Netgear WGU624 Double 108 Mbps Wireless A+G Router

by Netgear

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002ZH6PU
• Item model number: WGU624
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,666 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 1, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The NETGEAR Double 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router (WGU624) delivers two simultaneous 108 Mbps networks to ensure the highest speeds and the best quality of service. In addition to the 108 Mbps 802.11 b/g network, users can access a "Fast Lane" - the 802.11a network. The "Fast lane" is ideal for the most demanding of applications including high quality video streaming and serious home office use. With new XR technology, the Double 108 delivers unparalleled range -- over 400 feet indoors!

See a detailed diagram of how to integrate the WGU624 A+G Router into your home network.

Two Networks in One The NETGEAR Double 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router uses Super A+G technology to provide two parallel 108 Mbps networks at the same time. The first network - the 802.11g network is based on the most commonly used standard and is fully backward compatible with 802.11b devices. It's lightning fast 108 Mbps is ideal for web surfing, email, and downloads. The second network - the 802.11a "Fast Lane" delivers a speed and quality that is required by the most demanding applications such as video streaming - where even the slightest hiccup produces an unpleasant user experience. The Double 108 is tested and validated to work with Microsoft Media Center Extenders and Xbox game consoles. The "Fast Lane" is also great for home office users - who require the highest quality of service available.

Extra Range
Say goodbye to "dead spots" in your home! The NETGEAR Double 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router (WGU624) is the first product to include Extended Range (XR) Technology. XR provides three times the range of standard 802.11g by maintaining connectivity when signals are made faint when passing through dense walls, floors, or other barriers. When used with the Double 108 Mbps Wireless PC Card (WG511U), users can enjoy range of over 400 feet! XR requires no additional configuration by end-users and is fully interoperable with standard 802.11 technologies.

Avoid the Crowd
With Double 108, users can separate themselves from the crowded 2.4 GHz frequency. Since 2.4 GHz has only three non-overlapping channels, many users are actually sharing this frequency with their neighbors wireless networks. Further, cordless phones and microwave ovens also competing for space on the 2.4 GHz frequency. But with Double 108, users can access the 5 GHz 802.11a "Fast Lane" and avoid all of the crowds and congestion.

Security Made Simple
The Double 108 takes the guesswork out of securing your home network. WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key) is already activated to protect your network from unauthorized usage. And for online gamers, a dedicated hardware DMZ port is provided for secure gaming.

Product Description

As networking technology continues to evolve, the needs for a wireless network continue to expand, be it in the home or office. A home user may find his existing Wi-Fi wireless network inadequate for transferring movies and home video files to his notebook PC, as there is too much interference from other networks, or the speed is just not sufficient. The NETGEAR WGU624 Double 108 Mbps Wireless Router operates in either of two 108 Mbps modes, similar to having 2 networks in one product. The first 108 Mbps mode is compliant with standard 802.11g, while the second is an 802.11a network free from interference by other wireless traffic such as microwave ovens and cordless phones, and thus ideal for applications such as video streaming.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Frustrating, September 8, 2005

By 

Not an Impulse Buyer "Serres" (Fairfax, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Netgear WGU624 Double 108 Mbps Wireless A+G Router (Personal Computers)

I am a very experienced information technology professional. I wanted to upgrade my old SMC 7004 since my 13 year old decided to step on it and break off one of the antenna stalks. I went for this beauty because of specs and looks.

I downloaded the latest firmware (.11) and flashed it before doing anything else.

I did not have any problem configuring it since the browser interface is pretty straight forward. I have PPPoE with Verizon DSL and use 64 bit WEP since I don't want to have to configure all my wireless bridges around the house. I had it up and running in less than 5 minutes and I had Internet connectivity as well as brand new DHCP leases on every laptop and over every wireless bridge except for one laptop still running an old SMC2635W PCMCIA 11b card. The throughput was pretty decent for the 11b/g side and phenomenal on the 11a side. It gave a very strong signal on my back porch, way better than the 7004.

This euphoria lasted about 20 minutes. Since then, it has decided to drop connection to the Internet, drop DHCP, drop connectivity and behave in a very erratic manner.

I have been resetting it at least once every few hours for the last three days. I am getting so frustrated that I want to open the window and chuck it out.

Needless to say It is going back today.

Shame on you Netgear.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing product and technical support services! Stay away from it!, April 22, 2006

By 

W. Lam "wlanguru" (San Mateo, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Netgear WGU624 Double 108 Mbps Wireless A+G Router (Personal Computers)

**Update at the bottom**

I must admit this is the worse networking product I've seen, and I don't know how Netgear product QA could have passed this for sales.

There are several major issues with this product:

1. It stops sending beacons on both radios on a random basis. This causes wireless connectivity to drop. The only way to solve the issue is to reboot the router. I used a wireless sniffer to see if the router was sending out beacons, and it wasn't.
2. WAN connectivity drops frequently. The router recovers by itself, but I can lose WAN connectivity up to over a minute and this problem can happen quite often. I use my VoWLAN application all the time and my calls always drop. When WAN connectivity is not available, I have no problem pinging the router or accessing the router's config page.

Then, I found Netgear techsupport to be totally hopeless. My support calls always end up somewhere in India. Although the techsupport technicians were always polite, their lack of ANY networking and 802.11 skills proved them to be useless. They could offer nothing other than instructions to reconfig the router and a case number. They didn't know what I was talking about when I told them the router stopped sending beacons, and of course they wouldn't have an idea about the difference between TKIP and AES when I asked them if the key resets were causing the router to freeze. Also, there is no way to escalate the case to anyone. The techsupport person asked me to return the router.

Overall, I found this to be an extremely unpleasant experience. I have other Netgear products that are more simple in design and I never ran into issues like this. This is very unfortunate as I thought Netgear has good products.

One last note, it doesn't matter what code you put on the router. I tried everyone of them, and none of them solved my issues.

**Update** -- I ran some research on this product and found a D-Link router using the same WLAN chipset is also suffering from the same problems. Is it a coincidence? Or is there a problem with the underlying Atheros chipset?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Frequently drops connections, October 18, 2005

By 

Brian Conklin "Cap'n Bri" (Ventura, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Netgear WGU624 Double 108 Mbps Wireless A+G Router (Personal Computers)

This would be a great device if it would keep working for over a couple hours. It drops the wireless or Internet or both connections multiple times daily. Upgrading to the latest (8 month old) firmware, if anything, worsened the problem.

Search Google - This is a very common problem that Netgear doesn't seem to have addressed.

I am surprised this product hasn't been discontinued.