Rating: 
Summary: Finally, a TRUE firewall product!!
Review: I've been using my windows 2000 server using internet connection sharing (ICS) to share my cable connection to the rest of the house. Well, the motherboard died.. don't know how or why, but it died (being RMA'd). This was a great opportunity to find a router/firewall product instead of using my computer, which had to be on 24/7 so that everyone can access the internet. Well, with the power crisis in California and rise in electricity costs, I've decided to look for a less power consuimg option. My search ended with the FR314. The FR314 is a TRUE FIREWALL product, unlike the other Linksys, SMC, and even other netgear products that use Network Address Translation (NAT) as it's main security. There's nothing wrong with NAT, but it doesn't offer true firewall capabilities or PROTECTION. The FR314 utilizes Sonicwall's technology to manage it's firewall features. It basically is almost a "home" version of sonicwall's SOHO2 product which costs twice as much as the netgear (after MIR). Basically, it's got a great firewall engine (sonicwall) with a few less features (no DMZ, poor content filtering, no antivirus), but at more appealing price. Even with it's less features, it's a great option for the home user.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, a true firewall router
Review: Netgear has designed a nice looking, functional winner in it's FR314 Gateway Router.
Add WAN support and better technical support and you have a five star product.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a true firewall router
Review: Netgear has designed a nice looking, functional winner in it's FR314 Gateway Router.
Add wireless support and better technical support and you have a five star product.
Rating: 
Summary: FR314 Updating
Review: The product installs and operated generally on the first try. However, rentry to modify the FR314 is very troublesome. The password entry screen has been defective on 4 out of 4 units I have purchased. A check with other owners of the unit shows the problem is probably related to a critical software design bug in the units firmware. Many people set the unit up once and never need to modify the firmware settings. If the firmware settings need to be modified then the problems are uncovered.There are better DHCP servers/firewalls at comparable prices. While this unit is inexpensive, the problems far outweigh cost considerations. This product received one star because I could not assign it a thumbs down.
Rating:
Summary: Netgear Equals Superb Service
Review: This holiday season I was a good santa and purchased numerous wireless networking products for my various family members. Sure it was partially a selfish act as I wanted to be able to easily connect when I went to visit, but for the most part it was just an act of giving. I purchased mainly G products and they varied from routers to USB adapters to PC Card adapters. I did also purchase a couple of B products for those in the family that already had some wireless networking products (yes, I know they are backwards compatible but I didn't want to take any chances).
Only two members of the family had installation problems (considering my family is very non-technical I was quite impressed) and those two people both had yet to upgrade to Windows XP SP2. The rest of the family members were up and running within minutes.
As for the couple of family members that did have problems, well they called me first (of course) and I told them to just run back through the installation procedure again. This solved the problem for Uncle Dennis but Grandma Joyce still couldn't get it to work properly. I reluctantly told her to call Netgear's technical support (hey the reviews on Amazon haven't been too pretty for their tech support). I however was quite pleased when an hour later I got an email from Grandma Joyce thanking me for the great gift. I called her back and she told me that after fiddling with the settings with the Netgear people she was up and running within 30 minutes.
Overall, I consider this the ultimate test of product quality and support and I would give Netgear two thumbs up.
I hope this review was helpful to you in putting your mind at ease regarding ease of setup and trust of technical support if needed.
Rating:
Summary: Works Fine
Review: Took 30 minutes or less to read the simple instructions, unplug my switch and replace it with the router. Configuration was simple and after that all I did was reboot my 3 PC's and 2 laptops. Read other reviews that mentioned problems with VPN and port assignment but I am not doing any of that. No more paying for 3 internet connections. I am now paying for 1 and have all 5 on the net, (my ISP limits homes to 3 IP addresses). I should mention that I actually have the FR 318 which is identical to the 314 except the 318 has 8 ports vs. the 314's 4 ports. This product has my recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: 30 minute set-up, and it works!!!!!!
Review: Took 30 minutes or less to read the simple instructions, unplug my switch and replace it with the router. Configuration was simple and after that all I did was reboot my 3 PC's and 2 laptops. Read other reviews that mentioned problems with VPN and port assignment but I am not doing any of that. No more paying for 3 internet connections. I am now paying for 1 and have all 5 on the net, (my ISP limits homes to 3 IP addresses). I should mention that I actually have the FR 318 which is identical to the 314 except the 318 has 8 ports vs. the 314's 4 ports. This product has my recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: My first firewall router
Review: Very easy and quick set-up. It took me about 10 minutes to set this up with my cable connection. I especially like the content filtering feature. I recommend this product for worry free use of your computer on the net.
Rating:
Summary: Poor customer support
Review: Without purchasing an additional licence this unit only supports 8 computers. When I purchased the upgrade (which cost almost as much as the unit) it did not install correctly. Support was unable to resolve the problem and level 2 support never calls back although they reply to my emails by promising to do so. More trouble than it is worth. Other routers don't have this 8 node limit. I'll not buy netgear again.
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