MR814 Cable/DSL Wireless Router, 802.11b
When you connect your cable or DSL modem to the Netgear MR814 wireless router, you'll enjoy wired or wireless Internet access for all your computers, and you'll be assured of protected communications on your home or small office network. This three-in-one router, switch, and wireless access point allows you to share your Internet connection, files, and printers with other computers on the network.
| You'll be surfing the Web in minutes with Install Assistant to guide you through each step and onscreen help that's there when you need it. The unique Smart Setup wizard automatically detects your ISP connection type, saving you time and effort. Lighted, front-panel icons display status at a glance. The router works with PCs, Macs, and virtually all Ethernet devices. A sophisticated network address translation (NAT) firewall protects against Internet hackers, while a virtual private network (VPN) pass-through allows users secure access to corporate networks. Powerful encryption (40-, 64-, or 128-bit) protects against eavesdroppers, and address authentication restricts connections to specific wireless adapters--only those you approve are allowed to use your network. E-mails notify you of Internet activity, and content logging and filtering limit access to inappropriate Web sites. Roam your home and office with the freedom of a Wi-Fi notebook computer. Distribute MP3s, digital movies, and photos with ultrafast, wired LAN ports capable of speeds of 200 Mbps. Preprogrammed port-forwarding setups simplify playing multiplayer games and hosting Internet services. Share a single broadband connection with up to 253 users to give everyone simultaneous access to the Internet. The Netgear wireless router provides a powerful 2 dBi detachable antenna for longer wireless range, and delivers double the memory and a 50-percent-faster CPU than many popular routers. The Netgear MR814 comes with a three-year warranty. | 
See a detailed diagram of how to integrate the Netgear MR814 into your home network. |
1 weak signal
I just installed the item and the signal is weak (low on laptop wireless link status). The unit is only 50 feet away in a small house. grrrrr! A weak signal is nearly useless as it slows everything down. Does Netgear make a booster? If so, then thats a hidden gotcha on the cheap price for this useless unit.
I also have the dual-antenna model and its much better. Conclusion: only buy if you use it in a small apartment.
2 When it works, its great !!!
Got the Mr814 from Amazon, which shipped it in record time (Tnx Amazon). I got the white unit which is Ver3 and comes with the latest firmware from Netgear.
very easy to setup and install, stylish and compact. However the BIGGESt problem with this thing, is it drops the internet conncetion every about tenminutes !!! A search on the net has revealed this to be a common problem, and is very annoying. tryed several suggestions found on the net, but none did the trick.
I think you cud do better elsewhere, especially that this issue has been found since earlier versions and continues on in the latest versions as well.
3 Excellent Product (Version 3)
I think the other reviews written for this router that were negative might have been for earlier versions that required advanced users for time-out settings. Version 3 (white) seems to be dummy proof and works excellently! When accessing the settings menu, you can add 128-bit protection. If you need to know how to do that, the instructions pop up right next to the menu you're in. I paid $10 for the WiFi router after a rebate. Even at it's original price, this is totally worth it. Don't even think twice! You're not going to find better quality at such a low price. And if that's not enough, for a router, this thing is small and sleek looking. It includes attachments to make it stand vertically as well.
4 Do Not Buy This!
I've had very bad experiences with Netgear. My previous router was a wired RT314 that my work purchased for me. It wasn't terrible, but it often dropped the WAN connection to my ISP. I had to reboot it manually about every other day to re-establish the link to the Internet.
I purchased an MR814 with misgivings because of my previous Netgear experience, but it was on sale for a really low price and I was tempted beyond my better judgement. The MR814 is even worse than the RT314. It not only drops the WAN connection to the Interenet every couple hours or so, it also becomes unresponsive to machines connected on the LAN as well. The DHCP stops responding/giving out IPs. I can't access the web configuration because the router will not respond so I have to constantly reboot the router by pulling the plug (no power switch).
Even after a router reboot, and a successful DHCP query from the machines on the LAN, the router has trouble with DNS look ups. I have to try just about every URL twice, because it fails to connect on the first try giving me a "server not responding / unknown host" error when it's actually the Netgear router unable to forward the DNS queries properly.
I honestly haven't had a chance to test the wireless connection, but this dog is going back to the pound... If it can't stay connect over ethernet cable, what hope is there for wireless?
By the way, my model is a "v3" (version 3) so the problems didn't go away with the new production run and firmware updates. Googling "MR814 connection problem" reveals many, many users with similar difficulties.
Is it so much to ask that a router stay up and online over the course of a day?
I'm going to buy a D-Link.
