go down— and it's pretty user-friendly. I'm able to do a lot of things, because the GUI is designed very well. I'm able to remotely make certain changes via my phone and apply them right away. It makes life easier when it comes to managing the equipment. The Insight management solution phone app is very good. It enables me to do what I want to do.

The fact that I don't need an additional cloud controller, appliance, or network manager is the point, exactly. I specifically bought everything with remote capability in mind. That's number-one for me. Without that, it would be completely useless.

I use the Insight Pro management tool and so far it's been great. It provides live updates on network status, and alerts when there is an issue. The majority of the time it's accurate and gives me a sense of what's going on. I can also use it to troubleshoot remotely, which is very important.

In addition, I can configure an access point and ship it to another location and then manage the device remotely. I love that ability. You can take your phone, scan in it, add it in, and when you ship it, as soon as it gets there and is connected, you can see it pop up on the app. I've used that a lot.

I also like the two-factor authorization.

When it comes to Insight Access Point's throughput, sometimes there's a lag. Sometimes, when you apply a setting, it takes a few minutes, but the majority of the time it goes well.

Also, there's a big difference when you remote into a switch or a router. When you're not remote you have more options, configuration-wise. With Insight you can do some of that initial setup without any problem, but not everything.

They have to keep their game up with the physical products. Not all physical products are compatible with Insight. You have to buy certain products. Configuration-wise, they should include more capabilities for configuring the physical products. They have some, but not all. They need to expand it more.

I've been using NETGEAR Insight Access Points for approximately 14 months now.

The stability is pretty good. If they keep up what they're doing today, it's going to be a good product. I have had no problem with Insight.

It's scaling fine for me. I only have 45 devices. I don't know how it would work for a large environment.

I have a ticket open right now with their technical support, which I sent in last week. They responded back with basic questions and I replied back, but I haven't heard anything at all. I bought a new switch and I'm trying to figure out whether the issues are a product limitation or a device issue.

It's very hard to get a hold of people in support. Emails go back and forth. Phone support is a bit hit-and-miss. If you buy something new, they give you attention for 90 days, and after that they don't give you free support over the phone. Sometimes I do my own research and figure things out.

I did not have a previous solution. This was a new build and I looked at my requirements and tried to figure out what the best solution was. Remote capability was one of the primary requirements that I was looking at.

The initial setup was straight-up and easy.

But over time, as I have expanded, I have seen issues come up. If it's a small setup, it's easy. Insight works fine. I'm not complaining about that, but I'm having issues with the physical product.

In terms of implementation, I had my network diagram figured out. I mapped out the physical coverage of the property and applied the access points for each environment. I had three buildings. I finished with building one, then moved to buildings two and three later on. It was straightforward.

It's not complicated to deploy it. You can deploy anything with the basic configuration. When you buy anything and plug it in, out-of-the-box, it works. But the complication happens when you want to secure it. I didn't want to keep some of the default settings. I wanted to have different VLANs, different networks, and different WiFi. That's creating a problem. With one, in the beginning, there was no problem. But as I have been slowly expanding it, I have seen problems come up.

I deployed it myself.

Insight management's pricing is comparable to Aruba and okay.

Aruba just came out with remote capability. I haven't seen many products with that feature. Aruba has more security capability when compared to NETGEAR. 

There are other vendors, but for a small business, the other ones are on a higher scale.

Look at the products. I think Ubiquiti is a very good company. NETGEAR should look at that model and expand on its remote capabilities. Ubiquiti seems to have a better product.

I put in a NETGEAR BR200 router and it gave me a lot of headaches when trying to create VLANs. I have a big WiFi on the property, and that's creating a lot of issues. I don't know whether the issues are connected to the Insight solution, but I think the product has a lot of room for improvement.

It is a multi-building campus. This way, when we are in-between buildings, we have them meshed together. Then, we can stay on the same WiFi throughout all three buildings. It is in a church, which I have one in my house. Then, we have a church that I go to, where we have three in one building, two in another building, and five in the third building.

I can deploy and manage multiple remote and local sites via this system. I'm an electrician too. I did all the power for the building, and when I'm offsite, I can still help them out. Then, at my house, if my kids are not doing what they're supposed to, then I can shut down my WiFi, so they have to get busy.

The solution enables me to manage my entire network from anywhere in the world, which is very important. The church streams on Sundays and Wednesdays, and with work, I do a lot of travel. So, I'm not always onsite to be there to help them out if there are any issues with the network, but I can help them out remotely.

As long as it is on the cloud, I am able to configure an access point and ship it to another location, then manage the device remotely. This is nice because it is simple and easy.

The meshing capabilities are the most valuable feature. When I am going in-between buildings, my phone doesn't have to pick up different WiFi. They are all the same. Even in-between the buildings, I stay connected. They are strong devices.

