Reviews for Netgear MR814 802.11b Wireless 4-Port Cable/DSL Router

Netgear MR814 802.11b Wireless 4-Port Cable/DSL Router by Netgear

Netgear MR814 802.11b Wireless 4-Port Cable/DSL Router List Price: $99.99
Category: CE
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Digital camera reviews of Netgear MR814 802.11b Wireless 4-Port Cable/DSL Router

Digital camera Review: Piece of dung!!
Summary: 1 Stars

This was horrible. I wish I could give it zero stars. One is too much... It worked for a few days on and off. This brand continously dropped signal from my dsl modem. It just randomly came on and off. After spending hours on the phone to Indian tech support, they suggested I install the latest firmware, at which point the router never worked again!! Of course, since it had ben working on and off, I threw the box away (my mistake) so was unable to send it back. Complete waste...I will NEVER buy netgear again. Its worse than linksys IMO. Don't buy their stuff. Its apparently a common problem...

Digital camera Review: Used 4, all 4 have had problems.
Summary: 1 Stars

(...) Bought 3 all at once, one for home, one for gf, one for dorm.

The one I bought for my gf, the wireless did not even work and I had to send it in to netgear and get a new one. The new one's wireless works only half the time. the other half of the time, you cannot connect to the wireless and have to reset it.

The one I bought for my dorm worked fine for a month. Then everything just went horribly wrong. The speed is ridiculously slow (worse than 56k) for both wired and wireless. I've tried calling, tried firmware updates, it doesn't matter. This is basically useless and I pretty much threw it away.

The one I bought for my home works fine except I get dropped every other day. This is probably the best, or shall i say, the least worst out of all 4. In fact, the reason why I am writing this right now is because i've spent the last 30 minutes trying to make this computer reconnect to the wireless router, and it is not working so I have to connect directly to my cable box to even submit this review.

So I am 0/4 in having a perfect wireless router through Netgear. The only gamble you'll be taking when you purchase this router is how bad the problems will be. From dropped connections to dead. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS! I'm never buying anything netgear again even if it is free (...)

Digital camera Review: It didnt work.
Summary: 2 Stars

Well,

The router continuously dropped signal from the cable modem.
I set up everything for hours according to the instructions and
the router would work sporadically, maybe half the time. I'd click
on a website and be unable to connect to it. After a minute, it
would work. The modem was working as I've been using that now.

The company has a great website with a lot of resources available.

Digital camera Review: This router works great, but not for long...
Summary: 1 Stars

I bought the Rev. C version of this router--the latest one--with the white plastic housing. It looks really cool, but I can't say much for its performance.

Most of the positive reviews here seem to be for very small home networks with only a few computers. I have a network with 28 computers and have 4 years experience configuring routers. I used this unit only as a wired router, so I can't speak at all for its wireless capabilities. It works great for a while, but then freezes up completely, so much so that I couldn't even access the configuration pages. Rebooting (powering it off and on) would solve the problem, but after an hour or so, it would freeze up again. Having to restart a router every hour is not acceptable performance.

I tried it on another network and it had exactly the same problem. Both of the networks use Westell modems although they are different models, so I don't know if there's a compatibility issue there or what. Both of these networks worked fine with SMC and Linksys routers, so clearly the Netgear unit was the problem.

In fairness to Netgear, their tech support seems good, and they did RMA me a new unit after concluding that they couldn't solve the problem. Unfortunately the new unit had exactly the same problem, so it is clearly a design defect in this model, not limited to my particular unit. Also on the positive side, I liked the user interface, and when the router was working it outperformed my older SMC, surfing was noticeably faster.

If it hadn't been for the freezing up issue, I would be giving it 5 stars, but because I wasted my money and a lot of my time troubleshooting it, and still ended up with a piece of hardware that is useless to me, I can only give it 1 star.

The bottom line: if you are only using it with a few computers, (and not with a Westell modem?), maybe this router will work for you, but it didn't work for me.

Digital camera Review: Cheap and it works
Summary: 5 Stars

I haven't read the other reviews for this router, but I've been using mine for a few weeks with no problems. I've found the it's 802.11b range is better than my old D-Link and Linksys routers, though they are older models. The router looks pretty too -- white and clear plastic. The admin pages are clear and straightforward, though too be honest, I haven't tried out any of the more complicated functionality. The 802.11g version was an option, but I didn't need that speed, particularly since my internet provider has a top speed of 2 to 3 MB/sec, and 802.11b is good enough, and I don't intend to serve lots of video wirelessly. Admin pages are pretty easy too -- instead of having to remember the IP address of the router to login, the router automatically routes "www.routerlogin.net" to its admin pages. I got about $20 in rebates, making this a very cheap router.
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