5 Great So Far !!
I purchased this router to get a wireless signal and replace an old router that had gone defunct. I also purchased a new LinkSys Cable Modem to go with it, hoping to make our internet connection stronger with newer, better equipment.
Well it worked like a dream! We get a strong wireless signal across the house in a different room and the main connection seems to be stable and strong too. Setup was very easy (I run XP Pro on 3 year old computers). So I don't have any qualms with it yet. But I'll call this purchase a total victory if I DON'T have to access the 3 year warranty...
6 wow...but not "plug and play"
The good is that this is a very, very inexpensive device and it works really well if you can get to that point. But if you are undisciplined like myself (the directions must be followed EXACTLY), or if you are intimidated by the prospect of the included directions instructing you to click "continue anyway" when presented with an installation screen that strongly recommends that you not do so (xp service pack issues I think) then you should spend the extra money on another product.
If you get in trouble with this product and want to try again, there is a hole on the back of the unit that you can push with a pen to reset it back to factory specs. Doing this really helped with the problems I had after I moved the router from one computer to another within my house.
Now that its working, I'm really thrilled with this router, despite the 4 hours of experimentation and google searches I did to get to this point (which in the end only taught me how to reset the unit). I learned a lot in the process of making this work, and the education alone was worth the (very small) price.
7 Flawless
Can't say enough good things about this product. I had never used a wireless router before and was hesitant to do so as I thought it would be too complicated and time consuming. Bought router through Amazon, but CompUsa recommended Netgear over Linksys and I'm glad they did. Setup was incredibly easy. The firewall works beautifully. Also, I needed to use the within 90 days technical support when I couldn't remember how to reset my ISP password on the router. I got through to tech support within 5 minutes on a Saturday afternoon, and the 1st line support help desk got me up in running in 10 minutes. This is the way all technology should work. Great job, Netgear.
8 Easy setup/configuration but long term reliablity an issue
When I first got this wireless router I loved it. It was real easy to setup, it had mac adress filtering, all the options in the setup have a definition right next to them so its real easy to figure things out.
But I must say after about a year things started flaking out. It 1st starts off as an occasional bump off of the wireless network. It did that once a quarter, then once a month then every week, then every day, then every hour, and finally every minute.. and it doesn't end there then the Wired ports got all flacky as well.
Is it just me or do they make these things to fail every few months? I also bought a netgear pci wireless adapter and that died on me too.. so far I'm really not happy with Netgear..That was a G card I bought 4 months ago...My old netgear B card is 2 years older and its still humming along in another computer!
I thought their 3 yr warrenty would mean that they were pretty confident about their product.. but its just a marketing rouse. The tech support system is such a pain in the ass that I think they're hoping that most people will give up and just buy another router.
So unless the quality of netgear stuff starts going back up I would definetly stay away from all netgear products.. as of recently it seems they're having really bad quality issues. The NEW 624 series routers are notorious for being POS. And that just came out a few months ago.
9 Great product at a great price - NO PROBLEMS
I have been using this for over a year now with no problems at all. It almost installed itself. Great firewall protection. I can connect to the internet at any time at will. Very easy to set up parental filtering on both key words and url's. Wireless was easy to set up the encryption keys too. I tried a Linksys wireless "b" router and had less than half the signal strength I get with the Netgear. I'll trust Netgear any time for my networking.
10 It costs $20 for a reason...
I usually don't trust the one-star reviews on Amazon (thinking they're probably isolated cases), but this is ridiculous. I've now used three MR814s (mine and a friend has two), and all three don't work as they should. I wouldn't be surprised if every single MR814 that comes out of the factory has the same problems, but some users just don't notice because they're lucky or don't do the certain things that cause problems.
With all three MR814s, from any computer (I've tried from six very different computers), about one out of every 20 "ping"s to other computers would just randomly not go through. With any Macs or computers with Centrino wireless, the DHCP would stop working after about six hours (you could connect to the network but not the Internet). Unplugging and plugging back in the MR814 always fixed it, but I'm not going to settle for that. Also, due to the random packet loss, it's impossible to sustain a connection on an instant messenger or other constant Internet service.
Netgear tech support is unhelpful - they made me reflash the firmware, reset my settings... I even put a nail in the wall so I could hang the MR814 six feet up, ten feet away from any electrical appliances that could cause interference. I tried using a regulated 12V 800mA power supply instead of the included one. In short, I tried everything you could possibly try to get any of these three devices to work as advertised.
