Отзывы о Wi-Fi усилитель сигнала (репитер) NETGEAR WN1000RP

I decided to add VPN to my home LAN. I wanted to have an always on connection that would include all my devices: PC, iMac, Macbook Pro, 2 iPads, Apple TV2. And I wanted to be able to have more than one device active at the same time (Netflix and web browsing etc.). During my search for a VPN provider I found most VPN service providers restrict the number of device connections to 1 or 2 devices at a time UNLESS you use a DD-WRT router with PPTP or OpenVPN protocols. DD-WRT is an OpenSource project that provides firmware that replaces the manufacturer's firmware. Not all routers are supported. My Cisco RV042G is not supported. It was not possible to download the firmware from DD-WRT.COM and roll-my-own and I am not sure I would have wanted to risk making it a brick anyway. (For some odd reason the VPN providers do not let you set up the VPN in a regular [NON DD-WRT] VPN router). So I needed a new dd-wrt type router.Not all versions of dd-wrt support VPN. This Netgear WNR3500 L/U router is preconfigured with DD-WRT v24-sp2 (01/10/12) vpnkong - build 18050M which supports both OpenVPN and PPTP.You still have to configure the DD-WRT Router software to use your VPN provider's settings and your account info. The VPN provider should provide a web based setup routine or applet to embed a new page on the router dd-wrt firmware where you can select which country's server to use and to connect/disconnect VPN. In addition it will set up account information such as Username/Password, Provider log-in server etc.I plugged the new router in behind my Cisco RV042G configured as my Gateway (and turned off its DHCP server), ran the VPN provider's Applet on the Netgear WNR3500 (which turned on its DHCP server), rebooted the WNR3500, renewed the DHCP lease on all my devices and what do you know? It worked! I had chosen a Server in Los Angeles and that is whatismyip.com showed. So I go back to the server selection page on the router and chose a Singapore VPN server. Reconnected and now my ip shows I am in Singapore.It was a lucky find to see this gigabit router on Amazon prime at such a good price. Even though it is a reconditioned router you should not let that bother you. To make a router into a DD-WRT router voids any manufacturer's warranty. Other firms market DD-WRT routers also and none come with Mfg. warranty. When you enter this DD-WRT/VPN world of geeks, forums and inept Help Desks, it is like descending into a dark place where you can lose days. This router is the way to go.It makes Life good.

I purchased this router to replace a Cisco/Linksys 3000 router that kept crapping out on the wireless radio.This one was a breeze to install. It came with a cable (yellow) and a power supply and a very simple 6-step installation guide. It also comes pre-configured with both radios (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz) set up for WPA2 encryption and its own SSID and WPA password. Their instructions tell you to reset the SSID and password on your devices after installing the router. I chose to change the SSID and password to the one that already existed from the old router.The unit came with a temporary sticker to put on top over the input ports of the unit. This sticker has symbols for the power supply connection, the first LAN port and the WAN port (which is yellow). The cable had labels that stated 'this end to WAN port' and 'this end to Internet'. I have a DSL modem as my connection to the internet. I connected the cable between the router and the DSL modemI then connected my desktop to the first port, then I connected the power.I brought up my browser and went to their designated address,[...](or some such). The router screen came up and went through a setup wizard. In a few seconds, it determined that I had DSL and asked for my login name and password, which I provided. A few seconds later I had internet access.I then used their web configuration tool and went to the wireless setup. I changed the SSIDs and WPA password to those I used on the Ciscon/Linksys and applied the changes. The router rebooted and then my wireless devices connected with no problems.A couple things compared to the Cisco it replaced:1. after a few days, it is stable as a rock.2. The Cisco allows you to set the SSID for both of the radio's to be the same. Netgear does not.3. With the Cisco, the WiFi light flashes with WiFi activity. The Netgear lights are steady.4. With the Cisco, the LEDs are on the top surface and therefore can be seen if wall mounted. The Netgear LEDs are on the side.5. the supplied stand is not attached, so you can wall mount without having to rip it out.

