netgear-tool

A Python SDK and interactive CLI for Netgear Smart Managed Plus switches — no browser required.

These switches have no REST API, no SSH, and no serial console. This project reverse-engineers the HTTP web UI shared by the Netgear Smart Managed Plus switch family to provide a clean Python interface and a Cisco IOS-inspired shell.

Verified hardware

The following hardware has been confirmed working end-to-end with all read and write operations:

Other Netgear Smart Managed Plus switches that share the same web UI (GS108Ev3, GS116Ev2, etc.) are expected to be compatible. Please open an issue if something doesn't work on your hardware.

Installation

pip install netgear-tool

After installation, the netgear CLI command is available and the netgear_tool Python package is importable:

from netgear_tool import Switch, PortSpeed, RateLimit

The legacy module name netgear_switch is still importable as a backward-compatibility shim.

Files

Requirements

pip install netgear-tool

No other dependencies beyond requests. HTML parsing is done with regex against the known page structure.

Quick start — SDK

Use make_switch() to auto-detect the model and firmware version:

from netgear_tool import make_switch, PortSpeed, RateLimit

with make_switch('192.168.0.1', password='secret') as sw:
    print(sw.model, sw.firmware)   # e.g. 'GS305E', 'V2.6.0.48'

    # Read system info
    print(sw.get_system_info())

    # Port status
    for port in sw.get_port_settings():
        print(port)

    # Configure a port (use Switch() directly if make_switch isn't needed)
    sw.set_port(1, speed=PortSpeed.AUTO, fc_enabled=True)

    # Rate limiting
    sw.set_rate_limit(3, RateLimit.M64, RateLimit.M128)

    # 802.1Q VLANs
    sw.set_dot1q_enabled(True)
    sw.add_vlan(10)
    sw.set_vlan_membership(10, '11112')   # ports 1-4 untagged, port 5 tagged
    sw.set_port_pvid(1, 10)

See docs/sdk.md for the full API reference.

Quick start — CLI

netgear 192.168.0.1
# or directly:
python3 cli.py 192.168.0.1

GS105Ev2# show interfaces
GS105Ev2# configure terminal
GS105Ev2(config)# loop-detection
GS105Ev2(config)# vlan 10
GS105Ev2(config-vlan-10)# exit
GS105Ev2(config)# interface gi1
GS105Ev2(config-if-gi1)# switchport access vlan 10
GS105Ev2(config-if-gi1)# exit
GS105Ev2(config)# end
GS105Ev2# show vlan
GS105Ev2# show running-config

Commands can be abbreviated to their shortest unambiguous prefix (conf t, sho int, sw acc vl 10, etc.).

See docs/cli.md for the full command reference.

What is supported

Read operations

• System info (firmware, MAC, IP, model, serial)
• Switch configuration (name, IP/DHCP settings)
• Port settings (speed, duplex, flow control)
• Port statistics (TX/RX byte counters, CRC errors)
• Rate limits (ingress/egress per port)
• Port mirroring
• IGMP snooping
• Loop detection
• Broadcast filtering
• QoS mode
• Power saving (Green Ethernet) — read-only; see firmware note below
• 802.1Q VLAN (IDs, membership, PVIDs)
• Cable diagnostics (TDR)

Write operations

Everything listed above except power saving, plus:

• Factory reset
• Reboot
• Password change

Known firmware issues

Power saving (Green Ethernet) — GS105Ev2 firmware V1.6.0.24

set_power_saving() is implemented and the POST succeeds, but the switch ignores the request — a subsequent GET always returns the hardware-controlled state. This appears to be a firmware limitation on the GS105Ev2: the web UI shows the toggle but the hardware drives the actual state. The method is provided for completeness; it may work on other models or firmware versions.

Ports cannot be fully removed from VLAN 1

The firmware silently rejects any attempt to set a port's VLAN 1 membership to '3' (not-a-member). Ports that are access members of another VLAN remain as tagged members of VLAN 1 in the firmware — they simply have their PVID set to the access VLAN so untagged ingress traffic is steered correctly. The CLI's show running-config hides this detail and displays such ports as access ports on their PVID VLAN.

Protocol notes

The switch uses an HTTP web UI on port 80. All pages are at /<name>.cgi.

• Reads: GET /<name>.cgi with a valid SID cookie — state is embedded in HTML <input type="hidden"> form elements (not JavaScript variables).
• Writes: POST /<name>.cgi — every POST must include a session-specific CSRF hash value extracted from the page's GET response.
• Authentication: MD5(merge(password, rand)) where rand is a nonce provided in a custom HTTP response header and hidden form field.
• Session cookie: The SID value contains RFC 6265-invalid characters that Python's http.cookiejar silently drops. The SDK works around this by extracting the SID from the raw Set-Cookie header.
• Single-session limit: the switch allows only one active session at a time. The SDK always calls logout() (via the context manager) to free the slot.

License

GNU General Public License v3.0