Customer Reviews

Netgear MR314 802.11b Wireless Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port Switch

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

This is a nice piece of gear because it saves having to get a wireless hub and router separately, which frees up the 4 ports for just computers, and eliminate extra wires and boxes and power cables.

Router:
A great feature of this particular router is that it can email you activity logs which show what websites were visited on that day through the router. You can also block access to websites or any site that contains a keyword, so this could be useful in small office and home (children) use. (By viewing the website activity logs, you can find out which sites to block so that next time the user tries to go there it will say "blocked by netgear" and you will be notified of the attempt.) You can also lockout times and dates.

This Router does NOT have a firewall built in- even though this box looks like the netgear firewall router (the one for the same price without the integrated wireless hub).

Wireless hub-
Average range. Security wise, you can set it up with 128 bit WEP and with MAC Address authentication, which secures your network to a reasonably safe level. ALSO MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE THE ADMIN PASSWORD FOR THIS ROUTER, AND FOR ANY ROUTER.
Cons: The antenna can not be changed or removed. The unit is not designed to be hung from a wall like the SMC wireless hub. (WHY would you do that? To get better wireless range).

THE UNIT
The unit itself, like all netgear products, is metal and a nice dark hue of blue, with several blinking indicator lights. I am happy with my one, which uses a DSL connection with static IP address to feed 4 computers and two wireless laptops.

I bought this to replace my D-Link DI-701 router/firewall, which set-up very simply. To be blunt, Netgear's instructions are worthless - in fact it took me several hours to determine that ALMOST ALL of the settings they provided for my ISP were WRONG. On the positive side, the web-based configuration is great and can be done from most platforms.

Once I sorted out the settings for my ISP, it was a breeze to setup for basic routing (NAT & DHCP) and firewall use. The 4 switched ports are WONDERFUL, so I used 3 for 100mb access PCs and put all the 10mb machines on a hub on the 4th switch port. This box is an absolute block-out firewall. You must be prepared to specify which ports you want open and hard-code the IP address for that particular machine.

Wireless setup was for a Powerbook G4. Again, basic setup was simple, but it wouldn't work with WEP enabled. (Don't call tech support: they know NOTHING about Macs.) Here's the scoop: select and enter 4 different WEP codes where provided, click the radio button of the one you want to be the default. When logging in from the Mac, the "password" will be a "$" followed by the default HEX WEP key. Once you know the scoop, it's really that simple. This should be in the documentation and available to their techs.

Security considerations:

(1) Change the configuration password to something difficult, immediately.
(2) Don't open more firewall holes than absolutely necessary (you may not need to add ANY and most software companies can tell you what ports they need).
(3) Consider using the site blocking option of the firewall to block access at times when nobody should be on the system.
(4) Block wireless access to all except the MAC ID's of your mobile units.
(5) Change the SPID from "Wireless" to something lengthy and complex - don't forget to put this in your mobile configurations.
(6) Use 128 bit WEP and ensure the key is complex.
(7) For high security, change the WEP (and SPID) periodically.

All in all, LOTS of features at a GREAT price, but if you're going to use many of the features (correctly/securely), plan on spending a couple hours, not 10 minutes, setting it up.

PRO: Supports most OS platforms and other manufacturers' 802.11b clients (WiFi). Web-based configuration fairly straightforward. Strong firewall with nice features.

CON: Instructions may do more harm than good. I suggest you scan them for general ideas and then play with it or buy your local nerd dinner. It will likely take some tinkering to setup securely & use advanced options. Look for help on comprehensive (non-manufacturer) sites on the web.

Overall: 4 stars, solid, secure. (But will Netgear update the firmware to support the new WEP-Plus? Let's hope so.)

