Customer Reviews

Netgear FR314 Cable/DSL Firewall Router with Integrated 4-Port 10/100 Switch

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

I'm a network engineer who has been working with PCs since the mid '80s. This is a good router and a flawless firewall. It's easy to setup and usually runs like a top. A hardware based firewall will ALWAYS outperform a software solution like Zone Alarm, which is your only option if you buy a standard DSL/Cable router like Linksys.

With the release of firmware version 6.2.2 the FR314 now offers STEALTH mode, which means that not only will outsiders be blocked from connecting with your computer, they won't even know it exists. TCP/IP packets sent by hackers to probe for open ports will be eaten up by this firewall as if it were a black hole. You couldn't ask for anything better. This firewall (particularly with the updated firmware) is worth every single penny.

Netgear still needs to improve their customer and technical support services...While frustrating, it shouldn't prevent you from buying this firewall.

Be careful this router does not support PPTP connections with Microsoft Windows NT and 2000. Fact sheets on Netgears web site suggest that it does.

I purchased this router to have a way to share internet access with my ADSL line. I went from out of the box to browsing the web in about 10 minutes tops. The web based setup is very easy to configure and use. I updated the firmware and am now enjoying a stealthy shared connection to the internet. Anyone looking for a router look no further. No real complaints yet!

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.

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.

Although this was not a piece of cake to get set up and running, it works fine. I use Earthlink as an ISP so you need use PPoE which this router has. Remember if you use Earthlink to type ELN/ before your username. The router comes with one cable so if you already have two pcs linked with a crossover cable, you will need to buy an additional cable. I found that to get it working, a manual configuration was necessairy which is not too difficult. You just need to set your gateway address to the routers and make sure each pc's address is different. You also need to manually enter the dns server address which I found was not being done when I set the pc to get their addresses automatically assigned by the router. Once I did this the thing worked like a breeze, but it was at least couple hours later of troubleshooting.

I May have had some complication because I kept the computers connected with the crossover cable to two separate adaptor cards. I did this to disable netbios and fle sharing on the router connection. This way I only use the DSL router for internet access.

The firmaware installs easily and works. I tested the stealth mode (which has to be manually checked after intstalling the firmware upgrade) on the Gibson site and it works fine. I have left Zone Alarm up and running to stop zombies and Trojans from trying to access the internet from within but I have found that the FR314 stops all attacks from the outside before they even get to Zone Alarm.

I would have liked to have some features to fine tune specific applications and to monitor which applications are accessing the internet and when but otherwise it does what it's supposed to and I'm quite happy. I've looked around. Also it's extremely quiet.

So far I've used it for several days and have not encountered any of the problems others have had. It does not lose it's settings if you power it down although I'm not sure what happens if you disconnect the power.

I will check back if I have any problems in the future.

Ok. I've now used this for about three weeks. A few things to keep in mind now that I'm more familiar with some of the screening features. The default setting is to allow all services access to the internet. Once you set the default to block, you need to manually configure services by port. I've noticed a few quirks in terms of getting the settings to work but after reseting them everything seems to work out. You would be surpised how many applications try to access the internet, including by the way the firewall on port 123. I assume it's trying synchronise it's clock, however some of the sites are unidentifiable. The firewall will block by port but not by application. In other words if you shut a port off then all applications that use that port will be blocked and there is no way to selectively allow one through. Another drawback is that you can't set a destination address by port. In other words if you wanted an application to access the internet but only to specified IP addresses, you can't do it. This I think is essential to protecting against trojans using familiar ports to get out. Another feature that is badly needed is logging of allowed services. While you can log blocked packets you can't log allowed packets, again a feature you might want to see if there are trojans surreptitiously try to access the web.
Another drawback is that while you can block web access by domain you can't do it by IP address. Also there is no way to block by outgoing port if you're in NAT mode.
Having mentioned these criticisms I still recommend this firewall. It's a great buy and it's limited logging is pretty cool. You can set it up to email the log once a day.

Item received in box marked indicating no OEM warranty, only from the seller. CD enclosed with no paper manual. Set up info is on OEM's web site and CD is not required. Got a little support from IT guru and have had no problerms with unit.

Fine as a firewall- seems to run without any intervention. But the 8 node limit is a complete pain and the 20 node upgrade is $$$. It is cheaper to get a seperate router, plug your network into that then use the FR314 as a firewall only and use the other router for NAT so the 314 sees only one IP address from your network.

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.