Customer Reviews

Netgear WGR614 Wireless-G Router

5 star:		(370)
4 star:		(197)
3 star:		(80)
2 star:		(102)
1 star:		(304)

 

 

This is an exceptional router and at this price you can't find a better choice. I see a lot of disgruntled people here who can't connect to the router wirelessly after changing settings. I would like to give a couple of tips. First of all, make sure you configure the router when you are hard wired. You have to ensure that you are connected to the router via a LAN cable whenever you are making any changes to the router's configuration. This way when the router restarts etc. you will still be connected to it. If you are carrying out any changes to the router through your wireless card, for example if you have changed the WEP encryption code in the router, then once you submit those changes, the router will not let your wireless card connect until your laptop's card is configured for the same WEP key. So once again, please ensure you carry out changes to the router only when hard wired. The moment you get your router, I suggest you carry out a firmware upgrade (go to netgear's support site and download the latest firmware for your model from there). Once again follow instructions and make sure you are connected through a cable to carry out the same. Now log onto the router and then do a couple of things.

First of all, rename the SSID to anything you want (eg. Joan's Arc). Then go to the wireless settings, then to wireless access, and click on 'Disable SSID broadcast'. This ensures that the SSID is not broadcast to others around you who have a wireless machine. So when their software searches for a wireless access point all they will see is a blank name. To be able to connect to your network they would have to know the name of your SSID (Joan's Arc in this case) and manually type it in their machines (Highly unlikely that they will be able to think of the same name as you do. You can make your name even harder to obtain by simply using numeric characters in it.. for example Joan's Arc2004). Secondly, to make it secure use a 128 bit WEP key (this has to be a 26 digit key consisting of alphanumeric and numeric characters. You can use only certain alphabets in small and large case so you need to check that out. Also remember that you have to feed the same WEP key number in your laptop wireless card software (or the windows wireless settings if you are not using your wireless card's software). Finally you can ensure that only the wireless devices you specify can logon to your router. Go to the Wireless settings, then to wireless access setup and then click on 'enable wireless access'... Thereafter click on 'Setup access list'. Once there add your wireless device by using its mac address (the mac address is a unique number given to a wireless device, very much like a phone number- this enables the router to identify the device trying to connect to it). The mac address will be listed on your wireless device and you can also see all the devices that you can allow to connect to your router in the router's configuration window. (One important note to remember is that if you have already enabled WEP then you will have to first feed in the same key into your wireless device software settings before the router will display it in it's list of devices). Select the device that you want to allow to connect to your router and apply.

Hope this helps to a certain extent to configure your routers. Trust me, this is an amazing router and if you are having connection problems, it most likely is due to the settings in the router- not because the router is faulty.

Do NOT purchase this router. I have been a happy Netgear customer in the past, and am technical enough to keep both home and small office wireless networks running fine, but this model has a hardware problem that Netgear tech support has finally acknowledged, but for which they are not providing an adequate fix. As others have mentioned, the router will often drop connectivity, and rebooting is the only solution. I bought one, had these problems start (luckily within the 90 day tech support window), and returned the router to Netgear (at my expense) in exchange for another one, which demonstrated the SAME problem less than 24 hours after installation. After yet another long call to India the latest tech support rep acknowledged that lots of these models are having the same problem, and upgrading to the latest firmware (which I did immediately upon installing both of these routers) won't fix it, so her solution was... send this one back (AGAIN at my expense) and they would send me yet another one of the SAME model, which she (for no defensible reason) assures me will work. For more background please see the Netgear tech support forums, where you will see scores of people experiencing the same problem and the same non-solution from Netgear. Save yourself the trouble and buy a different wireless router.

I bought one of these to replace an SMC7004AWBR which stopped allowing admin logins and wouldn't reset to factory defaults.

It installed like a dream, was really easy to set up, and worked fine--at first. Unfortunately, I work from home as a software engineer and system admin, and really need a reliable router--and this isn't it. Once I open too many simultaneous TCP connections, it'll crash--the lights blink as if it's still working, but it stops actually routing packets.

I've tried a firmware upgrade, I've tried changing the MTU size, and next I think I'm going to try another brand of router... If you use BitTorrent, RSS aggregators, or other software that opens lots of TCP connections, avoid this router. Similarly, if you have several computers in simultaneous use, this device will only frustrate you.

ok... I have spent many hours trying to figure out how to stabilize the connection. After being connected, the connection would drop after x minutes and not return unless I reset the wireless settings by clicking "Apply" using the Netgear html interface. I checked out all the forums and did not find anything that would help. I was ready to give up and return the item. But Thank God I finally found the solution.

