Customer Reviews

NETGEAR WPN802 RangeMax Wireless Access Point

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Previous dead spots in my house are gone - replaced with 80+% signal strength and high speed. I was using a Netgear FWAG114 (dual-band b/g) but it couldn't reach everywhere. I have the WPN802 on the top floor of my house in a corner and it reaches everywhere without exception, even my backyard sitting on my porch at the opposite end of the house - which I couldn't do before.
Installation note: by default DHCP is not enabled - you have to perform the initial setup by setting the IP address on your PC and plugging it directly into the unit first - awkward - but it does work as the manual instructs you to do. Some people have complained about the blinking blue rotating lights on the top from the antennaes (who doesn't like blinking blue lights!), anyway, there is a cap (think of a pirate's eye patch without the head band) that fits over the lights if they bother you. Excellent - highly recommended.

So far I'm pretty happy with my RangeMax Access Point. It covers every area of my house and and works great with the PowerLine ethernet adapters I just bought.

The setup of the access point was not as easy as it could have been, though. The instructions require you to go through a fairly strange process of connecting the access point to a single computer set up with a fixed IP address. This is not so hard to do, really, if you have any experience with setting up networking, but for an inexperienced user this could be difficult.

Also, very strangely, once I had my access point all set up and working and connected to the rest of my network, I could no longer reach the setup screens using the IP address given in the instructions. If I need to change my setup, it looks like I'll have to hit the tiny reset button and start over.

One other complaint is that the wall wart that powers this thing is a monster! It must weigh two pounds. If I had that sucker plugged directly into a wall socket, I'd be worried about the plugs coming loose over time because of the weight. I strongly recommend that you plug this into a powerstrip or extension such that it lays flat on the ground so that all that weight is not pulling on the plugs.

One further complaint--the flashing blue light everyone else complains about here is pretty silly if you want your access point to be unobtrusive. And the plastic cover they include in the packaging is a joke--clearly an afterthought in the design process. It's a flimsy little disk with a sticker on it. Very silly.

Still, once I got the thing set up, the RangeMax Access Point worked great, and that's the important thing. These other issues are small and easy to deal with.

As others have mentioned, the signal strength from this wireless access point (WAP) is pretty good, and there does seem to be improved coverage compared to my older Netgear wireless router (I moved to a new house that was prewired for data, so I have a wired router in my basement and needed the wireless access point so I could walk around with my notebook computer and connect to the internet). My main criticism of this product is the confusing setup and inadequate instructions. Let me explain (hopefully I can save someone else the pain I went through)...

To set up this wireless access point, you connect this router via an ethernet cable to a computer (notebook or desktop, Mac or PC -- it doesn't matter). You manually set your computer to a static IP address (the manual gives you the specific IP address). Then, you turn on the WAP and connect to it using a web browser via the default IP address for the WAP (192.168.0.231). So far, so good. Then you configure the basic settings, and this is where the manual is inadequate. Many people will use this WAP as I have -- a DSL or cable internet connection and a wired router. In the basic settings, you will have to set the WAP IP address using DHCP. After applying the settings, you can't connect to the WAP using the default IP address of 192.168.0.231 anymore because a different IP address was assigned via DHCP. (You will get a screen saying that the connection timed out.) So, how did you connect back to the WAP?

I unplugged the ethernet cable from the WAP to the computer and instead connected the WAP to my wired router. Then I accessed my wired router and looked for a list of connected devices. The WAP was on that list along with the IP address now assigned to the WAP. I connected to the WAP wirelessly, typed in the new IP address for the WAP, and now I could access the rest of the settings (such as wireless security settings). What a hassle!! It really would have been nice if Netgear had better documentation for this process. I would have saved me quite a bit of frustration.

Anyway, once set up, the WAP works great. But, getting it set up took some doing.

I bought this after a friend told me how great this model was working for him. I found the same thing. This one router covers my entire house well -- all 3 levels -- and out into the backyard. All this at higher speeds. Not having the antenna sticking up makes it blend in better -- but the blue flashing lights on top call attention to it. It comes with a little plastic cap to hide the blue light if you get tired of it.

I'll provide detail below, but to summarize my review, this product works fine as a standalone wireless access point but did not work at all for me as a wireless repeater, even when using 2 of these devices with one as the primary and the second as the repeater.