I bought one to pair with a Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router. It does a wonderful job, and the setup was simple and operation reliable.First of all, please note that this wireless product has a single operating band at 5GHz. It will not work with 2.4GHz routers or other 2.4Ghz devices that need to connect with this unit wirelessly.The Netgear has two different operating modes, a bridge mode and an access point mode, switchable with a hardware switch which is so much better than a software enabled switch.The bridge/access point distinction:Allow me to digress a little bit here. The concepts of an "access point" and a "bridge" can be confusing to many. I've seen very technical definitions of these, but not really helpful for end-users. What always confused me was they never tell you what exactly connects to what, in what manner (wireless or ethernet?), and the signal is going from which unit to which unit doing what(signal direction and function). So let me try to describe this using the simplest possible language.-- A wireless access point connects to clients (your PCs, or other end-user devices) wirelessly but connects to the Internet through an ethernet cable. There may be a modem involved there, but that's a detail not affecting the concept. That is, it gives the clients a wireless access to the Internet, therefore called a wireless access point.-- A wireless bridge connects to the clients directly through ethernet cables but connects to the Internet wirelessly (usually through a wireless router or an access point). The wireless bridge has wireless receiving capability of course, but it does not have wireless broadcasting capability. Therefore it does not connect to the clients wirelessly and does not have an SSID for itself to broadcast like a wireless access point or wireless router would.However, the above definitions are traditional pure Access Point and Bridge. With the newer WDS technology, bridges start to have wireless broadcasting capability as well. In the WDS setup, multiple bridges are used together to cover a wider area. A WDS bridge would on one hand work like a traditional bridge to wirelessly receive signals from the router or an upper-level bridge, while at the same time transmits signal wirelessly to the next level bridge. Even in a WDS setup, the key point to understand is still that the bridges don't assign IP addresses to other connected devices. They are sort of passive in terms of IP addressing, and that is why you can't simply connect two active routers to do what the router and a bridge can do. But all this is just for clarification and has nothing to do with the device reviewed here.(By the way, a router is really a network switch plus an access point. The network switch takes care of the network address assignment and management, without which your devices may be connected, but the signals would not know where to go. This part is usually clear to most people.)I read another reviewer complaining that you need two Netgear bridges to make a real "bridge". Obviously, the reviewer intuitively defines a bridge as something that wirelessly connects (bridges) two non-wireless ends. If a wireless bridge were supposed to do that, then you indeed always need two units to complete a bridge. This is inherently true, because in any technology, to wirelessly connect two sides, you need both sides to have wireless capability. If you have a transmitter on one side, there must be a receiver on the other side, or vice versa. In the field of Wi-Fi, the routers came out first and provided wireless capability at one end. The other end is typically a wireless client such as a wireless adapter card. But sometimes you may want several PCs to share a "united wireless adapter" to connect to a wireless router. That is, the shared "united wireless adapter" wirelessly connects to the router on behalf of the several local PCs while grouping the local PCs through wired connections. This is the concept of a bridge in Wi-Fi. It is always just one side, assuming that you've got a wireless router or access point on the other side.When and why you need a bridge?For example, in my case, I needed a bridge. I already had a wireless router placed in a room that has direct access to the Internet through fiber optics. Several computers in the house can individually access the wireless router wirelessly, so I don't need a bridge just to access the Internet. However, these computers are grouped together in a different area. They could benefit from a bridge placed nearby. The bridge wirelessly connects to the router, while the computers in this group connect to the bridge using reliable ethernet cables.There are several benefits of the above bridge arrangement. First, I would no longer need to worry about wireless cards installed on separate computers, etc. All computers in this group connect to the bridge using ethernet cable. As long as the wireless connection between the bridge and the router

I needed a router, so that I could use my streaming video player. I initially wanted a standard wired ethernet router, but they are very hard to find anymore. I did a lot of research on wireless routers, and the general concensus seemed to be that none of them are perfect, and none of the companies making them have very good customer service. So I decided to pick whatever mid-range wireless router that I could find locally. I was feeling itchy, and I didn't want to be out too much money if the router went up in a cloud of smoke. What I ended up with is a Netgear N300 V3.Plugging in ethernet cables, I was up and running right away. Getting an internet connection to the wireless-g reciever was a bit of headache with my old Windows XP laptop. In all fairness to Netgear, the wireless receiver in that particular notebook is known to be wonky, although connecting to hotel wireless networks was never a problem.Getting a wireless internet connection with the wireless-n receiver in my new Windows 7 laptop was a real piece of cake. I put in the password, and that was it, I was up and surfing right away.I didn't think I would be using the wireless connection much, but I don't notice any difference in speed, so I really don't bother to plug in much anymore.The router is in the living room on the ground floor where my cable modem is. I get a strong connection out on the deck, through a cinder block wall. Up one floor, I'm still getting a very good connection - streaming video and music is no problem. I couldn't tell you about signal strength down the street though.The wireless radio can be turned off if you want, and I like that. You can also turn the router completely off if you want. I will note that it takes maybe 30 to 45 seconds to reconnect when you first turn it on.The router does not come with a CD-ROM or anything for loading software. You have to download it from the Netgear website. You'll need the software to adjust some security and other settings, but I think I'm back to the default settings now. The software does a good job of fixing connectivity issues. In the case of my old laptop, the issues definately aren't Netgear's fault. It's nice that I don't have to shut down the computer, and then restart it again to reconnect.It's a pretty no-frills router, without a USB port for printer sharing or an external hard drive, but it works. From what I hear, connecting to printers, even through compatible wireless routers, can be tricky anyway, with some routers and printers being incompatible. I'm pretty sure that I can network my old laptop, printer, and new laptop, and print from one computer in the living room to the other computer and printer in the second bedroom/office upstairs.

