Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid and Fast, August 26, 2002
I've got quite a lot of experience using the Linksys BEFSR series, Netgear MR314 and now the FM114P broadband routers. Of these, the FM114P wins on just about every front.In general I liked the Linksys line as they had some useful features, including port mapping and UPnP support, which the Netgear products do not have. On the down side, they also have occasional hang ups and don't do stateful-packet-inspection (SPI). SPI is becoming ever more important with the rise of denial-of-service attacks and port scanning bots. After a particlarly frustrating week with the Linksys router needing to be reset twice as often as usual, I decided to try the Netgear MR314 (note: the same routing hardware is in all the xx31x models). At first, I was a bit disapppointed at the loss of port forwarding and UPnP support but at least the router was solid (no resets) and the wireless range was excellent. After downloading the latest firmware from Netgear's site I took a look at what else they offer and saw the FM114P model, which I hadn't seen at any local stores. The next morning I took back the 314 and bought the 114 at CDW for the SPI firewall features alone. I was pleasantly suprised that I got a whole lot more for the extra [money] it cost me. The first thing I noticed is that the 114 is faster, and not just a tiny bit faster but a LOT faster. This suprised me as I didn't think that any router added a significant delay to the packet stream but I immediately noticed the pages loading faster. I can't say that there is a bandwidth increase, but latency is definitely reduced (the lag between clicking on a link and the page starting to load). I assume this is due to the 114's 75mhz processor performing its logging, security checks, and routing processes in significantly less time than the other brands/models's unspecified embedded hardware. In my opinion, using a true onboard processor is the way routing hardware should, and will, be headed in the future. The 114 also improves on the 314 with a detachable antenna, stateful firewall, built-in print server, better service customization (still no UPnP though) and more security options. This unit is practically perfect for connecting and securing a "broadband attached home network"; with wires or without.
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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent and reliable wireless performance!, October 2, 2002
I purchased the FM114P router and the MA-410 PCMCIA wireless card (see separate review) from Amazon. The FM114P worked right out of the box without any installation or configuration. I took the internet cable out of my computer, plugged it into the FM114P and the ran an internet cable (provided) from my cable modem to the FM114P. It worked flawlessly. I would recommend pulling the plug on the cable modem and then plugging it in again after about 5-10 seconds. Some cable modems require this reset action after a configuration change.The MA-401 was installed in 5 minutes, so in less then 10 minutes after opening the boxes I had a wireless network. In addditon to the laptop running in wireless mode I had another computer hardwired to the router. No other action is REQUIRED for basic wired and wireless operation, but if you want encrytion, and other privacy features enabled you will have to configure the router. Configuration is relatively straight forward. After bringing up Internet Explorer or Netscape you type in the router address (192.168.0.1). The router then displays a login window (defaults are admin/password). Once logged onto the router, three columns are displayed. Left=setup function selections (e.g.wireless, password, logs, etc.); middle=parameters to change for each function; right=help info for each parameter. There is a separate procedure for setting up the printer port; a little tricky, but once setup worked fine. The wireless capabilities of the FM114P coupled with the MA-401 were great for my house (2500 sq ft plus basement). The MA-401 received a good signal from every room in the house including the basement, and worked upto about 40-50 feet outside. The FM114P is located on the first floor. I do not have any 2.4GHZ phones so I cannot tell if there would be a problem (D-Link does have a problem with this but otherwise seems fine; Linksys seems to have serious problems for wireless use). The download speed using wireless seemed to be the same as using the wired connection to the router. From professional reviews the firewall seems to be state of the art for this price range of routers, and allows a log to be emailed to you from hourly to weekly if you want ot puruse security actions. With the new firmware (see below) you can have all traffic logged if you so wish (I don't!). The router came with firmware version 1.1 release 0; Netgear's web site now has version 1.3 release 5 (released in Sept 2002) ready for download. I downloaded the latest firmware using the instructions on their web site. It took a couple of minutes and worked fine. I did not notice any improvement or degradation, but it is always good to have the latest version, especially if you ever need to call tech support for help. I highly recommend the FM114P and MA-401 combination.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid Product, January 1, 2003
I bought this router after having months of trouble with a Linksys BEFW11P1, which died one night with the fatal red diagnostic light refusing to go off.It is everything it advertises. It gets excellent range thanks to it's detachable antenna, and I might add that it's WiFi Certified. I get 11Mb reception in places where I previously got 2. That's quite a jump. It's firewall is tough, and solid as well. SPI is a great feature to have these days. It comes with plenty of aided setup material to get someone with no experience with home networking up and running. The print server is pretty zippy, just like the one in the Linksys, but more reliable. New firmware is constantly coming out, and features are being introduced all the time. Features in the beta firmware (free download) currently not advertised for this product include UPnP support, traceroute support, improved device table, logging of sites visited, SSID broadcast can be disabled, as well as compatibility fixes. Soon this firmware will become stable and available to everyone. It's a great product. I highly recommend it. It's good now, and Netgear seems dedicated to making it better.
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