Finally, they flat-out told me that I was MAKING UP the ping problem when I explained it to them, and that it could never happen. I showed them a thread on their online support forums that showed someone else with the same problem, and they still didn't believe me. When you say that your unit is defective and you want an RMA, they say, "No, your MR814 works fine, you don't need to return it."
Leave this product and this company alone - spend a little more money, it'll save you a hassle.
11 Working fine
I've been using this for more that a year now with SBC Yahoo DSL. No problems at all.
12 One time I wish there was less than a 1 star rating!
When rating products, I always try to remember the alleged purpose of the product. This one presumably is supposed to help you connect to the world wide web simply and without much trouble or hassle. It does neither. I would say that I connect without having to reset, readjust or refresh something only about 20% of the time. Their customer service wants only to charge you and is therefore laughable. I'm throwing it away because I'd rather not lose a friend by giving it away! Goodbye, Netgear. Garbage.
13 142 out of 682 reviews gave the product one star!!!
Given my 1-star rating, it has an astonishing 21% dissatisfaction rate. What else need to be said about it? Really not much, but I do want to share my own experience.
This is no doubt the hardward I have had most problems, and hence frustrations, with. After I had given up the router (I am now connecting to my DSL modem directly), I decided to come here and see what other people have to say about it. With little surprise, I found out a lot of them experienced the same.
When it works, it may work great for a quite a while. However, it may stop working all a sudden, or when you have to restart it (power outrage, moving etc.). Several times, I had struggled but managed to reset the network; this time, it completely died on me, without responding even to wired connection.
I give up, seriously. It has consumed way more time and effort than what a piece of $30 hardware really should. I am shopping for a new router, and will never buy anything from Netgear.
14 Great but slow
great and ez to use and install. the 802.11b is very slow if you are moving large files between 2 computers. use the newer "G" ones if this is your goal.
15 Didn't Last 6 Weeks
I hate to write this review because I once thought Netgear was a better-than-average network hardware manufacturer, but I have been completely disappointed with this router. I have had a home network for 5 years now and have used several routers. When I decided to add wireless I chose Netgear because I have had good Netgear hardware in the past. When I first installed the router I was surprised at how poor the range was. Now that it has quit working after 6 weeks, I feel that I should post a warning. I called Netgear's technical support and found out that they have put a number of obstacles in the path of anyone seeking warranty service. I have decide not to through the trouble of returning the router - I don't want another one. I am planning to replace it with a Motorola router.
16 Dont buy this even if you get it for free!!
Got this router 2 months back. Was very happy to see the design of the router and mis-understood that it will even perform to the same level. First time I insert the configuration CD into my laptop, BOOM!! my wireless network went for a toss!!! Thankfully, my laptop has 'restore' functionality which allowed me to restore the settings prior to the netgear installation. I'm saved.
It worked so-so for about a month. After that, everytime i want to connect to the net, I have to shutdown my laptop for atleast 10 minutes and then start it again. After repeating this for 3-4 times, 'it might connect'!! Feels pathetic. I would prefer a dial-up connection over this router.
I'm giving one star, since i'm able to connect to the internet atleast few times a day!!
17 A decent little router for the price
Pros:
- Relatively small form factor, easy on the eyes. I live in an apartment full of ugly beige boxes, but if you value aesthetics, this router is definitely better-looking than their comparable D-Link or Linksys counterparts. Won't look out of place in a room full of pretty Macs.
- Very easy to set up and configure. If you're a power user, you could set it up inside of five minutes without reading so much as one line of documentation. But if you're not so accomplished, fear not--the Quick Install guide that comes in the box is well-written and easy to follow.
- Pretty good web-based configuration interface. For those of you who have wisely ditched MS Internet Explorer as your default browser, you'll be happy to know that it works just fine in Mozilla Firefox or Opera. There's no need to open a separate Help window to decipher all the available options (and there are many)--there's a handy Help pane on the right-hand side that updates automatically every time you navigate to a different section.
- If you're configuring restricted wireless access or DHCP, you can assign device names to MAC addresses. If you're administering a dozen or so computers (including friends' laptops when they come over to mooch off your DSL), this comes in really handy.
- Built-in SPI firewall, which provides automatic defense against denial of service (DoS) attacks, among other things. Trust me, you need this.
- It just works. If you find yourself power-cycling yours often, try upgrading the firmware to the latest version. It makes a world of difference (and you might get a modest performance increase as well). And it's not very hard to do.
Cons:
- No WPA support. WEP security may deter a casual snooper, but a more determined hacker can crack it pretty easily. I wouldn't deploy this anywhere where data security is paramount.
