Thats not my experience of unmanaged switches. Unmanaged switches react to the speed that the network card requires, therefore, when you force 1Gb then the switch should react accordingly and provide a 1Gb LAN.
The emphasis is one the 'should' here. I have done it on my LAN here before commenting and it has worked. If however, it doesn't work, then as from_exp suggests, there may be an issue with the switch and possible compatibility problem with the NIC card. I have seen this with other unmanaged switches but only with poor branded ones, not Netgear.
If it is the switch, don't forget that Netgear provide a long guarantee on some items and lifetime on others. Unfortunately their site is down, so I cannot check the warranty on that particular model.
Interestingly, the NIC is IEEE 802.3 compliant, whereas the switch is IEEE 802.3ab compatible, so there is the possibility of there being a problem, but I would expect the 802.3ab standard to be backwards compatible.
Snibborg
