AO,
I think this might be a rare occasion where I have to show support for Mr Bracknell.
Whilst his choice of "pikey" might not have been ideal, the point he was trying to get accross is that when faced with "budgetary constraints", particularly when faced with a home user, it is often a lot quicker to say "buy Netgear" than spend time trying to justify Cisco/Juniper/whatever.
Netgear have been around for a while, and the stuff they churn out is probably as good as you'll get in the "much-of-muchness" environment of the el-cheapo end of the IT market.