I purchased this unit for use on an AT&T-based DSL connection that was switched over to DSL Extreme. It has proven to be a capable modem/router and I am basically happy with it. I have read some 1-star reviews that sound to me like the person wasn't entirely familiar with how these units are supposed to work, how they should be set up, or what would be a reasonable expectation of a wireless connection to a household DSL service. So here are some points I have learned over the years:1. DSL is always an imperfect way to move lots of digital data, but it can be reasonably good if your location meets several stringent criteria, and it is usually well-priced in big cities. That means that speeds vary throughout the day, and packets can get dropped at times. You are just using regular old long twisted-pair copper wires, not great shielded cable with high grade amplifiers along its length; many DSL services are quite good these days though, despite all of the difficulties. Your personal experience will vary with location.2. Wireless connections to DSL services are also imperfect, since the power of the radio involved on both ends is supposed to be rather low, and the antennas are usually small. The manufacturers must build well-priced systems that average people can buy, the computer manufacturers must fit all of that same capability into a small space and often run it only on battery power, and the FCC requires all of these digital data radios to be of low power so that we can all have them and not be running over each other. Those are real challenges to meet.3. Ratings for products tend to be very polarized, in that you will see lots of high ratings and lots of low ratings, and usually only few in the middle. People are not being dishonest at all, but "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" so to speak. The reviewer of any product is a real person, not an idealized one, and they may not be up on all the latest stuff, they may not really know what they are doing with a particular product, they may not have lots of money to spend on things some of us can buy almost without thinking, and they may not be motivated to write any review unless they absolutely loved a product or absolutely hated it. You usually cannot get truly unbiased product information from reading reviews, so take all of them with a grain of salt, including mine. If you need a good internet connection and don't want to get into cable and the massive up-sell for endless expensive television services, the expense and trouble of satellite (which is usually of very limited availability and still a slow connection), and you don't need the blazing speeds of high-end ($$$) fiber-optics or similarly graded lines, then you will need DSL, you will need a modem, and you will probably end up needing a wireless server to communicate data to and from all of your mobile devices, so here we are...Do I "absolutely love" this modem/router unit? No, not really. But it seems to be a generally very good one with all of the features most people would need. Setting it up was relatively easy, though I did end up doing it manually after being a little unsatisfied with the setup wizard's procedures. I do kind of know what I am doing with these, so I was not intimidated, but I can see how a novice might be completely frustrated and end up giving up in a rage. Like anything technical, this unit can be set up with lots of subtle differences from a default setting (whatever that is) and one must be patient enough to actually follow through with everything and get it right. Do not expect it to be magic, or automatic; it isn't quite that. You will need to decide on how you want it set up with respect to security options and such, and you will then need to get that information into the unit via either the setup wizard (not my favorite way) or by plugging in by wire first and getting directly into the settings system of the router through a browser (my preference.) You can run wireless after finished with the initial setup. If you don't quite get it right the first time, just do it again and make more careful choices the next time. You'll eventually get it right, even if you are just learning to set these devices up; it really isn't hard. Note that getting into the settings through a browser requires one to enter the URL for the unit, which for mine is 192.168.0.1, and you type that right into the address bar of the browser once your computer is connected to the router and recognizing it at the network connection. It isn't important to actually have an internet connection for this, as you really aren't online while doing it. Also, the Netgear website says that different products of theirs have different access URLs, so the number code listed here might not actually be what your own unit needs, but exactly what you need should be indicated somewhere on a tag on the unit or at the website of its maker.Some reviewers have mentioned flashing any new firmware

I have used other wireless range extenders that are just repeaters. While these are effective, and offer the convenience of defaulting to the same SSID so as to cut down on confusion for your users, they also have some limitations... That is, by the nature of repeaters, certain functionality is broken. In my case, the issue was multicast. My Xbox 360 associated to the repeater could no longer connect to my UPnP-based media server, since UPnP uses multicast for discovery. Enter this Netgear WiFi range extender...So, for my fellow geeks, this is NOT, technically speaking, a wireless range extender/repeater. It's a wireless bridge with an additional dual-band WAP built in, and it is AWESOME. So here's how it works:1) You plug it in and turn it on.2) You associate your laptop or whatever else to it and navigate to a URL. It will capture your request and forcibly redirect it to its internal setup wizard.3) In the wizard, you associate the range extender to your main access point and pick out TWO new SSIDs for the new 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz networks. In theory, I suppose you could set the same SSID - I didn't try. I decided I'd rather actually subdivide my network into different SSIDs so I'd have control over which WAP my devices connected to. The wizard points out that they recommend doing it as I did it, so I guess that implies you *could* use the same SSID, but I don't know for sure.4) Profit!I don't think the 2.4 Ghz side supports 40 hz (300 mbps) 802.11n, since the highest connection rate I saw from my laptop was 130 mbps, but the 5 ghz side connects at 300 mbps consistently. According to my main router/WAP (which only supports 2.4 ghz), the range extender is connected at 144 mbps. Again, I don't know if 40 hz is supported.I didn't see any option to choose which channels the new networks transmit on. According to Vistumbler, the 2.4 ghz side is broadcasting on channel 3, which is the same as my main network. Whether it does this because it's what I chose for my main network or because it automatically chose a non-saturated channel, I can't say.Using Speedtest.net, throughput and latency through the extender was virtually indistinguishable from my main router/WAP.Some hardcore geeks might take issue with the lack of fine control I've illustrated, but overall, I really don't miss it. It's simple to set up, it works well (every corner of my house has good wifi coverage now), and it has a four-port switch built in, so I have no complaints.

Amazon needs to add negative stars as a rating option! I bought this thing (to call it a router would be misleading) in June, and in August it started dropping SSID. I bought it in the US, using US currency, yet I get India when calling Tech Support. I am tech savvy (over 30 years of using building PC's) and a call (that should have resulted with an RMA number) took over an hour, with a tech that didn't speak English as well as my brothers 4 year old, had me try basic things that I already tried before I called them. They then said I had to wait a week to call them back to allow the changes to take effect.A week passes and it's to the point that I'm resetting it every day because it looses connection after about 3 hours. I try to call tech support, but can't get through for over 5 hours, so I try the chat feature on-line (I have a kind neighbor with guest access) to be informed in chat that my lifetime warrantee only gives me 90 days of phone support, and I will have to call their PAY service to troubleshoot the problem. I ask for the corporate number for Netgear, and she disconnected the chat!I called Netgear sales, hoping to speak to someone who knows English, and I get someone who claims he is in the US, but still is hard to understand, and he wants me to go through a troubleshooting session. I explain that I cannot connect to the unit as it isn't transmitting a signal and I am using my iPad at the time, and he wants me to do a factory reset (done this 4 times at this point) and connect to it via cable to problem-solve. He try's to tell me that dropping SSID is a feature of the router and it might be configured incorrectly.At this point I let him know I'm finished, and if they can't issue an RMA number, I'll just go to corporate with the problem and by another brand. He says that corporate doesn't deal with costumers, and I must go through their process as many times as it takes them to fix the problem.So, I will call corporate, and update here after talking with them. I'm also going to buy a different router from another company as there is no way I would trust a refurbished product from Netgear as I can't even trust their new products!Thaddeus Cultt

