Netgear MR814 802.11b Wireless 4-Port Cable/DSL Router

Rating:
Summary: Newbie Network
Review: Bought this router and the Netgear MA401 wireless PCMCIA card to network the DSL from my emachine in the basement to my Dell laptop in the bedroom. Setup was simple with only minor glitches due to my DSL provider being Verizon and their PPoE setup. If not for Verizon I'm sure setup would have been a breeze! I get 100% signal two floors up! Have to restart the network once or twice a day, due to getting kicked off by Verizon, I'm sure! It's no big deal to do, but it's annoying! I know virtually nothing about networking and it was easy and simple to get my network up and running!

Rating:
Summary: Works like a charm
Review: Installation was a snap - took less than 10 minutes. It's very simple to setup and configure. The range is excellent too. There's some minor interference with my 2.4GHz cordless phone, but barely noticeable. This is a well designed product that will look good even on your desk. I like it.

Rating:
Summary: excellent product
Review: This is just a great product. I had tried to install the SMC router because it was on sale at Fry's for fifty bucks, but the signal strength was low and it would not interoperate properly with my other access point (e.g. laptops connected to different APs could not see each other). I installed this one and everything worked fine, first time. The range is double the SMC. I'm only using it as a wireless/Ethernet bridge so I can't comment on the router/firewall functions.

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Summary: Great with Macintosh Computers
Review: I set this up last night with a Powerbook 3400 Bronze using an Orinoco Gold PC card, and an iMAC using an airport card. Including the router and two wireless cards, the whole system co... took about an hour to set up (this is the first home network I have ever set up). The interface for setup is clean and easy to use. Be sure to use the on-screen instructions in the right frame of the setup screen (if I had used them to set up my wireless control I could have been done in 30 minutes!!). I placed the router on the main floor of 3-story house and my signal strenght is good both upstairs and in my basement. The sleek design fits well in my living room since I also connected an ethernet cable to my RCA HD61W140 digital TV with built-in browser and can surf on the big screen while watching hockey. Life is good.

Rating:
Summary: Netgear MR814 802.11b Wireless 4-Port Cable/DSL Router
Review: Just installed this product yesterday. Installation was a breeze. I also got the wireless USB adapter for my desktop and connectivity was a breeze as well. Based on my experience (1 day) I would recommend this.

Rating:
Summary: MR814
Review: I bought this as my first WI-FI router. I am not a techie and found this easy to set up - One quick call to their tech center (Located in India) and it was up and running in less then an hour. The firewall was tested and workes to the 'T'. I highly recommend this as a wireless connection.

Rating:
Summary: Great router beams through my entire house
Review: The installation of this router was so easy that I was (almost) sure something MUST be wrong.

My only complaint is that the instruction manuals do not have some pertinent information that I would like (for example, secure connections, sharing devices, etc.).

Otherwise, I would highly recommend this item!

Rating:
Summary: Does the job - excellently
Review: It took me all of 5 minutes to install, and since then I have not had a single problem. The signal strength is 100% throughout my two bedroom apartment. While I haven't tested the signal outside the apartment, it will most likely be strong there too.

I've also noticed the slow response on Outlook, but this is only a minor issue. Outlook was slow when I worked straight on my DSL modem as well.

This is well suited to its use: a low-cost no frills home wireless router.

Rating:
Summary: Upgrading from a Linksys BEFSR41?
Review: I used to own the Linksys 4-port Etherfast DSL Router (BEFSR41) and decided to upgrade to the Netgear MR814 when the Linksys died on me for the second time. I suspect the thought process leading me to that decision may be helpful to others in a similar situation.

On the whole, I am considerably happier with the Netgear MR814. I've summarized many of the advantages below, roughly in order of importance. (Because the Linksys BEFSR41 is not a wireless DSL router, this review will not address the wireless capabilities of the Netgear MR814.) However, I should first point out that there are three notable disadvantages to the Netgear, relative to the Linksys.