I have installed three of the linksys wireless routers and four of the Netgear. From now on, I'm pushing the Netgear 314. It's fast Easy and it works with VPN. The only down side is it costs more. But it's worth it.
Let me put it this way. You won't need the instruction book with the Netgear, And you will with the linksys....then you will curse the moron who wrote the Linksys book. As for Netgear's Customer support. it's great. If you call the 866 tech support at linksys, they take your name a call you the next day.
Pay the extra, save the hassle

Ahh yes. After fumbling with a Linksys router and the Speedstream by Siemens (CNET Editor's Choice), I have finally settled with a REAL quality unit. Netgear makes great stuff. I am using a wireless card for my laptop and the USB wireless device for my desktop, both Netgear.

Setup was all of 5 minutes - not a second longer. But most importantly, the Netgear device is dependable and has great range. My router is on the second floor of my 70 year old brick house (with 4x floor joists). Yet, I regularly use my laptop in the basement. The Linksys couldn't hang in terms of range, and the Siemens kept dropping connection randomly.

The Netgear is bulletproof. Don't waste your time with anything else. And for that matter, stick with Netgear cards especially if you're running Win XP.

I bought this device after lots of good experience with NetGear products in the past. Running XP Pro on 2 Dell machines, a PC and a notebook. The wired connection to my PC has been problem free once the XP firewall was disabled. The wireless connection, however, is another story. I kept losing my internet connection on my notebook, but the wireless adapter was connected to the router with no problems. My first phone call to tech support led me to assigning a static IP address to my wireless connection on the notebook. this resolved the problem for about an hour, then I lost the internet connection again. The only way to re-gain it was to unplug and reset the router. My 2nd call to tech support was a disaster as the support "engineer" was rude, and un-intelligible through a thick accent. Not the best combination for a telephone tech-support. The bit that I could understand of his advice was that it was a Windows problem and I needed to contact MS for support. Another great moment in customer service. My 3rd call to Netgear solved the problem. The support guy was helpful, polite and knew what he was talking about. He advised me to upgrade the firmware and if I lost the connection again, to return the unit. No problems since the upgrade. So like I said if you have patience, you won't be sorry you bought this.

I have never setup a wireless access point before, so I was afraid that it would take me much time to get everything working as I wanted. I am a tech professional, and I know how things are supposed to work in theory. By following the setup instructions, I managed to setup my PC and DSL modem to work with this router in less than 10 minutes. The PC is connected through the Ethernet port of the router. This was the easy part.
I have a laptop with a wireless network card and I wanted the laptop to be able to access the Internet and share files with my PC as well. I tried all possible settings in both the Netgear's administration interface and in the laptop's wireless card management software, but it did not seem to come together. Some hours later I noticed the wireless network switch on the front of the laptop. :-) After moving that little switch to the right position, everything worked just fine.
The router's management interface is very well organized, it is very easy to use. The wireless communication is excellent, but it is not surprising since I live in an apartment, so the maximum distance between the router and the laptop is 30 feet.
Two advices for new users: change the default administrator password, turn on encryption (128-bit) for the wireless communication.
All in all, this product has great features (firewall with network address translation, 4-port 10/100 Ethernet switch + wireless access point, content filtering, DMZ support) for a very reasonable price.

As I have a mix of PC's, G4 PowerMac and an iBook (both running OS X.2) I compared quite a few routers out there. Most of the routers (including the Netgear MR814 and all Linksys routers) do not retransmit AppleTalk wirelessly. This would mean that I would not be able to print from my iBook to a network printer (unless I setup CUPS [common unix printing system] and print using TCP/IP).

Setup was fairly easy using the html web interface. This can be done from any computer (Mac or PC) using your favorite browser (in my case Mozilla).

Placement of the router is critical. Placed on the (concrete) basement floor, I got very poor reception on the third floor. Raised to the desk (still in the basement), the reception on the third floor shot up to 80%+.

The Apple iBook (with a built-in antenna) gets excellent reception anywhere in the house (and down the driveway). The IBM ThinkPad with a Netgear wireless card gets excellent reception in two floors and drops off to about 60-80% on the third floor. Clearly the little stub of an antenna built into the netgear network wireless card is not ideal but doable.

With MAC authentication turned on and 128 bit WEP enabled, the IBM thinkpad had a little trouble maintaining 80% connection speed on the third floor. The iBook never broke a sweat and maintained an excellent connection.