I've had to buy several routers over the past year. The Medialink that has rave reviews, as it should, and now this one are the ones you want. I had given up on cheap routers, but decided to try this Netgear. Mine was $19.00 and I thought, why not, what can I lose. I connected it and it worked. Simple as that. The factory settings were perfect. I was dumbfounded and stunned. I was prepared to spend the whole evening and into the morning getting it to work. Outstanding predicted speeds without drops. The laptop on wireless was just as easy. My computer saw it. I clicked the connect icon and presto. Perfection. Top speeds too. That's my experience. I'm writing this because there is so much variability out there with these. Now, I know that price does not predict the likelihood of routers performing as they should. Good luck.Update 3 months later: I was in the neighborhood and thought there is something I can add. I didn't purposely do a comparison, but since I had the MedialinkMedialink - Wireless N Broadband Router - 150 Mbps - 2.4GHz - 802.11n w/ Internal Antenna new, sitting in a drawer, I decided to put it back into service and give my Netgear baby a rest. To my delight the Netgear Genie software was compatible with it, so I didn't lose all those features I like. I know I sound like I'm raving here, but if you had been through my router heartaches you'd understand. Well, one day, out of nowhere I had internet connection problems with the Medialink. I looked at the Genie and I could tell that the Medialink was cycling full open speed, then back to disconnect with both of my computers. I did all the trouble shooting, then thought darn, I'll have to call their support. Instead, I re employed my Netgear baby and it's been to work ever since, not dropping a beat. Nothing against Medialink because I haven't followed that through.Oh, and I looked at the worst review that compares to mine and left a comment there regarding Netgear support. They have to manually enter the serial number for registration rather than doing it at the website. They called me a few days later to ask if it was all OK. It was, and I haven't been in touch with them again.

I'm no computer expert, but was curious to try something other than my wired cable modem for internet connection. I knew I was missing a lot of the features on some of my other gadgets that a WiFi access point in my home would give me. So I chose this router after talking with a few computer salesfolk at a few different stores. I bought it based on ease of setup and low price (was on sale for $35)Overall I am satisfied with the purchase. Setup was very easy...basically just connected my cable modem line into the router, powered it up, waited for all the lights to turn the right colors and then set up all my devices (iPod, iPhone, PS3, Laptop being the main ones) to log onto the network. It all happened without a hitch. I'm loving being able to stream music and videos to my phone without having to worry about excessive phone data usage bills.I have noticed the range is..fair. I have an 1800 square foot home and even though I do have connectivity all throughout the house, the room that is farthest from the router (about 50 feet away with several walls inbetween) has a noticeable slower connection..something more like 6 Mb/second instead of 25 Mb/sec through most of the other rooms. But that is still just fine for internet browsing, email, etc. I have no complaints really, I rarely go into that room to be quite honest, but felt it was worth mentioning.I can recommend this product as a good entry level wireless router. It suits my basic needs and allows me to enjoy a wireless internet connection with minimal expense and stress.

I have a home WiFi network configured with different SSIDs for the 2.4- and 5-GHz bands, so I can confirm that this universal WiFi adapter is correctly connected to the 5-GHz band on my dual-band WiFi router. The box actually contains two pieces, which was not immediately obvious from the picture in this listing: a small plastic stand that the device clips into (approximately lower 1-inch of photo), the actual adapter with power and Ethernet ports. A small foam piece with double-sided tape is also provided to secure the device to a surface, along with the power adapter cable assembly and a very thin Ethernet cable (presumably Cat5 or Cat5e) that I opted not to use.I connected an aftermarket Cat6 cable to the unit and connected it to an 8-port Gigabit network switch after configuring it to connect to my 5-GHz WiFi network via a direct connection to my laptop. It successfully provided speedy access to all of my AV components (AV receiver, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) connected to the switch. I like that I only have one WiFi entry/exit point to all of my AV devices, which has eliminated network latency and interference observed before when multiple adjacent devices were using the WiFi network concurrently. It also helps that I've moved all of my AV devices to the 5-GHz wireless band, which is less crowded than the 2.4-GHz band in my particular townhome complex.I opted to not use WiFi Protected Setup (WPS), as it apparently opens up some security concerns on WiFi networks. For the record, my router is configured to encrypt data streams via WPA2+AES. I configured the device to allow my master router to distribute IP Addresses via DHCP. I did not have any trouble getting IP Addresses to any of my devices.I used the small foam piece with double-sided tape to fix the unit to some open stand space located behind my large HDTV. As a result, people are none the wiser when inspecting my home theater that I'm using a universal WiFi adapter to extend my network. I'm happy with the unit and it functions as advertised. I like that I've been able to avoid running wires to my network ready AV equipment.

The purpose of a wireless router is to keep devices connected to the internet. This router failed miserably in this regard. The router constantly drops the internet connection (2 to 3 times a day) and when it drops, the router no longer shows up in the list of available connections. As a result, the router has to be rebooted in order to re-connect. (This problem happens with all three laptops and a Kindle we use in my house.)The Netgear product documentation makes no mention of this problem, however, I found three separate customer posts (the earliest from December 2011) about this same issue on a Netgear corporate support forum and no one from Netgear responded. (Why have a support forum if you're not going to respond to customers??) So, I did some further research and it turns out this problem is a known, documented problem with this router. I found a forum with a thread specifically about this issue with the N300 router. (Do a Google search of: netgear-router-dropping-connection-try-this.) The solutions to fix the issue proposed on the forum are to:- Downgrade to an earlier version of the router firmware: Version WNR2000v3 Initial Release Firmware Version 1.0.1.26.- Change the following router setting: "To prevent PIN compromise, auto disable the PIN after [x] failed PIN connections, until router reboots."I tried the second option and it did not work for me (although others on the forum state that it worked for them). As a result, instead of spending the time changing the firmware version, I decided to purchase a different router.Netgear ought to be ashamed of itself for continuing to sell a faulty product, and having customers to research, on their own, the solutions to fixing the faulty product.

