Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 40
 Very Good Mid-Range Wireless Router April 29, 2010
Matthew K. Morgan (Ruther Glen, VA USA)
62 out of 63 found this review helpful
I recently purchased one of these routers as a replacement for my Linksys WRT54GL, a stalwart in the realm of home networking. My Linksys router is healthy and it works but it does not allow me to set up DHCP reservations without a 3rd party firmware update, and it does not support Wireless-N. After searching for a good balance between functionality, quality and price I settled on this router by NetGear. So far I am very pleased with this unit, though I had some minor issues when setting it up.
Setup of NetGear routers (including this one) is simple and easy. There are two methods of setting it up, using the Wizard CD or going in manually. For users not too familiar with setting up wireless networks or routers, using the CD to get started is a good option. More seasoned users may prefer to work without the CD and work directly with the router. I chose the latter of the two. Even so, tapping in and finding any given setting is relatively easy, everything broken down into several pages. Because the router configuration is accessed through a browser, manipulating the router configuration is very much like accessing a web page and should feel familiar.
The factory-default username, password, and access address are printed right on the router itself so there is no risk of losing this information at any point.
I connected 3 laptops, one at a time, to the wireless network and encountered my only difficulty with moving to this router. Because I retained the network name and key I expected the swap to be seamless and mostly invisible, but my systems each complained when tried to connect, stating that the network configuration had changed even though I retained the settings, the type, key and everything else. To get each system working I had to delete the connection completely, then I allowed each to redetect wireless networks available. Two of them came up without any further incident, but one of the laptops required a reboot before it would properly connect.
Signal strength is important when it comes to wireless networks. My Linksys router gives me very strong signal strength, and I was fearful that this new NetGear router would lack the same power to broadcast. Happily, it broadcasts brightly enough that I have had no problems with connectivity due to losing signals. It is *at least* on par but seems to be stronger. My router lives on the second story of the house, while my personal laptop is in the basement.
As soon as the router was configured and provided a connection to the internet, I logged in ang got a surprise - it is configured by factory default to look for firmware updates every time I log in. This is fine as logging into the router becomes an infrequent activity after a while, though up front it can be annoying to have to wait for it to download and then update itself.
I have had no connectivity issues or drops since setting this router up.
The DCHP reservation and MAC filtering work well, which are the two advanced features about which I care most.
Something I have not seen in any other router up to this point is a USB port. According to the documentation, the router can be set up to provide persistent storage through the network by simply connecting a USB hard drive (or even a thumb drive) to it. I have not tried this but I absolutely plan to put this to work, which will make sharing files between the different computers simple without having to make several copies. It should be noted, though, that this could be a risky practice if using to access the same file frequently from multiple points.
Looking through the options that can be set up, I found a keyword-based page filter, QoS settings and a lot of other features I have not previously seen. For a mid-range wireless router this one has a generous set of features. Of course, the standard features are there - firewall, MAC filtering as mentioned above, different encryption key types and a lot more too.
This is a very nice router with a nice feature set. It is very easy to set up, easy to configure once it's running, and so far has proven to be stable. If you need more than a basic wireless router, consider this one as a good candidate.
Built with open source in mind April 19, 2010
Thomas Johnson (Redmond, WA USA)
23 out of 25 found this review helpful
It's great to have a router out there that recognizes that customers just want the freaking thing to work, and don't care who wrote or maintains the firmware. With that in mind, I bought this router to replace another Wireless-N router that was simply a nightmare, with glitchy firmware from two years ago, and will now find a new home or function via Craigslist or something.
I was up and running using the stock firmware in about 5 minutes, accessing the router configuration page and setting up a secure wireless network. I didn't try any of the quick-install software - usually like to just set the thing up myself without putting any software on my machine, and for this it worked perfectly.
More importantly, this router is open-source-firmware ready, so if for any reason the stock firmware fails me, I'll have an option out there to try, as opposed to the endless struggles of my prior router.
My setup includes a wired WHS, a Snow Leopard wireless-N macbook, a wireless PC using a 'G' card (Win7), another wireless laptop also using G, a Wii, an XBox using a wired connection, and another wired media-center PC, running Win7, and an iPhone 2G. Powers everything without flaw.
Amazing! April 14, 2010
Nathaniel Brown
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I was looking for a quality Wireless N router with gigabit connections and DD-wrt compatible. This fit the bill, so I grabbed one to try out. I've tried a Linksys (320N) and a D-link to much disappointment, but this Netgear performs flawlessly. I downloaded dd-wrt firmware for it and never tried the stock Netgear stuff ([...]). DD-wrt performs flawlessly on this! No drops, great signal strength. Took me maybe 20 minutes to set up, from opening box to getting everything online. I run 3 desktops wired, one desktop wireless, and 2 wireless laptops and they all connect without issue. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for Wireless N. I have not tried the USB functionality, as all my data is shared through my computer already.
Super Easy Setup, even for Amature like me May 30, 2010
Roger S. (Oak Creek, Wisconsin United States)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
This is the first wireless home setup I have attempted, so I knew nothing about anything. I'm running Vista on a 3GHz Pentium with RR cable internet. The install instructions were clear and easy to follow, it was virtually plug and play. In about 20 minutes I was up and running, and my Wii system was on the internet. Decided to set up the wireless before I buy a laptop. I highly recommend this router to everyone, easy enough to use for people like me, and my friends who actually know what their doing tell me it would be a great router for them also.
Works great as a wi-fi repeater June 7, 2010
sloant (Texas)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This router can more than pay for itself in a hurry. My main internet connection is in the study, but with more and more home theater products building in the capability for internet access it makes sense to have a networking hub in the den. I didn't want to wire my house, so instead I bought this router and used DD-WRT to set it up as a repeater bridge. The best part is that even though my 2-wire router from AT&T (I have u-verse) does not "play nice" with repeaters, DD-WRT can do it anyway. So, now I have this router set up in the den and it serves to provide wired internet access to my xbox360, samsung blu-ray, and in the future, who knows what.
Setup was not entirely simple, as I had to play around with the DD-WRT options to get it to work with the 2-wire, but it wasn't bad.
I balked a bit about paying $90 for this, but after avoiding buying a wi-fi adapter for the xbox ($80) and paying up for a blu-ray with built-in wifi ($50+), it has already paid for itself. Plus, now I have much better wi-fi coverage for my house and backyard.
Great product.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 40
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