We use the NETGEAR Insight management solution. It is pretty simple and easy to use. It is an easy way to update the devices that I have: five switches and a firewall. It is an easy way to keep all my other devices updated. 

I have used the Insight management solution app on my phone. That is usually how I access it. I use my phone most of the time, which is a lot easier than getting my tablet out or bringing up my laptop.

The solution’s throughput speeds are good and super fast.

I have been using it for about a year and a half.

I'm happy with the stability. It is very consistent, and there have been zero issues.

We have had awesome wireless access throughout the whole campus in all the buildings. With the COVID-19 and the pandemic along with the streaming and all that we have to do now, we haven't had any issues.

An update of firmware on this stuff is about it for maintenance. I also get compressed air and clean my devices a couple times a year.

This solution is very scalable.

I have them unlocked because each access point is supposed to be able to handle 600 devices. We don't have 200 people on campus at any given point, most of the time.

At this time, I'm the only person who maintains it.

It's really getting used on Sundays and Wednesdays. However, throughout the week, there are just a few people in and out of three buildings using it.

They changed the Internet provider on campus, and that changed the IP address. So, I did use NETGEARS's support, and they were really helpful.

Before, it was just pretty much a residential system, which was different throughout each building. 

At my house, I just had a regular wireless router. Right now, I have WAC540.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. I am an electrician. I hook up switches, do infrastructure, etc., but I'm not an IT guy. I have hooked up multiple switches on their sites with PoE switches, and we had zero issues.

All of our devices are unmanaged, so it takes no time at all. I pretty much just plug and play.

With the Insight management solution, it is awesome that you don’t need an additional cloud controller, appliance, network manager, or PC/server to configure and manage your access points. It's a money-saver because I don't need to have somebody else come in and manage any of the equipment. I can take care of it anywhere in the world, as long as it is online.

It wasn't much more than 100 dollars a year. For the devices that we have, the pricing was pretty fair. 

They have good, reasonable pricing, so I can pass that price difference onto my customers.

We did evaluate other vendors. I just feel more comfortable with NETGEAR over a Cisco or something else, because of NETGEAR's ease of use and configuration. Also, the sales guys that I dealt with at NETGEAR were really easy to work with. They explained a lot to me.

With the NETGEAR solution, you don't need to spin up a controller. Whereas, with Meraki, you do. This was one of the big deciding factors of going with NETGEAR.

NETGEAR is just so much simpler to use. That is compared to every other platform, like Cisco, Aruba, and Ubiquiti.

I have only been using NETGEAR mainly on this type of stuff. So, I don't have anything to compare it to.

I am very happy. We have made other purchases with NETGEAR products since the initial purchase.

They are the way to go with their customer support as well as their easy equipment installation.

We built a system, which is way above where it needs to be right now. So, it will be a long time before we have to increase it.

My biggest lesson is to use the NETGEAR products because it was so easy.

I would rate it as a 10 out of 10, but there is always room for improvement.

Our use case is to provide WiFi access for my customers with remote management of their WiFi devices.

The feature I consider most valuable is to be able to configure the WiFi devices and to see utilization remotely, or from the cloud.

A con is the backend system which is very, very slow. I don't understand why that has to be so slow when this is 2021. There should be no web application that is slow, especially from a company as large as NETGEAR. I would suggest they speed up the backend portal.

Another con is with the Insight Portal, and I've heard other people talk about this before as well. It's not too user-friendly. It's a nice UI, very user-friendly to the eyes, but as far as usability, I think it needs to be revamped. I suggest giving it a little more functionality and  revamp the way that the user interface is designed to be a little bit more user friendly.

I've been using it for about a year.

I've had no stability issues with the solution. There a few instances when the switches will go offline and I'll have to ask the customer to reboot them. Everything else seems to be more stable than the switches and pretty much rock solid once they are set up and configured. They just run.

I think it's something you can scale easily with. The scalability is there because it's based on how many devices the client will need. The switches are, for example, the 24-Port and 44-Port and have SFP+ ports. So that's good and gives me 10 Gigabits between switches.

I think technical support leaves a little bit to be desired. I do get quick responses, but it's very difficult to come to a complete resolution with the support. I don't know if it's because I'm getting a first tier guy for something that may be needed a little bit higher tier, but the support definitely needs to be ramped up.

Prior to NETGEAR, I was using switches and WiFi devices from Open Mesh. I switched to NETGEAR because Open Mesh had a licensing model I did not like. Also, their production for newer technology was kind of stagnant. For example, they still don't have a WiFi 6 solution yet, and most of their switches don't even have 10 gig ports in them.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. I used the cloud backend to configure everything and then I either send the WiFi devices to the customer or I go on premises to install. Once you set up that first or second device then it's pretty quick and easy.