I received this router for Christmas to replace an older Netgear wireless G router so I'd have increased range and better speed. I hooked the router up around the first of the year and once I figured out how to get it to play nice with AT&T (had to go through an on-line process of registering the router with them)it worked as advertised, for about a month...A couple of weeks ago the router started freezing up on me. All of the lights were lit up on the front but none of my connected devices were registering an internet connection (I have a desktop PC an Ooma phone hub connected directly into the device and a laptop, PS3, Wii, and cell phone that I connect to it wirelessly from time to time). I would have to unplug the router to reboot it to get it running again. This morning when I came downstairs the only lights that were functioning were the power light (red) and the "1" and "2" lights to indicate the two Ethernet connected devices. I've tried re-booting the thing several times but it's shot. It's not even trying to establish an internet connection now.I replaced it with my old wireless "G" model (DG834G) and the old device works just fine. I spoke with the person that bought the gift for me and she bought it here on Amazon. I'm hoping I can still exchange it through Amazon because I don't want to go through the Netgear customer service nightmares that others have experienced.UPDATE: Unfortunately my window to return the device thru Amazon expired at the end of January. I had to call tech support and that was a nightmare. The problems that others have reported are true, the tech did everything he could think of to try and not replace the defective unit. We rebooted it by pulling the power cord, pressing the reset button, holding down the pinhole reset button, plugging it into another power outlet (really?) despite the fact that I told the guy right off the bat that I must've tried to reboot the darn thing on my own at least 10 times this morning BEFORE I called.When it was all said and done I finally got an RMA ordered. Despite having a 1 year hardware warranty I had (3) options:1) Go down to the post office, mail them the defective unit at my expense, and wait for a replacement2) Have them send me the replacement first at a charge of $16.99 w/ a prepaid label for the old unit.3) Same thing but pay them twenty something dollars for next day delivery of the replacement (the tech was very hard to understand)I chose option #2. I really don't like the idea of sending them mine first. I will update again once I receive the replacement unit... And here I thought Netgear would be much better than that 2Wire crap AT&T gave me when I renewed my service...UPDATE #2: I received my replacement unit and it seems to be working pretty well so far. I had to update the firmware before wireless devices could connect to it but (fingers crossed) so far it's been running for several days straight without needing to be rebooted.UPDATE #3: I added a third star to my review because the router seems to finally be working properly. As I stated early on in this review the first unit died and had to be replaced but after several months of dealing with Netgear and AT&T they isolated my problem to a bad line. AT&T kept blaming Netgear (said they couldn't troubleshoot the router because they don't sell them) and Netgear kept saying the problem was with the ISP. After suffering another week of dropped & weak DSL signal I FINALLY convinced AT&T that the problem was on their end and they sent out a tech the next day. He immediately identified the problem as a bad line in our neighborhood and had it fixed within an hour. Ever since I've had a stable signal and the router has done its job.UPDATE #4: It's been a few weeks since my last update and this router has worked the entire time without missing a beat. I guess if you're one of the lucky ones and get a "good" one they work great, if not you're in for many hours of troubleshooting hell trying to get it up and running.

For 5 years I owned a perfectly good Linksys router. Numerous laptops, a wireless security camera, a wireless printer, smartphones, and other devices all worked perfectly with this Linksys router.One sunny afternoon, in a fit of altruism, I decided the house needed a new router. Standing in the aisle of the electronics store I carefully weighted our internet surfing needs. Since we don't stream much video and mainly check email and wikipedia for the latest subject of the day, the WNR2000 model seemed to provide enough bandwidth and other features. "Awesome," I thought to myself, "I will receive tons of accolades when everyone sees the new router and experiences a more pleasurable online experience."Setup was easy and I liked the "Netgear Genie" at first since it gave me easier control of router settings than my 5 year old linksys. "It's a router. It does what it should. No big deal." Or so I thought. About an hour after installing the router and linking it to all the devices in the house, I tried to print a page on my wireless printer. The page wouldn't print. Then I noticed my laptop was disconnected from the internet and the other laptop was disconnected too.I rebooted the router thinking it was just a glitch. But, no, it wasn't a glitch as a few hours later everything was disconnected again.Reliability has only declined since that first day. I must power off the router at least a couple times each day to reestablish wireless for one laptop. The other laptop rarely connects wirelessly so I have to connect with an ethernet cable to the router. The printer never works wirelessly and must be connected via USB cable to the laptop and the wireless camera has yet to be installed.It was very frustrating to go from very reliable wireless internet to sporadic (at best) service. The Netgear router is going back to the store (or into the trash) this weekend and I will reinstall my old, trusty, Linksys.

