NETGEAR WNR834B-100NAS Wireless N Router
by Netgear
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of NETGEAR WNR834B-100NAS Wireless N Router
Customer Review: Good performer, excellent with DD-WRT firmware
Summary: 5 Stars
I have two of these routers/access-points, both of which were purchased off eBay.
I bought the first one in 2007 (it was a WNR834B v1) with the hope that the rangemax feature would give proper coverage in our two-story house. The router is upstairs, and I get good coverage upstairs, but very poor coverage downstairs. I routinely saw 130 Mbps transfer rates in the covered zone.
The built in QoS algorithms also worked well - I had a Vonage Telephone Adaptor connected to it, and later had my ooma hub connected to the WNR834B. At the same time, I had three other devices connected to the other ethernet ports on the WNR834B.
The poor range was the only complaint that I had about this router.
To overcome that, I connected a Netgear XE102 (poweline ethernet adapter) to the router and an electrical outlet upstairs, and an WGBX102 (wireless range extender) into an electrical outlet downstairs. Unfortunately the two stories of ourhouse are not the same electrical phase and therefore the WGXB102 and XE102 communicated erratically with each other very well. My lesson learned was to make sure that the two outlets to be used for the powerline ethernet adaptors are on the same phase before purchasing this system as a solution for poor wireless coverage.
Therefore, I decided to purchase a wireless repeater, to repeat the signal from the WNR834B. It was then that I read about alternate firmware available for the WNR834B (DD-WRT). So I purchased another WNR834B from eBay, and reflashed both the old and new routers with DD-WRT. The new router is a WNR834B v2.
The WNR834B upstairs that is connected to the cable modem is configured as an access point (AP). The WNR834B downstairs was configured as a wireless repeater. This worked well, with 130 Mbps throughput upstairs, and 65 Mbps for the repeated network. It is expected that throughput will halve for a repeated wireless network. The only problem with this setup is that the repeated network is on a different subnet than the network setup by the access point, so I changed the "wireless repeater" setup to a "repeater bridge" setup. This works beautifully - we have been using it for over a month now.
DD-WRT has so many additional features over Netgear's firmware that permit one to fine-tune various options such as QoS and security. The routers seem perfectly stable - and are not overheating even though the transmit power is upped from the default 28mw to 70mw.
Anyone who is considering the purchase of one of these routers should consider replacing the Netgear firmware (which works well), with DD-WRT (which works much better!).
Customer Review: Really should be tagged a beta product
Summary: 2 Stars
I lost two CAT5E wires inside our walls following a nearby lightning strike. I had no choice but to go wireless. I had a D-Link G adapter sitting around but it would not run under Vista and no drivers are planned. Fine, I thought, time to jump to the next gen technology - wireless N.
Some research led me to believe the Netgear router 834B was a good choice. I bought it along with two Netgear WN121T USB adapters and a WN311B PCI adapter. After 30 days of pain and suffering, I returned everything to the store for a refund.
I learned a few things:
1. The product works sometimes but is flawed. The main issue was our new Dells running Vista would lose their connection with the internet after waking up from energy saver mode. This does not happen under windows XP.
2. The router would fail to serve up an IP address sometimes, forcing me to reboot.
3. Netgear support is good - at using delay and denial to wear you down so you just give up...I got a "second tier" support response saying that all wireless PC adapters loose their session after waking up from hybernation.LOL...The PC I'm on right now is wireless B (Linksys) running XP and goes into hybernation. It does not lose its internet session after I wake it up. Another PC running XP did not exhibit the problem. It appears to be Vista related.
4. While the reported speed is apparently faster than Wireless G, I never got above 108 Mbps and often ran around 54mbps. Signal was strong in some parts of the house but even then I never saw the claimed 270MBps.
Bottom line, it works sometimes but is unpredictable and, therefore, not worth the $450 investment for all the gear. It did seem to work better under windows XP. The Vista drivers should be considered beta at this point.
Final note: I set up and supported networks for many years starting back with Token Ring and Netware. I feel I have skills beyond most folks not working in IT. It seems that, given a few months, the Vista bugs will get worked out but it may be that the current "Draft N" stays a draft until we see a shift in the implementation.
Bottom line: stick with wireless G and wired if you can. Of course, make sure the vendor for your wireless G offers Vista drivers for its older stuff. In looking for wireless G adapters the past few days I found many products with no Vista support or product on the shelves which are earlier versions with no Vista support.
