The Best of Both Phone, and Tablet-
"Tops Linksys - Up in 10 minutes - Great Advanced Features" on by ivybrick
Pros: Easy Setup, Port-Forwarding, No Interferance Issues
Cons: None to-date
Summary: I have been through an exaustive search and finally stumbled upon this gem. I am a software engineer, looking to re-Wifi my home office as a result of my MS MN-500 failing to work after 2-years.
I immediately went with Linsys due to my experience with Cisco. The latest was the SRX which dropped signal anytime I attempted to download or load a large web page. It was fast when it was up? After 6 hours over 7 calls to Linsys, they told me to go with their A&G product. It installed in about 30 minutes. Detection problems but was eventually up. However, I noticed a flaw in thier firmware where you could not shut off the Remote Management feature. If you own one try it. Without any port forwarding or DMZ set, type your external ip address. They disable and try again. Same thing, always up. Not a good feature. In addition, the port-forwarding was difficult to setup. On top of all of this fun, the same signal drop occurred. This is on 5 different computers with both B & G cards.
In desparation, I went to this site and saw the presentation of the NetGear and read some reviews from other sites. I purchased and set the entire router up with several port-forwarding configuration in less than 10 minutes. I am very excited about the speed, and easy-of-use. This is a must for 1-Wifi-crowded environments; 2-Semi-professional requirements like advanced firewall and forwarding; 3-Novice users who want an easy setup. Just follow the directions and you are up.
For environment particulars:
ISP: Comcast
Security: WEP only 128
Workstations: 3 with 1 Vonage device (directly wired)
Servers: 2 Dell PE
Longest Distance: 30 feet from router in upstairs bedroom. -
"Did not have extra range!" on by SoCalMike
Pros: Same interface as older models
Cons: No range benefit. Rangemax is marketing hype.
Summary: Purchased RangeMax Router and RangeMax Ethernet NIC to replace Netgear WG624 Wireless Router to enhance coverage throughout my home. Installed in same exact location (easy setup) as the WG624 and the range was not even as good as the older WG624. What's up with that???!!! I escalated to Netgear Level 2 tech support with a case number and they never called even me back. With old setup, I could get a "low" signal from the farthest place in my home and it would connect to the internet, although very slow. With RangeMax, it would not even connect from the same spot!! It was a simple test that is proof RangeMax does not enhance range! I am VERY disappointed in the product and RETURNED both the router and the NIC card. No way it's up to 1000 times greater range. I did not even get 10% better range which would have made a difference in my home.
Updated
5-23-2005 - Just wanted to update everyone and let you know that I have still not heard back from Netgear Technical Support, even though I had a case number and a promise of a call back. I would imagine it is because this product has many issues that they are having to deal with. -
"Beauty...fast, strong connection, great range" on by Redflea
Pros: Easy setup, strong signal, great range
Cons: None yet...except maybe for bright blue lights...
Summary: This router was very easy to set up...I tried both the hand-hold and manual method, and both worked perfectly. All the necessary security and other settings options are available.
Signal strength and range are great...I can go to the back end of my yard w/my laptop (180 feet from the router, through two walls) and get a minimum 28 MPS connection, more than enough for any internet activities (email, browsing, streaming media) as well as streaming MP3s from my music server.
The blue lights on the router are a little silly, but given the performance of the router, I forgive the Netgear "marketeers" for their desire to have pretty blue lights.
Gave this thing a 10 because I couldn't find any reason to mark it down...well done, Netgear. -
"the best of the rest" on by cscaldwe
Pros: excellent coverage, great looks, easy set-up
Cons: none so far
Summary: Lost our Linksys WRT54G wireless router to a power surge and had to buy a replacement. I was very happy with the Linksys and planned on just buying another of the same. Came across the Netgear Rangemax at the store and was intrigued by the seven antenna idea so I figure I'd give it a try.
Wow!!
The increased coverage is immediate...even in the backyard (2500sqft single story home). The RangeMax does as promised and adjusts the signal based on where it finds you.
We're at full signal strength (4.7Mbs on our cable modem) in every single room! I am still amazed as I type this review.
The setup was as easy as my Linksys WRT54G, and I think I prefer the Netgear setup wizard...it was a bit easier to follow as a non-expert user.