- The built-in keyword and domain blocking functionality is one and the same. I tried blocking a domain name but wound up blocking any page that just mentioned the domain name (including Google search results). If you need serious firewall functionality, you'd be better off with a dedicated solution like Zone Alarm.
- Signal strength plummets if too close to certain electronic devices like CRT computer monitors, televisions, or cordless phones. I wound up placing the router on the opposite side of the room as my computer. That helped a lot.
- Signal strength is 70% in the same room as the router. My old D-Link did 93% in the same room before it died. Your mileage may vary.
- No way to attach an external antenna or replace the built-in antenna. If you want improved wireless coverage, you'd have to get another wireless access point. Luckily I live in a small apartment, but if you live in a multi-story house or work in a large office, you'll want to think about this.
- Painfully slow LAN file transfers over wireless. If you have a need for wireless speed, you'll want to consider 802.11g equipment or better. Internet access speed is just fine, however.
If all you need is a basic wireless router that lets you share your internet connection with everyone in your home or office, this more than fits the bill. And it's real hard to beat the price.
18 I dont get it...
I bought this router back in December. I got it on time and decided to try it out in my old apartment before I moved to my new apartment. I had Cox Communications as my cable provider at the time. The router worked perfectly, about the same as my old Linksys wired router before. I then moved to a different area of San Diego and changed cable companies, Time Warner. Ever since then I have had nothing but problems with this stupid thing. I spent an hour and a half on the phone with India tech support for them to finally tell me it will have to be replaced.
After a little bit of time I got the new one, or what I thought was a new one. Apparantly they sent me a refurbished router of the same type. I had to once again call tech support as the router didnt even recongnize itself as a blasted router. The kind lady helped me fix it and for a while it had no problems. Then I started to notice that after a while Internet Explorer does not want to work. I can download to my hearts content, although the speeds are much slower than before, and use MSN Messenger. But with IE, the darn thing stops recongnizing my internet connection at times. This is very frustrating and I finally emailed the support and demanded a refund, for which I will use to get another Linksys.
I wouldnt recommend this router. If you must have Netgear then get a more advanced one, I think this model is being recalled.
19 Started out great, sporadic signal drop
Bought this router some months ago to network two houses and all my laptops inside. Initial setup was a pain; had to reconfigure the LAN to work on the router's DHCP setup system. But once that was working all (Still) wasn't good.
Unexpected network drops would occur at random times. We'd be sitting in the bedroom watching a movie streamed and the signal would just 'disapear'. No reasons, no explanations- just suddenly at 20% or less, and completely lost. Since there are only two of us in the house and she wasn't carrying pieces of shielding around, I'm fairly certain it was the hardware just futzing out. Mind you the AT&T cheapo router was still broadcasting over it's network, so we just switched.
Resetting the unit once it's lost signal is the only way to get it back up and running- which means reconfiguring the LAN to work on it and hoping it 'sticks'.
The antenna isn't removeable; trying to get better signal is near impossible.
For the price, it's nice- but I'd stick to G or Turbos instead.
20 Easy and fast setup
This router was a snap to setup, took about 5 minutes. But, a note to centrino users: you must update the firmware if you are usings centrino or you will lose connection every 30 minutes and have to unplug the router and plug it in again. Took me about 10 hours to figure this out. Once I did, updating was quick and easy.
21 Connection drop, reboot, repeat for the rest of your life
I've already spent way too much time tinkering with this router and talking to Netgear's India tech support guys to try and get consistent results. Unfortunately the only consistent thing about the MR814 is the way it loses the connection. I'm moving on, hopefully to a product that works.
22 decent cost-effective option
I picked up this "B" router since after rebates, it was almost free, and i had no need for higher-speed wireless since it is mainly for internet. It has worked well for about 2 months, and I've had no problems with it. I have a Windows2000 Pro computer hooked up via 10/100, and a Dell laptop running WindowsXP Home that connects wirelessly. My internet is a DSL connection.
For me, the product worked well out of the box. Setup was plug-and-play, and everybody recognized everything. I setup 128-bit WEP encryption, and turned off the SSID broadcast for security with no fuss probably in about 5-minutes. I also restricted acces to specific MAC addresses (namely my laptop). It offers NAT and a firewall (seemingly effective, as dslreports.com could not get any response in their security test). There are some parental controls (denying or allowing certain websites) which i have not used. The router is also physically very small.
