I was after a small, “not ugly” switch recently to square away the various devices in the study and the lounge (consoles, laptops, you know the drill).

I found this one online, and thought it had “the look” – and it does. The rounded edges, effective use of coloured lights for status, and small stand clips give this a nice appearance that doesn't horrify people if they see it in a media temple in your home :)

Setup was painless as you'd expect – after all, it's just a switch. Clip on the (optional) stands, plug in power, and viola – five ports of gig speed access. It correctly auto detected the speed and duplex of connected devices including TVs, PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles, and a Mac.

Performance seems fine – it's hard for me to push this all the way to gig speeds as my devices throughout are connected with Powerline, so I don't have true gig to everything, but the switch does max out what it gets.

So why only four stars, not five- Well, someone in their accounting team probably figured they'd save a few coins by not including an Ethernet cable in the box. The other Netgear equipment I've got (PowerLine adapters all over the house) all came with an Ethernet cable – not this one. You'll need a cable for all devices as well as the uplink. Minor glitch, but there you go.

I purchased this Specific Ethernet Box for it's specific Style.. I didn't want an ugly Ethernet box. Fast delivery but it did not have the slick clear style casing I was expecting to get & I Payed for… It was a thicker case & different style all together. I would not have purchased it if I had have Known it would look the way it does & not the one as displayed…! since I needed this item for business uses I just had to use it.. I couldn't return how ever MightyApe customer support was very understanding of my frustration on not getting the item that was as displayed they gave me a part refund upon sending photos back to them of the item I had received.. Since customer support was very helpful & understanding they said it was a suppliers mistake going out of stock & not sending updated pictures to Mightyapes web site & gave me a part refund I gave 2 stars review instead of a 1 star.