Netgear WGR614 Wireless-G Router
by Netgear
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List Price: Our Price: $33.99 You Save: $25.00 (42%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $15.95 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Netgear WGR614 Wireless-G Router
Customer Review: No problems - 30 minutes later, surfing the web
Summary: 5 Stars
Background
When looking to replace my older Netgear 802.11b wireless router, I couldn't find ONE router with generally good reviews. They seemed to be all over the map - some people loved it - others hated it. Since I had good luck with my original Netgear, I decided to go with the Netgear brand and ended up buying three items from Amazon due to the deal they ran ($25 off) and the Netgear rebates. I purchased:
Netgear WG511 Wireless 802.11g PC Card
Netgear WG311 54 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter
Netgear WGR614 802.11g Wireless Router (version 6)
The PCI card was for my son's older, Windows 98SE PC, the PCMCIA card was for my work laptop (Win2K), and the router was for the family's main PC (XP SP2). We have a cable ISP (Optimum).
Router Installation
I uninstalled all hardware/software for the original router and followed the instructions as prompted by the installation software for the new router. I had absolutely no problems. I didn't even need to bring down any new firmware - I have "version 6" of the router which could make a difference I guess.
First Use
After stepping through the installation, logging on to the router, and setting the wireless encryption, etc. I was up and running on the main PC. It took no longer than 30 minutes.
Wireless Installs
The PCMCIA card install on my laptop was just as smooth. The card sensed the wireless signal (as well as a few other secure and unsecured networks in my neighborhood). I added the encryption key (WPA-PSK) and was off and surfing. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law were over and they both had their laptops (with non-Netgear wireless routers) and they were able to hop on the router after I gave them the encryption key. My son's PC - which I was expecting to be problematic due to it being 98SE - was smooth as well. His PC is in his room directly above the router and it grabbed the signal right away.
Wireless Use
As I mentioned above, we had 4 people wirelessly connected and they all were surfing as if hardwire connected. It was very impressive. I have not experienced any dropped signals nor have I had to reset the router in the past 3 weeks of daily use.
Price
I paid $118 for all three of the items together ($40 for the router), but I got $25 off immediately from Amazon and will be getting another $40 back from Netgear. So - $50 and change for the three of them.
Customer Review: Lot of great features...hardware issues....
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this for the faster 54Mb rate...it is fast. BUT a few problems or differences in expectations were encountered...I have used D-link, linksys, netgear, cisco, USR and belkin wireless products. The transmit strength on this compact WGR614 is pretty strong. maybe it's a factor of the 802.11G...it seemed to be as strong as the cisco gear which is phenomenal in itself. The wireless card from netgear for 54G is pretty strong also. I think belkin was the worst, followed up by USRobotics which was also pretty weak, then linksys, then d-link.
Connection was extremely easy. I just unplugged the D-link wireless and put in the Netgear. It found the internet automatically, configured itself for access and spoofed the mac address automatically. Something that is great for newbies.
MAJOR PROBLEM: I use my cable (comcast-which blows chow most of the time...) to access internet to use stock trading software and as such, is a streaming data stream through a VPN. This router claims VPN pass through...but unless you know which ports to open up..it makes it somewhat difficult to use "real" VPN because all you're doing is opening raw ports to the internet to IP addresses behind the router. This is a pretty big security concern IMO. I just moved all my data from the trading computer to another server that doesn't have ports open...but a pain nonetheless...
anyhow, back to the main problem. This netgear router tends to just stop routing...no joke. the connection lights with the internet remain ok, but the router just freezes, stops working and then works again in a few minutes...I've contacted tech support but the Netgear technical support is a complete joke. You wait on hold for 30 minutes (an eternity it felt like) EACH time and then get connected with India..yes, they outsource, and some of the tech folks in India speak faster english with major accents than some spitfire hispanics speaking spanish...needless to say, I had to remind them to slow down and enunciate so I could hear what they were saying..
Bottom line, tech support is a joke, if you have a problem. you're on your own...Ive upgraded the firmware TWICE now, even to the new unsupported "beta" to try and stop this freezing...to no avail. I've gone back to my old D-link and it works wonders...go figure...
I'm going to order one more netgear router and if that freezes too..then i think there is a hardware/firmware issue...
i'm jinxed folks :-)
Customer Review: Poor Performance, Intermittent Connections
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this wireless router because of the great deal on the rebate, and replace my older 11Mbps MR814v2 wireless router which worked like a champ. I've read the reviews mentioning the problems experienced by other users, but like many, I hoped that they were isolated cases.Installation and setup were straightforward. Plug in the power adapter and the wired clients and configure the router over the web-based configuration wizard. The September 30, 2003 (v3.39) firmware does not yet support WPA, so only WEP 64/128 bit is supported. There is a section on Advanced Wireless Configuration that shows the RTS Threshold, Fragmentation Size, Beacon Interval, DTIM, and Preamble Size, but the settings cannot be saved -- clicking on the Save button shows a JavaScript dialog with no message. The settings cannot be saved.
Unfortunately for me, this is where the good ended. Next came the bad, and the ugly.