I purchased this Adapter because I was extremely happy with the results of my Netgear N300 adapter.I live in a three story house and my wireless router is on the third floor but my office is on the first floor...I purchased the N300 and was pretty satisfied with the connection for doing work and normal browsing.However, when I watch netflix or play online games, I noticed that the FPS on the games was not where it could be...I looked online and saw that there was an N600 that was supposed to be a step up from my N300 as far as connection ability and consistency, and from further studies saw that the N900 was a step above that...I took a leap and purchased the N900 because I knew the Olympics was coming up and had planned to watch the Olympics online through Satellite DirectThe setup seemed nice and smooth, no issues at all like some of the other users were experiencing... but the first thing I noticed was that instead of Five Bars (I was getting Four Bars with my N300) I was only getting THREE bars???I decided to look past that and try out an online game that I play called America's Army 3My FPS was all over the place... With my N300 I was averaging 150 FPSWith my N900 I average 100 with extremes ranging from 50 FPS to 250 FPSI watched the Olympic opening ceremonies today with the N900 and it looked terrible... I thought for sure I would get HD Quality from this adapter as I was getting it with the N300...I am willing to take blame if I did something wrong, but according to the instructions given, it does not appear so...Here are my specs just in case you are wondering:Operating System MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1CPU Intel Core i7 @ 3.50GHz Sandy Bridge 32nm TechnologyRAM 16.0 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 824MHz (9-9-9-24)Motherboard ASUSTeK Computer INC. P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 (LGA1155)Graphics PanasonicTV0 (1600x900@59Hz) AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series (ATI AIB)Hard Drives 977GB Seagate ST1000DM003-9YN162 ATA Device (SATA) 117GB OCZ OCZ-AGILITY3 ATA Device (SATA)Optical Drives ASUS BW-12B1STAudio AMD High Definition Audio Device

Just purchased this at local store. I avoided latest and greatest version (DGND3700) due to NETGEAR past history on new products and poor early reviews. This device seems to be working fine so far and I will update this review in month or so to report status. Not noticing a huge difference in speed but I really bought it to replace a modem that was going on the fritz. I upgraded the firmware to 48 and do not see any problems. The product documentation mentioned to not call your ISP for help except for your network password. Guess by now they figured most ISP help desks are not going to give you the settings needed to get it working. I did not need support for this install however as it was very easy.Pros:-Interface similar to old NETGEAR router-Very easy set-up. Skipped CD install disk and went to wizard running on 3300. Ran wizard and it set-up AT&T DSL with no problems.-Like ability to define multiple networks.-Nice to have only one device handling modem and routerCons:-Noticed some signal strength fluctuation which I did not have on older NETGEAR router. This is not impacting speed or connectivity so far.My experience with these NETGEAR devices:Don't buy the newest device they just released. NETGEAR has a history of not getting all the kinks out of new products before shipping. I noticed this router has a "v2" attached to the model number. Probably means they have made modifications to fix earlier problems. If you look at all the early reviews on this product they tended be more negative -reporting more problems- than the latest ones.I only gave 4 stars due to the signal strength flux. I would not expect that from a new device. Also as I was writing this my DSL connection went out in a rain storm. Happened on other DSL modem occasionally so with this one no improvement there.UPDATE: 11/25/11Working without any problems after a tweak on the DNS config and have seen faster downloads and streaming after making sure my PC was running 802.11N. I had web page loading errors (time out loading pages) due to the router always looking up my ISP DNS which is the default factory setting on Netgear. If you go into the router config you can manually set your ISP's DNS in the router and then the router will stop asking for it. This was causing web pages to not load 1 out of 10 times. Go to "whatsmydns.net" to find the IP address of your ISP's DNS server.Other note:Signal fluctuations are due in part to implementation of the 802.11N spec on my PC and the router but are not impacting performance. Browsing and streaming are much better that previous router.Still only giving this 4 stars. Too much fiddling required to get the PC and router in optimal settings. But since I got it set-up it works great. I am even using the remote USB storage with no problems.UPDATE: 12/26/2012Still works great. No issues at all. No dropped connections or access issues. Upgraded my DSL to a higher speed and it is obvious that this router is not a limiting factor to my download speeds. Everything sped up nicely. With a teenager always playing PS3 online games my bandwidth to the router was hitting its capacity.

I just got the WNDA4100 yesterday and here are my first impressions. First, I am using the WNDR4500 Netgear router. I have been using it for about 3 months and have been very happy with the router. It has been very reliable since the last firmware update (v1.0.1.6). My router and PC are on opposite corners of the house, about 60ft and 8 walls. I know 5GHz does not do well penetrating walls but I wanted to see what it could do. My laptop with 802.11n and a single antenna at the same distance gets 72Mbps, the max it can get with 1 antenna. My desktop PC (Dell Inspiron 531/Windows 7) has a 802.11g PCI card adapter and gets 54Mbps. I wanted to upgrade since I have been working on some large video files that take 15mins or more to backup. I also wanted to try out 802.11a (5GHz). With 3 antennas in the adapter 2.4GHz max is 216Mbps and 5GHz max is 450Mbps. The WNDA4100 is a large USB adapter. It won't fit in my PC directly so I had to use the connector cable. Using the cable is a good idea since I could easily hit the adapter if it was plugged in upfront. I installed the software from CD and everything installed correctly. The router has an SSID for 2.4GHz and one for 5GHz. I disconnected from the 2.4GHz SSID and connected to the 5GHz SSID. I was not getting the expected performance. I was getting 54Mbps. I started inSSIDer to see what was going on. I rebooted and it did not fix it. I was finally able to connect at 162Mbps. I think inSSIDer was causing problems with the connection. I was only getting 3 bars (-80db) with 5GHz so that explained the 162Mbps and proved my concern about 5GHz penetrating walls. I then disconnected at 5GHz and connected at 2.4GHz. I got 4 bars (-60db) and connected at 216Mbps, the max. I then tried to ftp a 1G file to my NAS server. It took 3mins versus about 15mins. I am happy. I plan to try it on my laptop at a closer distance to see if 802.11a @ 450Mbps is possible.Side rant. I am looking at getting a new laptop. A laptop usually lasts me 5 years so I want it to support 802.11a as well as 802.11n. I want it to have 3 antennas so I can get the max connection speed. I am willing to pay extra for an option to upgrade wireless networking. I just can't believe the new round of laptops coming out don't offer this. I found the Dell Ultrabook supports 802.11a with 2 antennas but other than this high-end model I have not found one.