Why should you choose a "B" router over a "G" or "Super-G" router? Well... The "B" router runs at a max of 11Mbps, and the "G" runs at a max of 54Mbps, and the "Super-G" routers run at a max of 108Mbps. Most internet connections (cable/DSL) run no more than 1.5Mbps (or in rare cases 3Mbps or 5Mbps), so if you are just browsing the web, you dont need anything more than a "B" router. "G" is for the folks who frequently transfer files across their wireless network to other computers and dont mind paying a few extra $$$ for it. "Super-G" is the fastest and most expensive (by far), and you need a "Super-G" router as well as an adapter of the *same* brand, otherwise, it drops back down to "G" speeds.
For those with intermittent connection issues: If you are running WindowsXP with Service Pack 2, don't use the included Netgear software to control the wireless connection (this applies to any other brand as well). In the Wireless Network Connection properties, select the option to "Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings".
23 Horrible router, constant signal drops
I foolishly purchased this router a year ago when it was on sale with a mail in rebate. To this day I regret the decision.
Basically, the device is a piece of junk. The wireless signal strength is terrible and won't work past 2 rooms. Furthermore, the router will shut down its wireless component every 1.5 days so that you have to manually reboot the thing to get it working again. No amount of upgrading the firmware helped. Netgear support was completely useless.
If you are looking for a wireless router, buy the Linksys WRT54G/GS and then go to www.sveasoft.com to install their custom firmware. You will have a $50 router with enough functions built-in (QoS, custom firewall, etc.) to rival business class products five times its cost.
24 Good for the price, but...
I've had this router for 2+ years now, and have gone from DSL to LAN to cable modem, and with a few (minor) problems, this router has handled them all with ease. I started with SBC-Yahoo DSL (Motorola modem), and it was virtually plug and play compatibility. I had both access control and WEP enabled at the time, and it worked flawlessly with my Compaq Presario laptop. I then used this in a LAN environment for a few months with no access controls, supporting about 8 users, and then too, it was fine. After this, I switched to a cable modem (Toshiba 2600) and it wouldn't work very well with some websites - hotmail for one. I upgraded the firmware to version RC4 (I have the older, v1.0 version of MR814,) did a hard reset sending the router back to its factory settings, and then reconfigured it, and it is again working (almost) perfectly. I do have dropped signals when I enable WEP now. But I blame it on the WEP-802.11b combination not being very robust when channel interference occurs (I can pick up at least 20 other routers in my apartment). So I just have access control enabled with no WEP, and it works just fine with my Dell laptop. If not for these issues, it definitely rates as a 5 star router.
25 Fast but HORRIBLE Signal Strength
This router was fairly easy to connect to my Ibook running Mac OS X. However, that was due to my Mac automatically recognizing the router, because the included software to set up the Router did not run on my computer. Once running the connection seemed to drop regularly, or at least such applications as AIM and MSN were constantly restarting. The speed was very satisfactory, running just as fast as I was when I was connected directly to my dsl modem. HOWEVER, I can not even leave the room that the router is in without losing my signal completely. If I put one single wall between my computer and my router then I do not receive any signal AT ALL. I don't know how these other users are getting such a great signal, I wish I did though!
26 Poor signal strength makes this virtually worthless
I've had this router for a couple of months now and am sorely disappointed by its lack of signal strength. I originally had it in my office but my laptop would lose signal when I was about 10 feet away. I had to move it out to a hallway and even then it only has an effective signal when it is in line of site and within 20 feet or so. I'm in the process of looking to replace this door stopper with something useful.
27 Great but NOT compatible with Dlink DCM 200 Cable modem
It works well with my other Motorola cable modem. However when trying with a D-Link DCM 200 , it just won't get the DHCP address. So these two are NOT compatible with each other.
Other than that, no problem whatsoever.
28 Nice cheap router
This is a nice cheap router that works well. The good points of the router is:
1. It's easy to setup. (My setup went smoothly and worked the first time)
2. It's thin and fits nicely between my monitor and printer
3. Signal strength is good
4. Its cheap
Bad points:
1. I had a problem where some websites would not work at random. I ended up calling their support which fixed the problem eventually but I think their staff is poorly trained or didnt speak/understand english to well.
2. No security enabled. Their setup wizard is very easy and quick and works the first time which is great and awesome, however if you use it and stop there, you will have no security enabled. Anyone passing by your house can probably see the files on your computer if you're sharing them - plus they can use your internet connection.