Usually when I get the device, like a switch, I'll bring it into my test lab and plug it in. I then register it under that customer in the portal backend, configure it, and then turn it off and ship it out. If it's just one switch and one AP it probably takes 30 minutes.

It's a well-priced solution for smaller businesses that have five to 80 devices. I definitely think my clients have seen a return on their investment.

In terms of pricing and licensing, the NETGEAR solution is reasonable. I usually get the Pro license, which is a little bit more expensive. Their pricing is perfect for smaller businesses who are money and budget conscious. There are a lot of other solutions out there that are two to three times more expensive.

Prior to NETGEAR, I didn't evaluate other vendors as far as testing them or anything like that. I just researched a few other vendors like Cisco Meraki. Meraki has excellent firewalls, which I use, but their switches and WiFi devices are too expensive.

I researched Ubiquiti Access Points heavily, but I do not like them because of the fact that one, you have to have a controller to control them and two, their support is email only.

I use the NETGEAR Insight management solution and in terms of user-friendliness, there are a lot of pros and cons. The pros are definitely that I can see a complete overview of all of my devices out there. The ability to configure the devices from the cloud is a huge plus.

The Insight management solution provides me with network management, monitoring and service deployment without having to go site to site. The solution enables me to manage my entire network from anywhere in the world. This increases my effectiveness. I have basically built my company to be mobile first. We rely heavily on taking care of our customers, via iPads and iPhones, versus having to run to a computer every time something happens.

It's awesome that the Insight management solution doesn't require additional cloud controller appliances. It's a big plus and one of the reasons I chose the solution. If I don't need another piece of hardware somewhere then that's a big plus for me.

One of the reasons I switched to NETGEAR is for their awesome Access Points throughput speeds. I was definitely using another brand before and I was getting twice the bandwidth through the NETGEAR devices.

We also use the Insight Pro management tool and it's great for managing multiple sites and businesses from a single interface and login. We can see an overview of all our customers on our phone or tablet screen. It's a great tool for us.

Being able to configure an Access Point and ship it to another location and then manage the device remotely definitely helped us a lot rather than having to truck out to somebody. It also allows me to have customers in various areas of the country where maybe I would not have had them before.

We use it for guest WiFi.

The most valuable features are

• online access
• easy to control
• easy set up.

Also, when multiple users get onto it, more than 100 folks, the internet does not crash. It's steady.

We use NETGEAR's Insight management solution to do off-property controls. It is user-friendly and provides network management, monitoring, and service deployment across multiple remote and local sites. That means I don't have to be physically at a location to do things if I want to make any changes to the network. It saves time and money. 

I also use the Insight management solution app on my phone. That's how I set up my devices. It's pretty quick for managing access points and it alerts me right away if something goes wrong. If the unit is down, you know right away. It's very important to me that I am able to manage my entire network from anywhere. This is a hotel and we have about 100 guests a day. People don't like it if the network goes down, and if customers don't like something they leave. We want to have a steady network for everybody to use, for business purposes or whatever purpose they need it for. It is a necessity.

NETGEAR's throughput speed is pretty good. It's better than what I was using before.

The hardware is great. Software-wise, they need to provide the ability to kick users out. If multiple users are abusing the system or the network, I should be able to block them for a time and, when I need to unblock them, I should be able to do so by using their MAC ID. That feature might already be there and I just don't know about it. But I haven't called NETGEAR about it yet because I just haven't had time.

I have been using NETGEAR Insight Access Points for about six months.

I was using Ubiquity's lower model, the one which is $100 a piece. I spent about $99 more for NETGEAR, but got better quality and a better device with better coverage. With Ubiquity I was having so many issues with users being knocked out from the login because of too many users logging in at the same time. I haven't seen that issue in the six months since we started using NETGEAR.

Each one takes about six minutes to set up.

I bought one to try out and I liked it and then bought about nine more.

Price-wise, it is a little too high, about $20 higher than what it should be, but it's worth it. It's cheaper than Cisco's access point, but the products are not apples to apples.

I looked at other solutions, including Ubiquity, but the performance of NETGEAR was better. I had been using a router and modem from NETGEAR for a long time. It's easy to set up and quick to respond, compared to Linksys or Ubiquity.

My advice would be to go ahead and switch to this one, because this is the best-performing device I have seen so far.

When you start doing multiple experiments, you end up with higher costs. I have learned from my mistake. I spent almost $2,300 to fix the internet for the hotel, and I could have done so for $1,000 with NETGEAR.

The solution provides full insight into the data being used but that feature doesn't affect me as much because I don't really focus on what people use the data on.

Overall, I would rate NETGEAR Insight Access Points at nine out of 10. The reasons it's not a 10 is because of the lack of user blocking and unblocking, and because the price could be a little bit cheaper.