(1) One fairly serious drawback is that the Netgear appears to drop idle SSH connections to the outside world, and the idle timeout appears to be an extremely short period of time. I've tried to utilize some anti-timeout mechanisms that my SSH client has, but to no avail. I am hoping this anomalous behavior will be remedied with later firmware releases (the most current as of this review is version 4.09). (2) Another drawback is the lack of UPnP support. I didn't rely on UPnP with the Linksys, so the Netgear's lack of UPnP doesn't affect me at all, but I figured I should mention it. (3) Finally, the Netgear port forwarding feature does not allow the user to specify whether only TCP connections, only UDP connections or both are forwarded, as you are allowed to do with the Linksys. My assumption is that the Netgear always forwards both TCP and UDP connections, but some other reviewers seem to indicate that just the TCP connections are forwarded. In any event, my port forwarding for services such as SSH, SMTP, HTTP, HTTPS, and IMAPS appear to work fine with the Netgear.

Now on to some key advantages of the Netgear over the Linksys.

ADVANCED DHCP FEATURES. While in DHCP mode, the Netgear can reserve a particular IP for a particular machine, ensuring that the machine always gets assigned the same IP. You just specify the IP you want to reserve and the MAC address of the machine you want to reserve it for, and the Netgear will always give that machine the specified IP. Also, the Netgear allows you to limit the range of IPs that are available in DHCP mode, restricting the number of DHCP clients you allow in your local network.

DYNAMIC DNS SUPPORT. Those who use dynamic DNS will be pleased to know that the Netgear has a dynamic DNS feature built-in -- namely, it has the ability to contact the DynDNS server and update your IP information whenever your DSL provider assigns you a new IP. No need to run a ddclient daemon on one of your machines to check for IP re-assignment every 15 minutes; the Netgear will handle this task on its own.

WARRANTY/RELIABILITY. While the Linksys offered a measly one-year warranty, the Netgear has a three-year limited warranty. And as I mentioned above, the Linksys failed on me on two occasions; once was immediately after purchase, and the most recent was two years later. Both times the Linksys simply locked up with the red diagnostic light permanently lit after it was power cycled.

CONTENT BLOCKING. I myself don't use these features, but the Netgear allows the administrator (presumably, a parent) to block access to certain URLs and to certain services, and this content/service blocking can be set to follow a schedule (e.g. access to URLs containing the keyword "adultsonly.fake.domain" is blocked from 7am to 10pm Monday - Friday). Attempts to access blocked sites or to use blocked services will be logged, and the logs can be sent periodically via email to some specified email address.

VPN PERFORMANCE. Although I haven't run any controlled experiments, it is clear that my VPN connection to work is dramatically faster than it was with the Linksys. I'm not certain why this is, but the difference is undeniable.

WEB ADMIN UI. The Netgear's interface to its web administration utility is much cleaner, more navigable and more helpful than the Linksys's web admin. Also, the response time for the Netgear web admin pages is far shorter than it was with the Linksys. I remember that it used to take many seconds to click between pages in the Linksys web admin.

CONFIG BACKUP. A nice auxiliary feature is that you can save your router configuration to a backup file with the Netgear and reload the config settings from the file later. This feature is especially nice if you use the port forwarding and have a long list of services that you had to input manually (e.g. SMTP, SSH, HTTPS, IMAP, IMAPS, etc.).

Rating:
Summary: very impressive
Review: It came. It connected. It worked.

I am amazed. It took me 20 minutes to get connected/configured and online via a "normal" internet connection and also through vpn. It worked. I mean..IT WORKED.

Now have 3 computers setup..1 via 10/100 cable, 2 through wireless cards (netgear and cisco). No problems or issues.

I bought a netgear because of the reliablity in getting up and running w/out any issues or calls to any help desks. Also from
querying friends who have various other brands and hearing all the trouble they've had.