3. Short support time frame. (90 days is not long enough)
Overall I like the product, it's great and I recommend it. But do turn on the security features to protect your network. Also if you have any problems, call them ASAP! They only offer 90days of support which really sucks
29 24/7 NOT
I received my wireless router today and it didn't perform correctly. So I removed it went on line to get phone number for Netgear Tech Support(cause they don't give it to you with literature) and I called, once twice, three times and each time ,after answering all their questions, I got disconected. According to the propaganda on the outside of the box the unit came in "24x7 TECHNICAL SUPPORT". Well I'll try again after holidays, apparently they started celibrating the New Year early!
30 Simple set up and excellent signal - a MUST HAVE!
I just received this router today. It took me about 5 minutes to set it up. Set up is made easy with the included CD, which guides you as to exactly how to set up your network (again, that only took about 5 minutes). I have two (a maximum of 4) computers conncected directly to the router using an ethernet cable and I have one wirelessly connected laptop in my room. I did a speed test (using my wirelessly connected laptop) on bandwidthspeedtest.com, which resulted in a speed of 2.5 Megabits/second!
I'm so glad I bought this. There were no hassles at all. And, as always, amazon.com was pretty quick in delivering the product - from the day I ordered it (12/24), it took exactly 5 days, using free ground shipping (it shipped from lancaster, PA), to reach my house.
Bottom line - for $20, you're getting excellent product without any hassles - a MUST HAVE :)
take ya'll
31 Unreliable connections - buy something else
Connections are extremely unreliable - will break every 15-30 minutes and won't reconnect till you reboot the router (despite having set all the properties). My older Belkin router never gave me any problems and I have switched back to my older router. Plus, customer service sucks : they will just give you some vanilla suggestions - such as go to this URL and upgrade the router and you will get the same response all the time (and the URLs dont work some of the times).
32 Not good
All I can say about this router its not build to last more than 5 or 6 months, and then the wireless feature died all the sudden. I will not recommend this router to anyone
33 Worst Router Every
The first router I received worked for about 2hrs until it crapped out. Stopped assigning IP address and could even log into it. Sent it back and received a new one. It works but every once in a while the wireless functionality stops working. I have to unplug it and wait a couple minutes till I can connect again. Only buy if you want a headache.
34 Poor Choice
This item was dead on arrive. After calling 2 "techs" that didn't solve the problem, I gave up. Don't buy it!
35 Great Price.Had to go thru a long setup..eventually works!!
Well let's see where do I start here? For starters this router has a great price. I bought it for $ 7 after rebates. Now one can't beat that can you? Now coming on to what this router is capable of doing. Well after many hours of setting's and reading thru the reviews I was finally able to set it up and now it works great.
I opened the router set it up and ran the Setup Wizard CD that was accompanied with the box and it detected the DCHP connection but didn't detect the internet connection. So I figured that there was a problem with the ISP and so had to call the ISP to give them the router MAC address that they required to add so that it would recognize the internet connection. After that I noticed that running the wizard it detected the internet connection but when I tried to type in and open any websites like www.yahoo.com or www.hotmail.com it wouldn't let me open it and instead it would re-route it to some weird www.yahoo.com.org and eventually give the blank page(detect connection).
Thus after reading thru all the reviews and support questions, I tried to fix the problem by myself. I tried to Open the browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape) 2. Access the router (usually http://192.168.0.1) 3. Login to the router (User Name = "admin" Password = "password" unless you have changed it) 4. Click on the "WAN Setup" and changed the MTU settings. Usually the Default setting is 1500 but I tried all combinations 1492/1452/1358/1000/900 but all were in vain and I still got the same error. Wired thing is that some pages did open like google news and Netgear's website and my ISP's website and also AIM and MSN messenger. I figured that it was the MTU problem. But even after trying all that it didn't work. So finally it dawned to me to use the Netgear's support. I must say connecting was a pain, but I eventually got one thru and bingo... The guy helped me setup and get it running. By the way I've one home desktop and a wireless notebook that I was trying to get working on.
Now after spending nearly 20 mins' with the support person, I figured it was a DNS related issue. We tried a couple of variations and trying to ping in the command prompt. For that go to the command prompt and type ping www.yahoo.com and see what comes back. If it's pinging than that's good sign. Then on my wireless notebook I went on to the wireless connections properties and went into the properties of the TCP/IP settings. In the Preferred DNS Server I but 4.2.2.2 and in the Alternate DNS server 4.2.2.1 and there it was... My notebook was up and running and so was my desktop.
So what would I say on buying this product? Well it depends on what kind of a person you are. Meaning, if you have the patience and are willing to sort out the problems you might have (and I say might have, coz everyone ain't has the same sort of problems) so yeah if you are willing to take a chance than why not give it a try? And it's not at all expensive in any case. So I would say this product is not the best but it surely is worth buying for its price. I would give it A+ in terms of price. In terms of ease of use and setting up B but overall after it's setup it works just fine.