I have a large home LAN with multiple WiFi access points. I have four connected and I have a bunch of routers.

I only use the solution's app on the iPhone, version 6.2.20.

In terms of the WiFi, it has been easy to manage updates, but I'm having to find multiple solutions to manage the entire network, which is not what the goal was. The goal was to have one solution to manage the entire network. I do not have that with Insight.

From the WiFi aspect, it's very intuitive and easy to use. The solution enables me to manage my entire WiFi from anywhere in the world, but when it comes to port control management of the entire network, I cannot use it for that.

I have no problem with the actual workings of the hardware, including the Insight Access Points throughput speeds.

The biggest issue I've had is that it works very well with the WiFi, but it does not offer any assistance at all with the routers. You can't control them or manage them at all. As soon as you want to use anything on the network side—because I have multiple 28-port switches—you can't manage them using this app.

I can't manage everything from one place. I still have to log in to individual devices and work with them that way. I was looking for a solution that would allow one-stop management and I've yet to find it.

I've talked to their tech support multiple times and they've never suggested a way to manage everything. They said that they don't offer that solution. They gave me a list of items that are managed by the Insight solution and the routers are not in there.

I have been using NETGEAR Insight Access Points for a little over a year.

From the WiFi side, the stability has been fine.

I've never had a network this large. Prior to this, it was just very small networks.

Because of the large network I have, I had a third party—Network Advocates, out of Louisville, Kentucky—set it up, so it was easy to get done that way. My experience with them during the initial setup was very good. I'm actually waiting for additional hardware to show up, so they will be involved in continuing support.

We've got the initial setup accomplished within a day. We had a network topology laid out prior to installation and it was just a matter of bringing up the devices in the topology and bringing them online.

The only maintenance on the solution, from my side, post-deployment, is to accept updates.

There isn't a return on investment because I'm not a business. I have not had any additional cost outlay with technical support to keep the system up. From that point of view, I've not had an ongoing cost.

I looked at Cisco and some other large vendors for doing large networks. The primary reason I went with NETGEAR was cost. The others wanted to charge a premium for their solutions and I did not think it was necessary for the quality that I needed, for the quality I thought I was getting with NETGEAR. So I went that way. So far, I'm happy with that.

The biggest thing is understanding how you're going to do your management, and making sure that the solution you're looking at is an end-to-end solution for your network management needs.

I use it for a residential small business. I have a BR500 VPN Router and four WAC540 Access Points. I also have three GC108PP PoE Insight Switches and a fourth that is their bigger brother.

I now have the ability to remote access my network. That works extremely well. I can access it from any place. I don't need to be physically at the device. This saves me on time and travel.

I thought that the Insight management software would be more useful for me. It is a little difficult to navigate. I have ended up using the web GUI more than I do the Insight management.

I have some frustrations with the ease of use. It tends to be sluggish. The graphical interface is pretty, but not useful. They have this tree that shows connected devices, which makes no sense whatsoever because the labeling field of the tree truncates all the items to the point that it's almost useless. You can't even tell what it is. I would prefer a spreadsheet list of the gear as opposed to a graphical representation.

It is sluggish. If I go to reserve an IP address, it probably takes about 45 seconds, which doesn't seem like a lot. However, if you are trying to enter 60 devices, then it takes forever because each time you enter a device it has to reload and reset it, and that never takes effect until you reboot it. It just seems to be cumbersome.

I have used NETGEAR for the last nine months.

I have only had one concern in nine months. Some of the gear reset to default somehow. I don't know what happened, but that is what happened. I discovered it, fixed it, and it has never happened again. I live in a very old neighborhood. My house is 120-years-old. We have electrical issues. I don't know if it was caused by a brownout or blackout, but we have experienced both. So, it happened once, it cleared, and it's never happened again.

NETGEAR has been a very easy company to deal with. Everybody has been extremely helpful with whom I have crossed paths at the company, whether technical or sales. I wish I could afford to add a few more products to my system. Then, I would really love it.

I switched from Luxul based on my company's recommendation. Before Luxul, we were with Apple Enterprise.

NETGEAR Insight Access Points were far superior. That is kind of an unfair apples-to-apples comparison because I assume Luxul probably has managed switches and that sort of stuff, but I upgraded my class at the same time.

I found the initial setup straightforward. The product seemed to be self-discoverable. It also integrated well.

I deployed it in stages. I was replacing a competitive company's gear. I replaced the router first, then I replaced the access points, and then I replaced the switches. So, it was not all done at one time. This took about three hours.

I have actually had some concerns and problems with the setup. However, I am in somewhat of a unique location, which makes it pretty difficult.

The pricing seems to be reasonable.

Anybody who has the need or desire to move beyond consumer-grade, big-box, store available gear will be very pleased with this product.

For all the different models combined, I would give it an eight (out of 10).