The bad: Wireless LAN performance is very bad. Very, very bad. I have an Airport Extreme card on my iBook, and I only get a maximum of 300KBps when transferring from a PC connected to the router at 100Mbps. The same setup on my older MR814v2 gives me 510KBps, which is acceptable for 11Mbps. The main reason why I bought this router was to get faster transfer speeds in the first place. I get the same transfer rate whether the router is configured with WEP enabled or disabled, G-only mode, B-only mode, or B/G mixed mode.
The ugly: The wireless router _does_ "hang". Neither the wireless or wired clients will be able to "ping" the router. A reset is necessary to clear this problem. I've had to reset this router 3 times today during the "break in" test (I've had this only for 2 days now). This can be very, very bad if you want to access your PCs from the outside, and no one's around to reset the router.
Local LAN transfers starve the router, even at a measly 300KBps. Internet surfing is almost impossible. DNS lookups time out, pings to the gateway (ISP side) reaches 15-20s, etc.
Unfortunately, I can't return this router, because I had it brought here all the way to the Philippines. This is one bad purchase from Netgear, and so I am definitely staying away from their products. I made the decision to get the Netgear over the Linksys Wireless-G because of my satisfaction with the MR814v2, reviews that said it had superior performance to the Linksys Wireless-G, and that it was priced well. I guess you get what you pay for.
Customer Review: Best trouper of a router I have ever had
Summary: 5 Stars
I have used various routers over the years and they all have had their downsides (Dlink, buffalo with tomato and ddwrt firmware, belkin, Linksys) and I have always fell back onto this router. I think people have problems with diff rev numbers. I currently have a V7 version and it has worked flawlessly for me.
I plan on finding another one just like it to use as a replacement if this one ever kicks the bucket.
We have 10 devices in this house.
4 computers downstairs in my bedroom with 2 desktop's 1 web server on the built in DMZ and my netbook. All connected via LAN.
Wirelessly we have a Wii a media center PC, 3 laptops and a computer on the third floor that my sisters use. As well as my HTC touch pro when I need to connect via Wi-Fi on it when I am at home.
We have all been on at the same time with no hiccups whatsoever.
When we started to get more computers we upgraded to an N router by netgear that was nothing but a pain in the butt, would always drop the wan connection and would take 15 minutes of juggling between the cable modem and the router to get an external IP address.
I can unplug the wan port and reconnect it and get my external IP in 30 seconds. All the other routers used with my cable modem would take forever then drop when the wan release expired and would never renew.
I also use plenty of P2P applications and have never had problems with using torrents and bogging the router down. It is able to handle tons of connections and breathes by. I actually run out of disk cache space faster than this thing can send the data down into my computer.
Today because it was out of warranty I cracked it open and treated it with some copper heat sinks to keep the IC's nice and cool (I used non conducting thermal adhesive by 3M for the mounting.)
I also plan on using a dremel tool on the top to create a hole in which I can mount (with proper epoxy) a fan to keep everything nice and chilly. This router has been good to me and I decided I will return the favor.
Not bad for something I spent 40 bucks on in I think 07.
To the people having problems I wonder what version that you currently own. Like I said before I have the version 7 of this router and it has been flawless.
Customer Review: Buy this router!
Summary: 5 Stars
I read all the reviews here and elsewhere prior to deciding to buy this router. I have to say I am very impressed! I upgraded to this router from the MR814 802.11B router. This router is identical to the MR814 except that it's about 1/3rd the size! It literally fits in the palm of my very large hand!When I took it out and connected it, I found that I didn't need the software Cd that came with it as it is mostly just help files anyway and I was able to figure it out on my own.
Setup was a snap and I was done within 10 minutes.
Nice Features:
- 10/100mb WAN port! Most routers only have a 10mb WAN port. Odds are that your cable modem or DSL isn't faster than 10mb right now, but this router will support 100mb if you ever upgrade your connection! One thing to watch out for with this: The WAN port is set to Speed: Auto by default and some cable modems don't like that (mine didn't), so you go into the setup page and change the WAN port speed to 10mb on a simple drop down menu. This is documented in a separate notice in the box that you can't miss (good work Netgear).
- Tiny!! This thing literally takes a fraction of the desk real estate my old one did!
- FAST! I use this with a Netgear WG511 802.11G wireless laptop card and it is FAST! Connection speed is great even through 5 sheetrock walls (one floor Ranch style house).
If you're not a very technology saavy person (your kid has to program the VCR) then use common sense: READ THE HELP FILES ON THE CD!!! Netgear put quite a bit of info on the help files on the CD (which you can also get from their website). This router is not complicated to get going. All you have to do is follow directions.
Here is the general rule when setting up and troubleshooting router/broadband connections:
- Setup your router using the wizard in the setup web page
- once setup is done turn off EVERYTHING! That means that your Cable modem, router, and ALL pc's connected to the router should be turned off!
- Turn things back on in the following order waiting 30 to 60 seconds between each:
-Cable Modem
-Router
-PC
This will fix 99% of lost connection problems.
Overall, I'm thrilled with this router (did I mention it's tiny?).