DO NOT BUY THIS OR ANY OTHER ROUTER FROM NETGEARI encountered two bugs with this router, one causing the wireless to drop out daily and refusing to accept wireless connections until rebooted.I searched the Netgear support site and saw this (and my other MAC address validation bug) were both known bugs in the firmware.I had a dozen painful email exchanges with the customer service team. I only seemed to get clumsily canned responses where the canned response was carelessly pasted in, starting or stopping mid sentence, in broken English. To do a factory reset, I was told to press and hold buttons on my router that it didn't have. When I let them know the router does not have such a button, they thanked me for factory resetting it. I felt like I was talking to an automaton.The ticket was moving between staff with no one reading the notes, giving the same update the firmware and factory reset instructions. Talking to customer service was like talking to a brick wall or an IVR. There was no resolution. There's no fix and, because I didn't keep the receipt, no replacement. So, I have a broken router that can go in the bin and I can buy a cheaper one that works. Good one, Netgear.I have worked in IT for 28 years and my experience with Netgear customer support was the worst experience with tech support I have ever had with any company.

After using two other WiFi routers in as many years I had given up on maintaining a steady WiFi connection. I finally concluded there were just too many other people in my condo that also had WiFi and especially with the new devices that can switch channels on their own the situation was getting hopeless. Turning my old devices off and scanning for signals I noticed there was always one the was fairly strong, and they weren't even the closest router in the building. Fortunately it was someone I knew and I asked them what they were using. It turned out to be the version of this device that was just a router (no modem). So I decided to fight fire with fire.When I looked the price up it was very reasonable (it might have been on sale that week I think) and I also found a sterling review by a well known Open Source advocate. I decided to give it a try. This device did everything I expected and more. I did not use the enclosed software for set-up as I prefer always to use the web browser interface from the very beginning. It is a complex device so there are a lot of settings, although in my case most of the defaults were correct and didn't need to be changed. It autodetected my PPPoE settings and all really had to do was pick meaningful names for the WiFi networks (I also changed them to hidden for extra security) and set the passwords. Note the use of plural. There are actually four (4!!) WiFi entry points with two internal antennas for each. B/G and N are handled separately and for each of those there is both a "private" and "public" version. The private version allows all the computers on it to see each other, the public version isolates each machine and only allows Internet access. Of course you would at least want to put passwords on the private networks. I recommend passwording all four. When you have guests, just give them the ID and passwords for the public networks and feel secure that any viruses on their machines won't migrate to yours.This thing has four wired ports as well, and also has a USB connection for a primitive NAS (network attached storage). I didn't even notice this last point when I bought it, but as it was there decided to try it. What I found and also noticed documented elsewhere is that it is fairly finicky about which external drives it will recognize. In fact the only thing I got to work was a 4G thumb drive. I suppose it will be a handy transfer or I could leave the router alone running and access it from the road. I can't say anything about the reliability of the interface though having barely used it.One thing to note that I had to look hard to find (it's in the most recent version of the manual under "troubleshooting"): The blue"button" on the side/top has two purposes. One purpose is to sync with other Netgear routers. I've never used the feature, but I think you push buttons on both routers within a short period of time and they locate each other and configure themselves. The other "function" is of dubious usefulness and simply lights up some blue lights to indicate activity of the 8 internal antennas (or so they say). The effect of this has caused people to call them "disco lights" as they blink on and off constantly. In a darkened room it can be quite noticeable and distracting. The solution is to simply push the button for about 2 seconds (have to get the timing just right) and the lights go off and stay off, even after power cycles or reboots etc. If you find you miss the blenenlights a similar process will reactivate them. Great for parties.Also note they always show these things standing on-end. Little clip-on things facilitate this. Make sure you don't throw them away with the packaging. I suspect it is better for the antennas and also for heat dissipation. Past experience with these things indicates that leaving them laying flat can cause them to overheat and malfunction earlier (at least this has been true for the previous generation of Netgear equipment. They may well have resolved this with the larger box. I put mine on end for reasons stated above.

My son, who is an active Gamer, used this same make and model of router while living in Oklahoma and said that it was plenty fast enough for his super fast cable DSL up there. So....when I was looking for a router to connect 2 computers in different bedrooms, using a 100ft. cable, I decided to give it a try. I bought this unit via Amazon.com, but the seller, who is NOT Amazon.com, misrepresented my unit as NEW, but in fact it was used, but I needed it right away, so kept it and hooked it up. My son and I can download movies at the same time or he can game and I do my thing at the same time WITHOUT any slowdown. MY Highspeed DSL is over AT&T telephone line with a speed of 6 Mbytes down and 512 kbts up. This unit does not hesitate at all. It is a good machine and I'd order another one from Amazon.com,......but NOT from the same specific seller as the first time. I have not used the wi-fi capability yet, but may in the near future when I get my mother a laptop. I'll set it up for wi=fi and don't foresee any problems.I would recommend this unit to anyone.EDIT: I wish to update my original comment about this router and it's seller. I replaced the original N300 with another one bought locally. It's a excellent unit. Now, I want to correct my first comment about the seller. When I contacted him about getting a refund, he was very fast in answering and working with me. He told me that my "new" router was indeed a used one that was SUPPOSED to have been shipped to another customer, but was,in fact sent to me by mistake. He not only paid for the return shipment cost, but also refunded all original shipping and handling costs plus made an immediate refund of the price I paid for the unit. I accepted his explanation and would do business with him again, if he has any products I need.