I also like the cleaner lines. No external antennas. The white and "glass" case follow the design trend of an iPod so it looks nice out in the open. the blue LED lights for he antennas are fun to watch in action, very Star Wars R2D2.
The blue LEDs did cause a bit of distraction while on-line gaming so I temporarily covered the glass dome with some papers.
Of course, now that we have such amazing coverage I'll likely be gaming in other areas of the house or the backyard!
Excellent work Netgear! -
"does what it says on the box and more" on by jgraywa
Pros: Great signal strength in dead-spots other conventional G WiFi base stations can't
Cons: Only con with this product for me was cost
Summary: Being the techno and gadget geek that I am I have been using WiFi kit since it was first available for home use. Over the past 3-4 years I have owned around 6 or more wireless basestations ranging including offerings from Microsoft, Dlink, Linksys, Netgear and Apple.
When my partner and I decided to move in together to a house we each gave up life in our respective apartments. In the apartment I had been using the Linksys WRV54G (http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=35&prid=565) VPN router. I have not been overly impressed by this offering from Linksys for a number of reasons but tolerated it as it did the job.
Once we moved into the house, I found that the PC downstairs could not get a WiFi signal at all from the Linksys WPM54GS G PCI speedbooster card, and when it could it was at around a poor 1MBPS. I decided to try a range booster product opting for the WRE54G (http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=38&prid=629) G-Range-Expander from Linksys. Results here I found to be no better - it just seemed that this section of the house; just around 30 feet away downstairs, was in some kind of wireless deadspot.
In despair, I thought about paying for a second cable modem, painfully running ethernet over the house (being rented not worth the time or investment), when I read about new offerings from Linksys, Belkin, Netgear and DLink to name a few.
I read reviews on the Belkin Pre-N router, the Linksys SRX and the NetGear RangeMax. I went to BestBuy, CompUSA and Fry's Electronics to try and gleam some knowledge from the staff - none at any store were able to shed any light on the usefulness of any of these products.
As a longstanding Linksys customer, I was about to buy their SRX router despite the fact it was more than $50.00 more than the others. The thing I liked about the Apple Airport Extreme when I bought it was - not only was it a robust functioning product, but it is a stunning piece of design which can be put any place in the home and not look unsightly as these things often can. The router which I would buy would have another 3-4 devices connected to it over ethernet (albeit not directly in sight). The Linksys box seemed much of a muchness in online reviews with the other offerings. It also has three external antennas, which with the other ethernet devices connected - doesn't make for discrete viewing in the home.
In the end I opted for the RangeMax from NetGear. WOW - honestly - this is a great device. When I took it out of the box it struck me in that it looked similar to the Airport Extreme from Apple - it looks great, sleek and stylish; as far as such items can be anyway. Setup was very straightforward and intuitive - unlike the previous VPN router (WRV54G) from Linksys I own. It was up and running in 5 minutes or less. I also have an account and domain name for the home setup for free with http://www.dyndns.org - this guy updates the IP address each time the ISP change it at the cable modem to keep it current. This allows me to connect to a desktop running XP which I remote desktop to and access any other machine on the network at home from work.
Lastly, the PC downstairs? .......... it now get's ~ 45-48 MPBS no problem and not internet access is lighning fast. Moving data to other machines on the network is now also reliable without wireless connection failures. I've also tried using the laptop that I am typing this from at the other end of the back garden and I still get a good connection with around 35 MBPS throughput.
Next I plan to buy a couple of RangeMax cards from Netgear for the other machines in the house. That way I can leverage the MIMO technology which is built in, giving two concurrent aggregating wireless-G streams of 54 MBPS - to 108 MBPS - faster speeds and faster coverage in deadspots is what I'm hoping for --> take the ~45 MPBS connection on the PC downstairs to double that .............. move over 100 Base-T ethernet.
Closing (sorry for the novel), I would highly recommend this device. For me, it solved a tricky WiFi connection problem in the form of deadspots which current non-N routers can't help with. It does this with great connection strength and no dropouts in connection that I've noticed. Lastly, it's extremely user friendly - and it looks great - mine sits in a corner of the living room where guests continually compliment it.
If you have the same problems I've described I couldn't recommend a product more highly.
John
Netgear WPN824 router user reviews
