Rating: 
Summary: Not a good choice for VPN
Review: I have used this router for about 6 mos. Initially satisfied, but then tried inbound VPN access, and found that even with static port/address mappings, connection drops in 5 to 10 minutes. Wife uses DSL for outbound VPN to office, and connection will drop after about 10 minutes. Replaced with Linksys BEFSR41 (with no static maps, no special configuration) and VPN works fine. Netgear support says I need to open 3 ports, change her client DNS, etc. Didn't do any of this with Linksys.
Rating:
Summary: Not a good choice for VPN
Review: I have used this router for about 6 mos. Initially satisfied, but then tried inbound VPN access, and found that even with static port/address mappings, connection drops in 5 to 10 minutes. Wife uses DSL for outbound VPN to office, and connection will drop after about 10 minutes. Replaced with Linksys BEFSR41 (with no static maps, no special configuration) and VPN works fine. Netgear support says I need to open 3 ports, change her client DNS, etc. Didn't do any of this with Linksys.
Rating: 
Summary: IT JUST WORKS!
Review: I just received my router and nothing has been more appreciated in my house in years. I toyed with the idea of buying the Linksys router but I already had a neatgear 4 port hub that has been working perfectly for more than a year. Plus the $40 difference in price between the 311 & the 314 was significant to me. I hooked the unit up and was surfing the net on my main computer in minutes without even running the setup program. After running it everything was really humming. Documentation is a little sparse but the Neatgear website is pretty good. Microsoft's website can help with some of the terminology. I had some trouble with the kid's pc but I discovered that IE 5.0 was set for a proxy server. Once I unchecked the box they were up and running too. Best of all the router looks and feels like a sturdy and "gonna be around a while" piece of equipment. I was actually surprised at the weight of it when it arrived. I didn't know for certain whether or not the firewall feature was working until I got a message from Napster saying it was. We'll work that out later, no problem with Email or anything else though. You can't go wrong here!
Rating:
Summary: Lousy firewall, good router
Review: I ordered this router so that my computers could share a cable modem and be protected by one firewall. If you are using this device as a router, its great. It took less then ten minutes for me to set it up and configure it with my cable modem and three computers. However, as a firewall it is utterly useless. There is viturally no documentation on configuring a firewall, the instructions suggest you go out and buy a book about firewall so that you can set this device up properly. Its definitely not worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Lousy firewall, good router
Review: I ordered this router so that my computers could share a cable modem and be protected by one firewall. If you are using this device as a router, its great. It took less then ten minutes for me to set it up and configure it with my cable modem and three computers. However, as a firewall it is utterly useless. There is viturally no documentation on configuring a firewall, the instructions suggest you go out and buy a book about firewall so that you can set this device up properly. Its definitely not worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product
Review: I originally bought the DLink DL701 router and had a horible time with it. But, there was always a chance that my problem with the it was due to pilot error. I am just not that experienced when it comes to PC networking. So, with that thought in mind, I bought the Netgear RT311 and boy was I surprised! This product worked right out of the box! I connected my two pcs to a hub and then to the router. I was rock'n and roll'n in less than an hour, sharing internet connection between the two machines and even starting to get my currently running webserver exposed to the internet. Now, for heavy duty configuration, you have to use the telnet interface (their new web-based interface only does the basic config). But having played with the settings extensively, I can honestly say that, while its' interface is cluncky, it does its' job. You have access to tons of configuration options. I've even uploaded new firmware into the device and it also worked like a charm. The router has a wealth of features from port forwading to packet filtering for those who require more sophisticated configurations. I've had it for over 3 weeks now and have had not problems with it. My web and ftp server running just fine behind the firewall and I've even shut down a few security holes with this device. So, in the end, it was not pilot error that foiled my previous exprience. The RT311 is just an excellent product. Sturdy and well built, it runs just as well as it looks. I am very pleased with this product and would recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Works well...
Review: I purchased this product from Amazon a few days after getting Cable Modem service in my neighborhood. It works wonderfully, but the "FirstGear" software on the included CD apparently does not work with Windows2000. (This does not appear to be a problem with Windows2000, though...) Instead, I read the Reference Manual (in the form of a .pdf file) on the CD and configured the router via the ASCII interface (by telnet-ing to the IP address of the router.) Twenty minutes later, I have a DHCP server and both of my computers are sharing the internet connection (via a hub that I already had.) Finally, I tried Quake 3 Arena thru the router and it worked perfectly, so I'd say this router is everything you could want.
Rating:
Summary: Great for my PPPoE DSL connection
Review: I was using Linksys with PPPoE DSL ISP (Bell Simpatico High Speed) at Toronto. I had a misserabe experience. With this router, I have not rebooted for about a month. Greate product for my PPPoE connection at Toronto.
Rating:
Summary: Netgear router works great with @Home cable modem
Review: I've been using the Netgear RT311 as a firewall/connection sharing solution with my @Home cable modem for about 6 months, and it works great. It took me about 30 minutes to get it setup out of the box, and then I was up and running. I replaced an existing software-based Firewall (Norton Internet 2000), and was suprised to find how much faster my network access is using the Netgear (not to mention how much faster my PC is now that it doesn't have to act as a firewall...). It also gets my previous "firewall" PC off the Internet, so I don't have to worry about it being attacked anymore, while I can still access the Internet from all 3 attached PCs. I recently upgraded the Netgear's firmware to v3.20, and that went very smoothly. I just had to FTP the new firmware image and config file to the router. Then after the router rebooted (automatically), I re-configured my network settings, rebooted my PCs, and all was well. The new firmware even handles passing the domain name to the connected PCs, which I had to manually configure before. This makes setup even easier. I haven't yet done anything with filters- the default config works fine for me, and all of the applications I use work- but I have tried the Telnet interface, and while the menu arrangement isn't always intuitive, it isn't very difficult to find what you need. Give it a try and I bet most people will be very happy. Easy setup, dependable hardware, prompt software upgrades, and reasonable documentation... highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Home Ethernet Router
Review: I've worked with a lot of different routers in the last couple of years. The RT-311 is my favorite Ethernet router. I prefer it to the Linksys box for three reasons: it supports more users and a higher bandwidth, it's made more durably (of metal, not plastic), and the routing and firewall features are more configurable using the command line interface. As is noted in one of the reviews below, you can selectively punch holes in the firewall to handle inbound SMTP or web traffic. This configurability has been particularly useful to me when a client has needed to access a machine with pcAnywhere from a remote location. One feature I wish this router had was the ability to set up a hardware VPN like some of the Netopia Routers can, but for less than $150.00 I really can't complain. The RT-311 seems very easy to configure to me, but if ease of configuration is your only concern then the Linksys may be the router for you, but if you're looking for better performance, more durability, and more sophisticated configurability I recommend the RT-311. Of the 20 or so I've set up, I have yet to get a bad one, or have one go down.
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