Bottom line: excellent wireless router that will work with both PCs and Macs. The sturdy metal casing is preferrable to the plastic case of the upgraded Netgear MR814 (although the latter has a detacheable antenna).

After a fairly extensive search for a wireless basestation/router I realized that almost all the reviews that were out there were for using wintel machines, or did not state what equipment was being used . Unfortunatley I own exclusively Apple products and the few reviews I did find, for mac, were not very specific (as far as equipment used, etc..). So, with that in mind I write this review for all you Mac folk.

My equipment:
800mhz iMac G4 running Mac OS 10.2
366mhz iBook (firewire) G3 running Mac os 10.2 w/apple airport card
Doscis 1.1 cable modem

My experience:
I was up and running in 5 minutes! After shutting both computers down, swapping the neccessary wires and rebooting, all was said and done. The iBook saw the wireless network and both machines were able to access the internet. Configuration is a snap. All I had to do is set the network control panel to configure using DHCP (which it already was) and I was up and running.

After initial setup is complete, using the html setup wizard, to access advanced functions, was just as easy. The only glitch I hit was on Apples end. Apparently when you want to configure WEP with a 3rd party basetstation while using an airport card you have to:

If you are using a Hexadecimal code, precede the string with a dollar sign ($).
Example: $123456789a

If you are using an ASCII, i.e. alphanumeric code, enclose the characters in double quotes (").
Example: "magic"

After figuring that out enabling WEP was a breeze. The mr314 has been up and running now for 304 hours now (according to the router) and so far not a single glitch.

All in all, after fearing the worst, creating my home network has been an absolute breeze. I would recomend this product in a second. Hope this is helpful to you Mac faithful.

As an advanced user, I can't comment on the out-of-the-box installation of this router, but based on what I observed and others' feedback, it should be a breeze, dependent on peculiarities of your ISP and any firewall software you may be runnning. In that regard, it's a solid choice for a novice, but the advanced features of this router (most importantly the full 128-bit encryption) make it very attractive for the expert. To take advantage of these features, though, the novice will need assistance since the printed documentation does not cover them at all, and the pdf and doc files on the included cd-rom barely touch on them. While the 128-bit encryption is a boon for security-conscious users, the router unfortunately does not cycle its keys, so the user has to do so manually on whatever schedule they deem fit. This requires that you change the key on each client in the network at the same time. The router provides for four keys, at 40-bit encryption as well if you so choose. (TIP: Define the key in the NIC configuration utility on a client computer first - let it convert your key into hex, then type those hex numbers into the key definition on the router.) Range matched manufacturer quotes of 100 feet indoors - I had signal through multiple walls while still inside the 100 ft limit. I did not, though, have means of testing it through different floors of the house. Throughput was essentially identical to being physically connected to the network. In sum: Excellent feature set (for now, right?), decent price (with rebate), built to last. Could have offered more thorough directions and explanations, but most novices will have neighbors or children that can help them through installation and taking advantage of the advanced features. (NOTE: These comments reflect my use of the Netgear MA401 wireless NIC in conjunction with the MR314.) BE SURE TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT ADMIN PASSWORD ON THE ROUTER WHEN SETTING UP.

Traded up to wireless from the Netgear RT314 I bought from Amazon 18 months ago(Sold it used on Amazon for [price] in 2 days). Followed the set up sheet. Up in 5 minutes on the Cable Modem and RJ45 to my PC. Setup my Netgear wirless PCMCIA card on my laptop and was on-line in 10 minutes. I then walked the parameter of my yard(small) without ever losing connectivity and the signal strength only going down to 30% a few places. I have a 2 story 2600 sq ft stucco house and the router sits on the 2nd floor in the center of the house. I'd say the worst signal strength was traveling through 1 floor and at least 2 interior walls and 1 exterior wall about 120 feet. Indoors I see the strength go down to 60% at worst. I run with full 128 WEP encryption. I've had the router almost 2 months now and love it. I recommend Netgear for best bang for the buck mainly.