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Netgear WGR614 Wireless 802.11g Router

Netgear WGR614 Wireless 802.11g Router

List Price: $84.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works great with comcast cable
Review: Just plug the thing in and go! The admin controls are great and security is tight. You can do alot to protect this network, more and easier than I have seen on other routers. Stop SSID brodcast, mac address filering is very easy, you do not need to type that long string a digits. Just connect and let hub will put the mac address in the connect pull with a click of the buton. I have version three with the latest firmware.
Very fast and does not go down at all.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: stay AWAY!!!!!
Review: I bought two of these routers. I bought a WGR614v1 and also a WGR614v2. The first router WGR614v1 works but its very slow. The 2nd router WGR614v2 doesn't work at all. I tried to get it to work with my cable modem at one residence and also with my static ip dsl at another residence. I called tech support numerous times. Each time I had to wait 30+ minutes. They just kept telling me how to do the same thing that's in the directions! And then they told me to upgrade the firmware. I upgraded to v3 and also v4. Neither of them worked. I know I'm not doing anything stupid because it works with the first router. Oh and now its been 30 days and I can't return it. Don't they do QA testing before they release a product??

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Poor Performance, Intermittent Connections
Review: 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.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Performs well with SBC DSL under WIN98SE in Chicago
Review: After two weeks of research, I decided to go with the Netgear router. Set-up is easy IF you check other users' experience with SBC DSL (Ameritech in Illinois) prior to install. Follow the instructions in the trifold installation guide. Be certain not to allow the ENET program and SBC Connection Manager to load. Once a connection is established, you can remove the ENET software, but do not delete the Connection Manager. Within a few hours you will lose your connection, but the Connection Manager software will allow you to analyze your settings and detect the router between the CPU and the modem. It will then update the settings appropriately. I would not recommend uninstalling the SBC Connection Manager while using the router, however.
The total time spent getting the router to work was less than 20 minutes. When I upgrade to WinXP Home, I anticipate that setup will be even smoother.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Run, don't walk from NetGear!!!
Review: I purchased a WGR614v2, and for about 2 weeks it continually had intermittent problems. In many tests, I finally narrowed it down to it's inability to handle large amounts of file transfers/packets.

I upgraded the firmware, and the problem still persisted. I opened up a trouble ticket with Netgear and they advised me that the router was defected and to return it for a replacement. I went back to CompUSA, and received a replacement (no problem from CompUSA). This time I received a WGR614v3.

The same exact problem persists with this new router. After another 2 hours with tech support from Netgear, they advised me to return this one and to try again! Infact, they even advised me to get a WGR614v2 instead of a WGR614v3! I'm afraid not! 2 routers out of 2 are defective! That doesn't say much for their QC or their products in general.

To emphasis that it IS their router(s) that are defective, I can connect to neighbors APs (Linksys and Actiontec) with no problem what-so-ever! It is only when I connect to a NetGear AP, that this problem exist.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Netgear = Hassle + Indian offshoring (defective router)
Review: I bought this as a replacement for my wired linksys router. The linksys worked like a champ for the past 2 years, but I now have a wireless laptop to roam about the casa. I figured wireless-G was the way to go instead of feneygling with Cat-5 ethernet cable over 50 feet. Well, the problems began soon after I installed the netgear router; the wireless laptop AND a wired desktop kept loosing the internet. My internet was fine and rarely dropped in the past, so I knew it was due to Mr. Netgear.
After dealing with a customer support center set up somewhere in g-d knows where bangalore/new delhi [place], Netgear "tech support" concluded the router was defective. Great. I now had to ship the puppy back to them (on my dime)--luckily within the US of freakin A.

The 2nd router arrived and works fine...knock on mouspad...

I guess I'm just a tad upset over the hassle of dealing with a faulty product that plenty of other fine folks are experiencing as well. Oh well, I was duped into this one's good looks and rebate offer.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Decent while its connected
Review: It appears to be a good product for some and troublesome for others. After reading the reviews I took a gamble hoping that it will work for me especially at the amazing price after rebates. Unfortunately my WGR614 had a few of the problems that others were encountering.

First, using Netgear WG511 pc card and router after the initial setup the connection lasted about 3 days before I had to do my first reboot of the device. Following the next few days the connection wouldn't last from morning to evening without a reboot. Second, after disabling SSID broadcast it would still broadcast the name. Instead of waiting until it disconnects every hour on the hour like others have experienced I decided to return it. While it was connected the performance was very good with 54mbps at times, so it stated on the configuration utility. Haven't decided which router to go with next, most likely Linksys.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Had a little difficulty...but that's my fault
Review: I bought Netgear's WGR614 router and WG511 pc card from Amazon. I don't have multiple computers to setup, but spent couple of long hours debugging the problem I had during my notebook setup. I checked the 'Turn on Access Control', but forgot to add the wireless device list to router and saved the settings. After this blunder, I lost connection to the router from my wireless pc. Then I resorted to wired connection for debugging and after spending couple of long hours in changing various settings on router, reinstalling my wireless pc card drivers, switching wired and wireless connections ... I noticed my mistake, fixed it and voila.. I got the connection back! Hey, but this is not a problem with either the router or the pc card... they both work fine and are good as of now! Yet to setup WEP encryption ... donno what problems I will run into.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: When it works, cool. When it doesn't, not cool.
Review: I got this router a month ago to hook up a desktop mac and two wireless systems; ibook and imac. Netgear's tech support for the Mac sucks. I knew more than they did. Once the router was working with the desktop, the wireless stuff was brainless. I did have a problem, but since the router worked, tech support would just say that I had to call Apple.

Any, I am returning the router because the wireless line drops everyday. I have to unplug and router and plug it back in to bring the wireless connections back up. With all that's going on in life, I don't have time to baby sit a router.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Serious Issues with this Router
Review: Your mileage may vary, but I feel the pain of the reviewer who went through two routers already. Been there. Doing that. I bought the WGR614 as an upgrade to my MR814, which ran like a champ. I had visions of blistering-fast wireless speed dancing in my head, since my Dell X300 has fast wi-fi built in.

Set-up was a no-brainer on the first WGR614, but it croaked fifteen minutes later--just up and died. Amazon's great return policy had a new one on my doorstep two days later. This one isn't dead, but weeks later I am concluding that it is definitely ill. At least once a day I have to reset all of its information entirely. Several times an hour, the router drops the connection--last night I was walking a staff member through a long Web-based project, and realized what a nightmare this router is in terms of reliability. I have a rock-steady DSL connection, so that's not the problem (if I take the router out of the equation, all's well, but then, of course, I don't have wireless access for the other PCs in the house).

I've switched the channel on my wireless phone and twiddled with other settings, but that didn't help. Yes, it's fast, it's easy to set up, and it's compact. If yours is working, mazel tov. I just don't have the patience any more. I'm going to admit defeat and turn this in for another brand, and get by in the interim with my older router. I've been loyal to Netgear, and tried hard to stay loyal with this purchase, but I can't. (You can check my other Amazon reviews--I'm pretty generous with stuff I like.) I need a router that works. Try again, Netgear.


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