Customer Review: East setup and excellent speed
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me say right off the bat that this applies to a home network with three relatively new computers (Windows XP) and the Netgear WN121T draft-N USB adaptors that are made for this product. I've seen a number of bad reviews for this router from people using older systems or mixed adaptors (different brands or mixing wireless-b or wireless-g), so I can't vouch for that setup, but I must say that I have been extremely pleased with this whole Netgear system. Years ago I installed an 802.11b network in the same location and it took hours of frustration, and numerous calls to tech support to finally get the thing to work. Times have changed and, in my case anyways, the setup wizard took care of the wireless router installation, connected me to the right place to upgrade the firmware, and the wireless adaptors on the upstairs computers then automatically found the network and connected on the first try. There was only one slight glitch on the setup when the program sensed that my internet connection used a static IP address. It asked if I thought this was correct and prompted "yes" or "no" (I chose no) and it then retried and determined correctly that my internet uses dynamic IP assignment. If not for that it was flawless. Total setup time for the router was about 20 minutes. Maybe 5 minutes for each of the USB adaptors.
Speed is palpably faster than on the old 802.11b network. In fact when I run a download/upload speedtest from the upstairs computers now I get almost no difference compared to my wired connection (about 6mbps). Running a game between home network computers is now totally lag free, which is a pleasant change.
One concern people seem to have is that the draft-N protocol may or may not be compatable (or even upgradable) to the N standard (when and if they ever get around to that). I decided not to wait for one simple reason. Since this draft-N seems to have all the speed I need, and I will not be needing to integrate other components in the next year or two, I couldn't care less if this ends up incompatable with the N standard. It's a great system and it's ready now. If you are setting up a large network that may need to be expanded in the near future you may be well advised to wait for the N standard to be finalized. But for a small home network, there's no real reason to avoid jumping in now.
Customer Review: Use a product wrong and you will never be satified! Use it properly and 5 stars will come shooting by!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am using this router for three computers. Desktop Vista Home Premium with integrated wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g, laptop #1 with Vista Home Premium with integrated wireless LAN 802.11n-draft and laptop #2 an ANCIENT Dell running XP with NO built in wireless connection (this one is running with the Rangemax Next Wireless-n USB 2.0 Adapter)
First I will start with the installation, I had to do this 3 times before I got it to run perfect. It came down to during set-up when you enter your IP addresses, if you check these on your system while you are running through a router you will be given "generic" addresses. You need to hook up directly to your servers module to get your addresses first.
After calling tech support (of my server...not Netgear) to get my IP addresses figured out, installation was a breeze! My router is in the basement and my desktop is on the main floor, 4/5 bars with the 802.11 a/b/g wireless LAN.
My new laptop with the 802.11n-draft...nothing but 5+ stars on that connection and signal! Simple and no need to enter IP addresses and no headaches!
My ancient Dell laptop...with the Rangemax Next Wireless-n USB 2.0 Adapter I get full strength signal all the way on the top floor! Nothing but smooth surfing!
I do agree with some of the hassle on the set-up, but my satisfaction with the end results out weighs my qualms with the hassles I had during set-up, this giving it a 5 star rating still...so imagine what it could have been if I had no set-up issues!
The poor reviews on this product might have to do with improper set-up, maybe the types of connections do not match, after all...a Pinto is still a Pinto even if you stick a Ferrari hood emblem on it! Your connection will only run as fast as your lowest connection. If you buy an N-draft router...make sure you have an N-draft connection on your computer as well! This will run with any connection, but don't DIS on the product if you don't have your expectations fulfilled when you might not be using the product to it's fullest potential! This only opens the door wider for faster connection speeds, you still need to have an equivalent connection speed on your computer to utilize this speed!
Customer Review: Lowered expectations
Summary: 3 Stars
I work out of a home office a couple of days a week and depend on a fast internet connection to my company's email server. I recently upgraded my Netgear Wireless G system for this Netgear Wireless N approach, expecting great things... faster and, importantly, a more dependable connection. There would be times during the day when my wireless connection would be dropped for a few seconds, but it always seemed to happen when I needed the connection the most!
Installing the new router couldn't have been simpler. It was a quick swap out of my old router and substituting the new one. I spent a minute or so logging into the router via a browser, setting up my encryption key and network name, then starting my remote computer and using the same settings. Voila! Nearly painless. My remote computer reported something like 260 MBPS connection speeds for the first hour or so and I thought I had solved my speed problems. Now, would it remain connected, with Wireless N's purported stronger signal?
After a few days, I noticed I had just as many dropped connections, if not more with Wireless N. When I hovered my mouse over the Netgear adapter icon, it would report a very low signal strength, yet the reported speed was up there - over 100 MBPS. I'd love to tell you that my download and upload times are noticeably faster, but they are not.
A new Acer netbook I purchased from Amazon will often only connect to my home network if I carry it into the same room as the router for a minute or so for a connection. Once the connection is made, I can take the netbook where I need to, so the signal strength of this router is not at all what I expected.
I have an attractive looking router, but that is about all I can say. It is a bit less dependable than my three year old Wireless G, takes up more vertical space near my cable connection and lights up the room at night with its flashing blue light. If you are looking for an upgrade over your Wireless G system, keep looking. I don't believe Netgear's implementation is there yet.