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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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Netgear WGR614 Wireless-G Router
Customer Review: Easy to install, works 24x7 without interruptions
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this modem in Feb'05 and it has been working flawlessly for the last year, always switched on, used for atleast 2-3 hours a day. (Sorry about being late in writing this review, but I beleive in fully using the product before writing a review)
The installation was very smooth, the installer CD comes with a auto-installer which will communicate with your DSL modem and does almost 100% of the things by itself.
Before you start configuring your wireless router, do make sure that you have the correct DSL internet username and password on hand and you have tested the internet connection with the Model ALONE before you test with the wireless router.
I am surprised that there are so many negative reviews on this wireless router. If there are installation problems with the netgear wireless router, there are very few reasons why it could be:
* Your DSL modem is not configured property
- DSL modem settings are pretty complex, if you mess it up, press the 'Reset' button to get it loaded with factory defaults
- Did you check if the default IP Address of your DSL model does not conflict with the IP address of the wireless router(http://192.168.1.1) - if it does, you can always change the IP address of your DSL modem
* Did you verify that you have provided your internet username and password correctly ?
I tried using this wireless router with two modems -
(1) Speedstream 5100 : Works like a charm
(2) Huawei SMARTAX-MT-800 : I tried using this modem with the Netgear wireless in India, but for some reason, I could never get the wirelss router married to the Huawei DSL modem. I finally had to throw away the Huawei SmartAX and swith over to the Speedstream.
After switching to speedstream 5100, the combo of netgear wireless with the speedstream has been working 24x7, without any issues.
Customer Review: Worst tech support I've experienced; Couldn't use email
Summary: 1 Stars
I connected this router to a cable modem and was able to connect both my desktop and notebook to the internet, but my email system (Outlook) would not work through the router. I called Netgear tech support (15 minute wait), which appears to be an out-sourced call center in India (really) and the person walked me through all sorts of things. I could barely understand his English, and he got testy with me when I asked him to repeat things. Anyway, he gave up after 30 minutes, and said I'd have to upload new firmware to the router. He said that the one I got was outdated. I tried downloading and installing new firmware, and the router wouldn't except any update. I called the next day to see if someone else could get my Outlook/email to work. Again, a person with an Indian accent tried to help for a few minutes, but gave up and suggested I call a number and pay Netgear for more thorough dedicated customer support. That irritated me, so I disconnected the router and tried to restore my system directly to the cable modem. Guess what? The Netgear router had changed my settings and now I couldn't even get access to the internet, let alone email. I called my cable company and they had to walk me through the process of changing everything back. All in all, it took me about five hours to try and get the Netgear system to work. If you are not proficient with networking, I suggest not buying this product. I'm computer savvy, but not network savvy. I expect the software and user guide to walk me through installations. Obviously the software failed, and Netgear only includes a user guide on disk, which is hard to use when you are dealing with online installation processes. My last comment...would you believe that their tech rep said he would email me the firmware update, eventhough I couldn't access email (that was why I was calling him). Worst computer experience I've ever had. I sent the router back.Customer Review: Do not buy this router.
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought a Netgear WGR614 (version 6) router to front-end a pair
of networks connecting to Comcast cable. The network was
already up and running, I simply wanted to swap out an Airport
Extreme that was working fine in that location.
The Netgear WGR614 was easy to configure.
The problem is the Netgear WGR614 can't handle any reasonable
DNS load. If I connected my laptop directly to the Comcast
network, I could get DNS answers from Comcast's servers as fast
as I could send them. If I put the Netgear WGR614 between my
laptop and Comcast, 1 or 2 out of each 10-15 DNS requests would
time out. If I connected the mail servers to the Netgear
WGR614, 5 out of 10 DNS requests would time out, and I would
often see strings of 10-20 DNS requests time out in a row. This
was severely damaging to the network: browser URL lookups would
fail, host lookups for spam filtering would fail, and so on.
Netgear support was easy to get in touch with, and initially
responsive. However, once we got through the basics (is the
power on?) all they could suggest was manually configuring all
of the computers behind the router to use static routes to the
name servers (which I wasn't willing to do, and, in a simple
test failed to fix the problem), or upgrade the firmware to a
beta release, version 1.0.7. I did upgrade the firmware, but
it had no effect at all on the problem.
Netgear support told me twice they would escalate my support
case to "level 2", but after each escalation, I never heard
from them again.
Remember the Airport Extreme had no problem working in this
location? After Netgear support failed to fix the problem, I
bought a Linksys WRT54G, it handles the DSN request load just
fine!
Customer Review: New v6 has serious installation issues
Summary: 1 Stars
As the owner of an earlier WGR614 version 3 (which I really like - it ain't perfect but I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars), I figured helping my friend install a new version 6 one would be a piece o' cake. I was way wrong, and even taking the new v6 home to my house and trying to swap it with my well running v3 was a disaster (to sum up -> 2 locations, 2 v6 routers, 3 computers, no success).
The first WGR614 v6 had a couple serious problems with install:
1. Automated setup failed with message that "Network settings are incorrect" (er, well, they're what was in the manual)
2. Tried direct admin - no page using either IP or routerlogin.net
3. Figured a reset was in order, but the device wouldn't reset to factory settings using procedure in manual (returned this specific router for a new one - same model and version).
With the new one (that would factory reset), the problems continued as the installation software gave me the following problems
1. Ethernet card was not working (it was)
2. Claimed I had a fixed IP address from my ISP (I don't)
At this point I punted on using any part of the automated setup and simply logged in directly (with my "non-working" ethernet card).
Unfortunately, the issues continued here as the v6 router wouldn't get an IP from ISP, despite using the same settings I was using for my v3 router.
Swapping the v3 for the v6, and everything works. Trying the v6 again, no dice.
Netgear doesn't have great technical support (typically you will get a form letter type response based on the keywords the tech support person sees in your message - they don't seems to actually read the whole e-mail), and with a product that has all sorts of install issues it'll be a crapshoot on whether this will work for you. For me, it's going right back to the store.
Customer Review: A decent G-router for the money
Summary: 4 Stars
A few weeks ago I purchased this router for a wireless connection with my Nintendo Wii. Needless to say after everything is done, it works great. However setting the router up was another story, and as a forewarning I will say that it does not complete the setup if you have a firewall or parental filter active. I had to have a friend come over and shut off my Safe Eyes filter as well as Zone Alarm so I could finish the setup. It generally takes 15-20 minutes on the average computer to finish everything. It then gives you an option to password protect and WEP your connection.
After the router is active it lets you test your browser (and yes it does work with all browsers). I then could log onto the Wii shop channel from my Wii. Download time is fairly fast, at approximately 1 minute per d/l.
Now, a few weeks into it, I notice that my internet connection frequently and intermittently drops and I must wait 10-15 minutes before it will come back. Sometimes unplugging and plugging in both the router and the modem helps but not always, nor does restarting the computer. A person just has to sit and wait it out (make a sandwich or something).
This can get irritating but in the past I have also had this happen with Linksys G-routers, though not as frequently. And it seemed with the Linksys it was always predictable as it happened late at night, around 1 or 2 AM. The Netgear will drop out whenever it wants to, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day.
So even though the performance is not perfect, it's a nice little unit, doesn't look gaudy or cheap, and the design is simple and sleek. I would rate it a 3.5. The price is decent and if you're like me you can pick it up used for a little cheaper.
I would recommend this over the Belkin routers in an instant. I've heard nothing but problems about those guys.