Router works well, never drops VPN connections however Netgear operates in a very strange way. A router requires setting up which means accessing the settings via a fixed IP address. The provided access information is incorrect so no access. Unless set up the router is useless. I almost sent it back but fooled around trying common 192. addresses until I found the one that worked: 192.168.1.1. The router is sold as refurbished but is actually new with the protective film not yet peeled off the shiny surfaces. No wonder it is sold as "refurbished", many people must be returning them having failed to gain access. Also, the device has no serial number so the firmware cannot be updated, and the manual must be downloaded. This is a Netgear management problem, their customer service was ineffective on this problem and on two other cases so if you buy one to get a good router cheap then be prepared to solve these issues on your own. What is with no serial number? is this perhaps a pirate copy and not a real Netgear product? Another Netgear product recently purchased from Amazon also has no serial number

A year and a half ago I had DSL and tried everything to extend my wireless network to no avail. I even tried to connect two routers wirelessly through DD-WRT. After two weeks of frustration and returns I had nothing left to lose and bought a WN2000rpt range extender. Within 20 minutes I was able to extend the range of my DSL modem all over my house without any hassle or frustration. Occasionally, you had to reset the range extender, but just a simple power off and power on usually keeps it working for weeks on end without any problems. For that convenience and simplicity alone, I gave the WN2000rpt 5 stars.Unfortunately, this January I upgraded to uverse and my WN2000rpt range extender doesn't work with it. I tried going googling all sorts of fixes, which occasionally worked, but nothing provided a consistent internet connection. I loved the range and convenience of my old range extender and was frustrated to see that I would have to go back to having practically no internet on the upper floor of my house.I even called ATT, but they have no clue what products will work with Uverse. They told me to configure a router behind the uverse gateway, but that did practically nothing for my range. Googling gave no answers and by sheer luck I searched for netgear range extenders and saw in one of the lines of text on amazon that this could work with Uverse so I gambled and bought a range extender the next day hoping it would fix my internet problems.Again, THANK YOU NETGEAR!!! In practically 5 minutes of configuration, my new range extender worked with my 2wire modem and I now have regained Internet all over the house! I have 5 bars everywhere, (you do need to know how to carefully place the range extender for maximum range), and I can actually use the 5GhZ band without any issues. For that alone I give this product 5 stars.However, I do have to complain a little about Netgear's customer support. I went to their website and asked numerous times if they had a product that would work with uverse and I never received a response from them. It shouldn't have to take random luck to discover that they have such a great product which could have saved me a lot of time and frustration. They already had my trust with their earlier product, I just needed something else.

I bought this router for home use in January of 2011.Configuring it the first time was tricky, as it was reluctant to connect to my AT&T Broadband. But once it was able to log in to my DSL, things were better for awhile.Then the wired LAN ports started to die.It wasn't obvious at first that this was happening-- who expects the WIRED side of a wireless router to go bad? That's one of hte most basic components on the box. Upgrading the software didn't help, and neither did resetting the router to its factory defaults, because once the hardware starts to die, software can't reclaim it.After 1 1/2 years, we had only 1 wired port still working. Netgear support did not care that this was a hardware defect-- the product was out of warranty, so "too bad." There is honestly no excuse for dying hardware 18 months after purchase, and I see I'm not the only person to encouter this issue. Netgear clearly has a quality control problem in its manufacturing.Now we have to shop for a new wireless Modem/router combo (there aren't many, and the newest Netgear will not connect to my AT&T service). I would LOVE to have a reliable networking vendor offer an alternative product, because Netgear is fast becoming worthless.For those who are annoyed by the way the router "bumps" many of the connected devices to new IP addresses whenever a new device connects, try making use of the multiple wireless VLANs and and using the advanced "LAN setup" to assign fixed IP addresses to your various devices. This will make your home/office network much more stable.

I used to have several routers such as belkin, cisco, TP link, and most of these worked pretty well. In order to maximize my speed, I purchased this WNDRMACv2 model at Amazon because it was on a deal. Initially I am SUPER satisfied with its speed and connectivity. HOWEVER, the product partially failed within 1 month of purchase. The 2.4G part of the router did not work anymore.I tried to contact Netgear. The friendly staff exchanged couple email with me and I still cannot solve the issue. I believe it is a HARDWARE problem. And, I asked for an exchange. HOWEVER, it seems like the Netgear staff tried their best not allowing you to do that. But my product is still under warranty. I submitted several inquires about information on exchanging products. However, the staff asked me again the problem.I would say Netgear is a great company, it also has friendly staff. However, the management of the company is bad! Restricting customers from exchange and return is not an ethical way to do business. Now I have to wait for the staff to contact me again. Or, I have to throw away the router and leave a negative feedback here until everyone realize the fact of Netgear Router.

I have been using a really old and outdated Linksys BEFW11S4v4. Comcast finally bumped up our speeds so figured it would be worth upgrading to a newer router to take full advantage of the bandwidth.This router was recommended by a tech-savvy friend. His first choice was to go for the N600, which is more advanced and over-spec'd than I need. So I went for this N300 instead. To see this as a refurbished for so cheap, it's a bargain.Came in the box with just a router, power adapter, and an ethernet cable. No instructions other than a sheet of paper for lifetime warranty and instructing me to go to netgear.com for product support. I can understand why users who are less adept with tech may have difficulty setting up the router without a manual, but the support site really has everything you need including pdf guides and videos to guide you through the setup. With a little patience, you should be able to get it setup quick. Only took 15 minutes for me. Signal strength is very strong and seems quite resistant to interference, and router options are abundant if you need to make any special configurations like hooking up to your xbox. Even has a data counter if you need to keep track of your monthly data caps.