Netgear does not offer a Mac-Version for their ProSafe Plus Utility. Since it doesn't run reliably with Wine, you'll have to use virtualizers like Parallels or VirtualBox.
Netgear is offering his switch management software “ProSafe Plus” for Windows. And for Windows only. Well, they just might have not noticed that there is at least one other very popular operating system in the market. Such things happen.
The NETGEAR ProSAFE Plus Configuration Utility runs on a Windows-based computer and lets you configure and manage ProSAFE Web Managed (Plus) Series Switches in your network. Note: The configuration utility is installed on your PC and is only supported on MS Windows. Install the Configuration Utility To install the ProSafe® Plus Switch Configuration Utility: 1. Insert the Resource CD into a PC connected to the switch. Click on Install ProSafe Plus Utility and follow the prompts to install the program. We first used the Netgear Prosafe Plus Configuration Utility to find the switch on our network. The label mentioned above has the MAC address so we could either use the utility or find the IP address looking it up in our DHCP server. Netgear GSS116E – configuration utility. There are a few nice features that the switch has. Quick Start Instructions. download and install the ProSAfE Plus Configuration utility onto your PC. Connect your PC to the switch via Ethernet cable. Power the switch on. The utility tool will discover the switch. Select the switch you want to configure and click on the Apply button. You will be able to configure VlAN and QoS.
To still run ProSafe on a Mac and avoid the overhead involved by installing hardware virtualizing suits like “Parallels Desktop” or “VirtualBox”, I tried to use the compatibility layer software WINE to run ProSafe.
WINE
Prosafe Plus Configuration Utility Download
WINE requires XQuartz first, then Wine for MacOS can be installed. After that you can right click an arbitrary Windoze *.exe file and “open with…” Wine. Unfortunately, the ProSafe Plus Utility did not install smoothly. Had to restart the installation process a couple of times but could start the ProSafe Utility only once. Digging into Wine’s website winehq.org you will find that other users already reported about problems with the installation of ProSafe. To sum it up: No easy way this time. Let’s do it the hard way.
VirtualBox
The hard way means that you will have to use a hardware virtualizer like VirtualBox or Parallels Desktop. And, apparently, you will need Windoze. Luckily, I had an old Windoze 7 installation CD lying around. The first step is to install the free virtualizer VirtualBox by Oracle. The installation process is pretty straightforward and to just run the ProSafe Utility you should be fine with the standard settings suggested by the installer.
You will, most likely, have assigned an ISO-Image of your copy of Windoze during installation. After VirtualBox has been installed, start the Windoze Virtual Machine and get your copy of Windoze installed in the Virtual Machine. That might take some time. After successful installation of Windoze you can reboot, log into your Windoze account and install Netgear’s ProSafe Utility.
Prosafe Plus Utility For Mac
After installation of the ProSafe Utility fire it up and, if all went well, you might see a screen similar to the following one. The ProSafe utility scans the network and will list all discovered switches. My switch, a GS108PEv3, hast been found and I am, finally and after all that hassle, ready to configure the switch.