Originally, I thought it was interference with my 2.4 ghz Panasonic phone but that wasn't it... Here's the solution and I hope this helps those who seem to be experiencing the same thing:

1. Update the firmware (not sure if this is really necessary but I did this after reading this on some forums)
2. Change channels. You have options 1 to 11. Mine works great on Channel 7 and it doesn't seem to interfere with my 2.4 ghz Panasonic cordless phone. Experiment and see which channel gives you the best signal and stable connection.
3. Place the router (if possible) in the center of the area that you will be working in to maximize the signal. I currently have the router at the end of my house and want to move it somewhere to the center to improve signal strength.
4. In the advanced settings for LAN IP set-up (and this is the one that solved the majority of my connection problems), you must reserve a dedicated ip address for each computer on the wireless LAN by using the "Address Reservation" option. Before I did this, I would sometimes get the message "IP address conflict with xx.xx.xx.xx" on each PC that I had connected to the router with the WG311 wireless PCI card. Basically, both computers were fighting for the same IP address and causing the connection to crash. So the problem was eliminated when I assigned dedicated IP addresses for each computer.

I give this router only 4 stars because this stuff should have been clearly stated in the manual. Now everything works fine and I get very few disconnects (notice how I didn't state zero disconnects). Anyway, ta da! Netgear should pay me for this. Seriously. p.s. There's been many price drops on this router recently so shop around.

EASY TO INSTALL... This was my first router installation, but it was easy! The router comes with short, easy-to-follow installation directions. It took me 10-minutes to open the box, read the directions, connect the hardware (it includes a power cord and a network cable), power-up my PC, boot into Windows XP and access the router through Internet Explorer. Netgear's interface is wonderful. Modifying security settings, an optional step, was a breeze. I never even looked at the CD that was included.

WORKS GREAT... As soon as my desktop PC booted into Windows XP, I was connected to the Internet through my Road Runner cable connection (my PC was connected to the router via cable; the router, of course, was connected to the cable modem). Laptop connection was almost as easy. I did download the most recent firmware (1102) from Netgear's web site to make the router 100% compatible with the 802.11g specs and to be able to block broadcast of SSID (the upgrade also fixed some minor problems): http://www.netgear.com/support/support_dnld.asp?prodNum=WGR614

LOOKS GREAT... The picture doesn't do it justice, nor will anything I can say. I have the router sitting vertically in its stand. The side LEDs face me. They are clearly marked, lit (or blinking) icons. Thin and elegant.

I was torn between Linksys and Netgear. I still respect Linksys, but I am glad that I bought Netgear.

I bought a Netgear WGR614 (version 6) router to front-end a pair
of networks connecting to Comcast cable. The network was
already up and running, I simply wanted to swap out an Airport
Extreme that was working fine in that location.

The Netgear WGR614 was easy to configure.

The problem is the Netgear WGR614 can't handle any reasonable
DNS load. If I connected my laptop directly to the Comcast
network, I could get DNS answers from Comcast's servers as fast
as I could send them. If I put the Netgear WGR614 between my
laptop and Comcast, 1 or 2 out of each 10-15 DNS requests would
time out. If I connected the mail servers to the Netgear
WGR614, 5 out of 10 DNS requests would time out, and I would
often see strings of 10-20 DNS requests time out in a row. This
was severely damaging to the network: browser URL lookups would
fail, host lookups for spam filtering would fail, and so on.

Netgear support was easy to get in touch with, and initially
responsive. However, once we got through the basics (is the
power on?) all they could suggest was manually configuring all
of the computers behind the router to use static routes to the
name servers (which I wasn't willing to do, and, in a simple
test failed to fix the problem), or upgrade the firmware to a
beta release, version 1.0.7. I did upgrade the firmware, but
it had no effect at all on the problem.

Netgear support told me twice they would escalate my support
case to "level 2", but after each escalation, I never heard
from them again.

Remember the Airport Extreme had no problem working in this
location? After Netgear support failed to fix the problem, I
bought a Linksys WRT54G, it handles the DSN request load just
fine!

Well, I finally decided to go out and purchase a wireless router. Being that I did not want to spend very much, I opted for this one. This router provides a great list of features, just not out of the box.

Size:
Unlike Linksys or Microsoft routers which are larger and bulky, this router is small. It measures about 3 1/2" long by 2 1/2" wide by 1/2" high. It's not something that I would put into a server case, but it is something that can be mounted on a wall or tucked away out of site very easily.

Speed:
With this router, I normally get anywhere between 48Mb to 54Mb connections throughout my entire home and even outside, with throughput being somewhere between 35-45Mb (most wireless routers average out about about 30 so this one is pretty good). The signal strength from the router is fairly strong and I have only dropped my signal once (see notes below). I use a Xterasys brand PCMCIA card on my PC Laptop, Apple eXtreme G PC Cards on my G4 iMac and G5, and an Xterasys PCI card on my PC Desktop. All of them are 802.11G.

Security:
Out of the box, the device supports up to 128bit WEP encryption and has support for MAC Layer Address control. A New beta firmware out allows for WPA encryption. On the firewall side, the router uses the basic firewalls: NAT Translation and SPI.

Reliability:
After getting pass what is noted below, my router is very reliable. I have never experienced any kind of malfuntions or problems. My previous Linksys router may have locked up once every year. I have not had this router for a year yet, but I am expecting around the same.