Here is the problem I was trying to solve with this product...after re-locating my office and Verizon Fios Actiontec wireless router into the basement of my home, I found that the Actiontec was not strong enough to provide reliable wireless service to the front half of the first and second floors of my home. Having read the great reviews of the WPN802 as a wireless access point with very strong range, I purchased one and connected it to my router to act as its own access point (I did not attempt to use it as a repeater for the Actiontec as I have read mixed results of using other devices with the Actiontec, and also learned that the WPN802 is only supposed to act as a repeater for another WPN802). I found that the WPN802 only had marginally better range than my Actiontec, and so this wasn't a solution to my problem; given that both my Actiontec and the WPN802 were in my basement, I assumed that the foundation of the house must be interfering with the signal and so the answer was likely to place a wireless repeater somewhere above the basement. With this in mind, and ignoring other warnings in reviews that the repeater mode had issues, I purchased a second WPN802 as it seems they are only supposed to act as repeaters for another WPN802. I placed the second WPN802 on the first floor of my home and configured it as a repeater for the WPN802 in the basement; the signal from the second WPN802 was very strong, however it was impossible to connect to this second WPN802...you see, in order to configure the repeater mode both WPN802s must use the same SSID, and without fail my laptop always connected to the first WPN802 with the weaker signal. I tried this on 3 different Dell Inspiron laptops using both Dell's wireless utility and the Windows network connections utility...this is pretty common equipment. I spent 5 hours on the phone with Netgear's technical support in the Philipines trying to get the repeater mode to work; I must compliment them for their thorough and knowledgeable nature as well as responsiveness - we tried pretty much everything in terms of assigning static IP addresses, different channels, access control, etc. but nothing worked. This was not easy as we had to continually do a hard reset on the 802s, and as has been mentioned in previous reviews you need to be directly attached to the 802 to re-configure it. Their support would undoubtedly still be trying to solve the problem with me, but I ultimately chose to take a hardwired approach to solve the problem, running a CAT5e into my attic that was attached to the Actiontec in the basement and a WPN802 in the attic. The WPN802 in the attic is exhibiting great range and covering those areas not being serviced properly by the Actiontec.

Due to the obvious repeater functionality flaws, I cannot rate this product higher than a 3, and I rate it at that high a level only because it does work well as a standalone wireless access point and because I was impressed by the professional nature of Netgear's support. If all I wanted was an access point however I could have gotten something cheaper, and now I have 2 of these (which thankfully I do have uses for).

I had tried several other ways to use my new wireless laptop in other parts of my house and I kept losing the signal strength and being knocked offline. In desperation and after reading the other reviews I opted to spend the $$ and purchase this. It is wonderful !! Just plugged it into my router and it was a go!. I did purchase a longer cable so I could put it on the other side of the room away from my cluttered desk. It truly delivers as promised. I can work and play games in the other part of my house while keeping my husband company as he watches football.

Netgear's WPN802 may not be necessary for everyone but it really works for me. Our Internet connection is through Direcway/Hughes satellite and a router won't work with it. A hub/switch and a wireless access point is required instead. Setup for the WPN802 was fairly straight forward using the enclosed paper Installation Guide. Configuring the desktop computer to communicate with the WPN802's IP address was all that was really necessary. After that the WPN802 was connected to the hub/switch and we were ready to go wireless.
Netgear also provides a thorough manual on disk that provides additional information for more complicated setups. Overall I'm satisfied. The current $20 rebate also helps.

I had a Linksys SRX but wanted a second access point to complete coverage in house. The linksys was an older model and one complaint was that it would randomly power off i think mostly after power outages. I put this netgear product in the same location and got half the bars on each of the multiple laptops that i use in the same location i used the linksys. I changed the position of the access point every which way possible. The linkys has better range by far. Also the setup requires that you plug it into a computer and change IP settings and then after its set up any setting changes will require that you take it off your router, change ip settings etc etc. not impossible but far less easy than the linksys set up and a much bigger pain managing it after installation.

I replaced an older WAP for this one. I stayed with Netgear simply because no other vendors provides similar products for the price points.

The feature set is not very different from others on the market today, but works very well in my home configuration.

This is connected to a separate VLAN on my Cisco ASA5505 and is blocking traffic to other WAP devices connected to it. This works excellent for my two iPhones, PSP, Archos and two laptops which will never need anything more than getting to the internet.

I needed to buy a new wireless access point because the Link Sys I had... well... stank. It would lock up and need to be rebooted at least once per day if not more.

I bought this one and got it hooked up in about half an hour or so. I've had it a few weeks now and I have not needed to reboot it one time.

So, why the four stars? I only wish they had put as much thought into the instructions as they did the access point. In a lot of the steps, they only tell you to do things without actually telling you how to do them. I needed to use Google to do some of the steps like changing my IP address. It also doesn't give you a lot of help on the security set up, but luckily I have done that part before and I just set it to look like my old one.

All in all, it is a good little access point, they just need to put some more effort into their instructions.