36 Great price, 3 yr warranty, excellent functionality
Under $10 after rebate can't be beat. It provides all the functions that a typical user would need and then some. If you need some advanced features, think about getting a more complex unit or one of the Linksys models that are based on linux code and have a variety of customizations made for them or forget about consumer level products altogether and buy a business class wireless device.
But don't be fooled, wireless networking isn't fool proof. While many people will be able to get wireless up and running without a hitch, this should not be assumed. Take it from me, I've been working in all levels and job functions of IT for nearly 10 years and still regularly work with users trying to configure their wireless routers.
Here's a few tips:
1. 2.4GHz cordless phones WILL interfere with your signal. If you cross the line of sight path between your wireless device and your router with your 2.4GHz phone, the signal will be affected and may drop. Either buy a 900 MHz phone, a 5.8 Ghz phone or use a wired phone or keep some distance between your 2.4 Ghz and your connection.
2. If you find that you have configured everything correctly for your wireless and you seem to have a strong signal but are still unable to connect to consistenly reach a web site, then you may be experiencing DNS problems. A simple test for this is to ping the website to check for responses and open your web browser and try to connect to a website by using its IP address (can be obtained from ping) instead of it's friendly name or URL. Such as trying to browse to http://216.109.118.72 (which is www.yahoo.com). If you are able to connect consistently to the numeric address, then the problem is likely DNS related. To fix this, you will just need to hard code your DNS entries into the "Domain Name Server (DNS) Address section under the Basic Settings menu option. You can get the DNS address from the Router Status. By default, the Netgear router provides your attached computers with the DNS server as the same address as your gateway, usually 192.168.0.1. which may your result in an inconsistent connection and "time-outs" trying to resolve the URL.
3. If the signal is weak or you are unable to login to your router, make sure you are actually connecting to your own router and not your neighbors'. Log in and check your Attached Devices section in your configuration to see if the name of your computer is listed.
4. MAKE SURE THAT YOU CHANGE THE DEFAULT PASSWORD ON YOUR ROUTER and read up on how to secure your wireless router and take advantage of the security features available to you.
5. Take advantage of support, while you have it. While Netgear's tech support isn't always helpful, it may be one of your few resources if you don't have someone more technical to help you or you cannot find the solution on google. They may also be able to help you conclude whether your router is defective or not.
I could list many other tips and explanations in further detail, but that would just take up too much space.
37 Excellent value for the price
When I bought this it came to $7 after M.I.R, so I figured what-the-heck... In our house it performs slightly better when it comes to range than our Linksys BEFW11S4, and about the same in speed. It was easy to set up, yet very configurable. We use it with both PC notebooks and Apple Powerbooks without any problems. Seems to me this is excellent value for the price if you are ok with just "b"-speed.
38 Great for a basic, low-tech home network
This is a fantastic product for a low-budget, low-tech wireless home network. It's mediocre if you're a highly demanding techie, but if you're just a basic computer user (web, email, shopping) and want a wireless network, I'd recommend this.
INSTALLATION
I installed this in my house for my family to use. Total time was about one hour, from getting it out of the box to having it ready to go. Setup is fairly intuitive on the computers *if* everything goes smoothly, but if you're running a less popular PC or laptop and run into problems, you're probably going to want someone that knows a little more to help out. The router was easy to configure with our newer laptops- two and three-year old computers which came loaded- but was a bit trickier on the seven-year-old laptop running Windows 98. If you're using an older computer, you might need someone who's somewhat proficient with setting this sort of thing up to help.
RANGE
Range is pretty fierce for what it's used for at home. We put the router on top of the desk in our library, and it reaches the entire house- up one level, down one level to the basement, and all around the first floor. I haven't found a dead spot yet, and so I'm pretty impressed with it.
CONSIDERATIONS
Security issues are somewhat of an issue and not very easy to set up, so you might want to look into a hardware firewall, or a software one if you have a lightning-fast computer and can spare the RAM. Although, again, for the average user you probably only need a software firewall (try ZoneAlarm, which is free) and only need to activate it when you're sending information you're touchy about, like ordering things with a credit card. Honestly, I think the average user can get by without one- I don't think that many people are really driving around town with laptops and wireless cards trying to see whose wireless network isn't protected- but if you're touchy about those things, just be aware.