Ease of Use:
Unlike a few control panels that I have seen, this router is much easier to use. Wireless encyption happens easily thanks to a WEP key generator (based on passphrases) and a wonderful manual. Other features of the device work just as well. The router seems to be more intelligent than other routers that I have used. For example, I am able to DCC in IRC or DirectIM in AIM without having to forward ports to a machine. A big plus.

With all of those pros, there are also a list of cons as well.

Firmware:
This has to be one of my biggest cons about this router. The quality of firmware on this router reminds me of Linksys a few years ago (in which you waited about 3-6 months before updating your firmware). Out of the box, the router worked great via the ports, but wireless was a different story. For one, when I attempted to connect wirelessly using my PC Laptop, everything worked great. Then, when I enabled encryption, I could remain connected for about 1 minute, then it would drop out. A minute later, it would come back. Then, the cycle would repeat itself. I decided to upgrade to the latest firmware (which to my surprise was two years newer than the one shipped with hit). The new firmware added new features such as the ability to disable SSID broadcasting. The new firmware fixed my dropping problem like a charm. But, when I dissabled SSID broadcasting, the same thing started happening. The only difference here was that I would drop and gain every second! Since I much rather not broadcast my SSID, I simply upgraded my PC's to the beta of SP2 and that fixed my problem there. My Macs did not have the same problem with the disabled SSID, but did have the same problem before I upgraded my firmware. Then, a new firmware came out which allowed for WPA encryption. Since I rather use WPA than WEP, I upgraded, only to find out that by doing that, wireless stopped working all together! Downgraded back, and everything worked again.

Internet Performance:
This one may just be me, but I have noticed that I get slower Internet performance wirelessly than I do wired... even when I'm next to my router. For example, I have a webserver that has files on it. I can download those files at around 150-200KB/s. When I connect to the router via ethernet, I can download at around 350-400KB/s. Although I can live with both, this always bugs me because I should get the same speeds regardless.

Specifications:
One of the reasons I bought a G router was for the extra speed on devices that have G cards and the compatibility on my devices that have B cards. In the end, I upgraded everything to G. Why? Simply because this router has very poor Wi-Fi/Wi-Fi+ support. If I turn my router to 802.11B only, I get decent wireless B speeds (usually between 8-11Mb all the time). In 802.11G only mode, I usually get throughput speeds of about 35-45Mb all the time. But in mixed mode (G & B support), I get about 2-4 Mb throughput all the time, regardless of if the device is G or B. This may be a firmware problem so I'll wait to see if a new one fixes that (while breaking something else).

All and all, it wasn't a bad buy for $40. It does all that I need it to do and since everything is G now, it works pretty great. If you are looking for a starter router that will provide your wireless needs, this one will do the trick.

I was torn between this and the Linksys WRT54G. I read some of the reviews and the Linksys seemed unstable and had a lot of complaints (having to download a patch wasn't in my agenda). Also, the linksys seemed too big and bulky. I was going to go for the Link because I thought bigger was better and since it was more expensive, would perform better.

I finally settled for this and the Netgear WG511 Wireless 54g PC Card because it was cheaper and had lesser complaints. Plus, it was a lot smaller.

Installation with WinME was a breeze and I couldn't be happier. (Took no more than 15 minutes) I thought it was going to be a hassle but it wasn't. I think having optimum online was part of it (no need to configure ISPs and domain names). The bulk of the 15 mins was the restart and plugging all the cables in.

The range for my laptop is excellent. 78% signal strength and the wireless router base is upstairs (I'm in the basement) and two rooms to the right.

Now I can surf anywhere in the house!

Oh, and here's the kicker... you know how big and bulky that linksys looks? This one has a stand so you can stand it up. If I had seen that, I would've bought this the first day that I had looked at it.

First electronic purchase that I didn't regret.

Wow. This thing is a piece of junk. I can sometimes get service for days on end, but then it'll drop me and there's no way to get reconnected. I mean, I can unplug the unit, and it will, in fact, connect me, but it's short lived. I've spent many an afternoon walking in between the living room and office (where the router is stored), unplugging and plugging the unit back in, checking my computer, ad nauseum. It'll connect me for literally seconds before I'm dropped again. I usually give up and go use my hardwired desktop. When I save the money up to get another brand I can't wait to take this one out to the backyard with a baseball bat.

I implore you, do NOT buy one of these if you value your sanity. It will push you over the edge.

By the way, i'm writing this review at work. I've tried many times at home on the laptop, but I lose the connection before I can finish.

Oh, and customer service is an utter joke.

*****update*****

i finally pulled the plug on this dog and took it to the woodshed. beat it to little bits with a baseball bat. i feel so much better.

I bought this router so that I could make use of my high-speed access (DSL) throughout the house. Set-up and configuration were a snap, although the default configuration is not very secure, and you will definitely want to do things like change the admin password, enable MAC authentication and WPA encryption, and so on. With my Ti Powerbook G4 I get great reception throughout my house (which is old and has thick walls). I also have a first-generation iMac and an old Laserwriter connected to the router by Ethernet, so both computers can reach the internet and I can print wirelessly from the Powerbook. Very nice, and much, much cheaper than Apple's Airport Extreme base station. Highly recommended.