Rating: 
Summary: Netgear WGR614 @ Bytesector.com
Review: Netgear has been connecting people with their networking products since 1996 when it was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Bay Networks Inc. In this review we will examine the latest wireless products for the home designed by Netgear. The WGR614 is a wireless router that supports the latest 802.11g wireless technology. Some of its key features are an auto-sensing 10/100 Mbps WAN/LAN connection, true firewall advanced security with SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) and NAT (Network Address Translation) - a simple, interactive installation, and backwards compatibility with 802.11b for wireless flexibility. This review will discuss whether this new innovative technology has the potential of appealing consumers. (full review @ bytesector.com)
Rating: 
Summary: 90 days of fun
Review: I'm computer savvy but don't know very much about networks. I was shocked, then, when I bought this router and a netgear wireless card and was up and running in minutes. For 3 months, it worked wonderfully, and I'm now hooked on wireless. But then, for no real reason, the router just stopped working. I couldn't get an answer from email or the website, and like other reviewers have mentioned, the tech-support is a joke (30 minute wait, can't understand them because it's outsourced in India, don't solve anything anyway). I was a huge Netgear fan for those first ninety days, and now I'll never buy another product from them again. Poor form.
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Summary: Worst tech support I've experienced; Couldn't use email
Review: 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 He said that the one I got was outdated.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.
Rating: 
Summary: I love my Netgear Router
Review: GREAT PLUG AND PLAY ROUTERI'm not sure what people are complaning about. My Netgear router works wonderfully. Setup--EASY EASY EASY . I plugged it in to the wall and my modem and that was it. My wireless LAN card picked up its signal immediately. I went through the instructions for setup anyway, but I already had a working signal so it was pretty unneccesary. Signal-- Works great! No slowdown is noticable from an ethernet connection. Plus, I get good signal strength all the way into my backyard. Give it a try. I'm really not sure what difficulties other reviewers are having.
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Summary: This is my first
Review: This was my first wireless network. I also bought the Netgear G notebook card. It took literally 2 minutes to start surfing. All of these people complaining about dropped signals are nuts. I have not had one drop yet. The one guy who could not get it turned on must have not plugged it in or somthing. Go Netgear.
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Summary: Frustrating!
Review: I bought this router and a Netgear PC card, and my first WIFI experience was one of the more frustrating of my life. The router would constantly drop the connection (every two hours or less), and would have to be reset manually (walking down to the router and pulling the power cord...repeat). I spent much time on the Netgear support lines, tried EVERYTHING they said, and the best answer I got was "interference." Bull. I bought a Linksys router after giving up on the Netgear, and the Linksys has not required a single reset. The Netgear PC card works great though. I have no idea if I got a damaged router or if they are all terrible, but I wouldn't bother with another Netgear router when the Linksys works so great.
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Summary: Highly unreliable product
Review: The firmware on this router is just terrible. While configuring it is very nice and easy, the router needs to be rebooted after every few hours of use or it will drop its wireless connection. Wired connections degrade in performance severely after about a day without rebooting. Unbelievable that Netgear released this product! Just Google for 'Problems with WGR614' and you'll find a vast array of complaints.
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Summary: Easy Install, Works Fine
Review: I thought that the installation for this would be horrific but it was very easy. The step by step instructions were easy to follow. About 10 minutes later I was surfing the internet without wires! One complaint that I have seen a lot of is when the router just stops. This was very aggrevating because I didn't know what was going on. After reading some the reviews and following the instructions some people gave, I went to Netgear's web site and downloaded the most recent firmware for the product and that seems to be working just fine!
Rating: 
Summary: Not completely without trouble
Review: This Review covers the WGR614v1 (by now there is a v2/3 and 4 on the market as well)
After upgrading the Firmware to 11.26 the router is performing stable.
Con:
- no firmware with WPA support to date
- I am not able to achieve expected speeds downstream (upstream is fine) with a Broadcom 54G mini-PCI card - I am able to get full speed with the WG511 card in the other laptop
Pro:
- Range is great
- Did not crash once on me
- Wireless connection is 100% stable (I use VPN so that is fairly important for me)
Rating:
Summary: Satellite Internet Wireless Link to Home Computers
Review: I purchased the WGR614 along with a Netgear WG511 54 Mbps wireless PC Card from Amazon. I use it to connect from my High Speed 2-Way DirecWay Satellite connection wirelessly to my Dell 8000 and Dell 8200 laptops, and my old Gateway desktop in my home. I purchased it primarily because I was told that some other 54 Mbps brands did not allow both b and g cards to be accessed at the same time on the same system. I installed the new g card on my 8200 with no problems at all but then when the entire system was up after about an hour I found that when using the g card on either of the laptops the other with a b card would not work. After a great deal of help from tech support we found that there is a conflict between the DirecWay DW6000 and the router. Both are addressed by http://192.168.0.1. We solved this by changing the address code for the router to 10.0.0.1 and BINGO everything was perfect. I highly recommend these products and the NETGEAR tech support system. They are the best money can buy at this time. I also found Amazon's service very good and responsive, and besides, they offered the lowest price (after rebates) I could find on the Web.
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