Gigabit taps purchased before 3/1/2016 may experience one or both of the following issues:  Packets transmitted by the tap may not always be received correctly by the equipment connected to the tap.  This typically presents itself as a slowdown in the network speeds.  Secondly, the Broadcom chip that the tap is based on may wrongly enter a low power green mode, where traffic to one or all ports will stop completely.  The fix for the first failure mode is to add a bypass capacitor, and the second failure is prevented by a firmware update.  

If your tap has a revision marking on the bottom, on the FCC label, your tap already has the fix.  For earlier taps, we will fix your tap for free.  Email us to schedule your upgrade; we will repair and return your unit for free (and typically on the same day we receive it).  We can arrange a free loaner if you need one.  I recommend that you get your tap upgraded even if you're not seeing problems, because you may not be aware of intermittent retransmissions unless you are looking for them.