OVERALL
If you're a basic computer user that just wants fast internet without wires, this will do just fine. However, security issues should be considered, and in bigger/older houses it'd behoove you to think hard about how much interference your walls and floors are going to cause before you settle on this instead of a more powerful, more expensive brand.
39 Great router!
MR814v3
Especially easy setup. All I had to do was plug it into the modem and the computer into it, and it worked flawlessly (besides the fact that I had to fix and ethernet setting on my computer that I had messed with before. Wireless also works great, and has many advanced options.
40 so so
it works, but signal strength not too good. I put it in one bedroom, and my laptop can get connected in the other bedroom, but not on the porch. My laptop can get signals from neighbors all places, so it should not be the problem of the laptop, and I believe it's reasonable to hold the router responsible.
41 Buy with caution
Received the router several days ago. Could go through to the routerlogin step very easily. Then when I finished the installation and opened Web browser, the problem came. Sometimes the web pages loaded, sometimes couldn't see anything but the error message. It seemed that the connections constantly dropped. Both wired and wireless connections had the same problem. I called the technical support and we tried many resolutions, but just couldn't solve the problem. Then he confirmed it was a bad one and needed replacement. But after replacing it with a new one (same MR814v3), the same problem still persisted.
Being tired of this product, I decided to buy a router from another manufacturer. Well, using the same computer, the same network, except a different router, everything is working fine now, without any hassle.
I have used other Netgear products before, and never had this kind of headache. I know some friends who also have had the same problem with MR814. I would recommend Amazon and Netgear to get this specific product off the site, or fix the problem before selling it.
42 Comment by Grouchy on Apple Extreme Card.
Just to correct the obvious - hundreds of thousands of Apple Extreme Cards are being used - and its very likely many are being used more than 20 feet from a router! Dont spread FUD...
I have a an iBook G4 with Apple Extreme and it does fine even in the basement of our home - where the router is on the top floor. Our office has 30 Powerbooks - all with Extreme cards - and we roam all around our building with very few weak spots.
Netgear makes solid products but their user-interface is usually lacking and definitely not Mac centric. SMC is a better product IMHO - but if you are an Apple user, plunk the money for an Apple Airport - especially 802.11b's are available for about $50 on ebay and they are worth it!
This one could be my back up!
AM
43 Does work with VPN
I had to make a couple minor tweaks with my company's provided home networking instructions, but no problems tunneling through with my corporate VPN.
44 Works with Checkpoint VPN software
Contrary to another reviewer not ALL VPN software has difficulty working with this router.. Checkpoint VPN-1 software works fine with this router.. The Cisco VPN software DOES have trouble working with this router.. So if you are using Checkpoint, you have a GREAT deal with this router.. Much more stable than the Linksys that I have had to switch to for my new VPN software. Especially with the recent price drops on it..
45 Better than DLink DI-514
I'm using both a Netgear MR814 and a DLink DI-514 at home. Although this router has less features (firewall filter rules with time schedule, parameter tuning on wirelss signal transmission etc) compared with the Dlink model, it's far more stabler than DLink. I have to reboot my Dlink router once every three days to keep its wireless signal alive, I don't need to reboot this Netgear router since I bought it (four months ago). I feel this is a very solid low-end wireless router, ideal for home usages.
46 Worst Wireless Router, I had ever seen.
Hi,
I brought this router from Amazon.com on 11/12/2004. I am a Software Engineer and have good amount of knowledge on Networking. Still struggling to make it up.
I called up Netgear Technical support four times and finally they agreed to exchange the product with a proper one.
I got this product without evaluating the technical feedbacks. I looked the final price $ 7.44 which was looking very nice. But now I have to ship the product to Netgear by paying $ 7.xx to UPS.
I would not suggest this product to anyone.
Try paying little higher for a better product. There are so many versions of Netgear and other wireless router available on Amazon.com. You can try one of those. Please do not fall fray for money.
Thanks,
Laxmi
47 The worst device I have ever had!
This Netgear MR814V3 (meaning version 3) router has so thoroughly messed up my network, it's just unbelievable. I tried to replace an old Apple Airport base station with this router. I have a Dell with a Microsoft USB Wi-Fi adapter, an iMac with an old Airport card, and they all worked fine with my old Airport base station, but I wanted some more ethernet ports. I hooked up the Netgear and everything went to pot! After fiddling and fiddling, I got the Dell to talk to it wirelessly and the iMac to work on one of the Netgear's ethernet ports, it wouldn't work on the Wi-Fi at all. But that's not what I wanted, and the thing kept dropping the connection. I emailed Netgear's customer support, and guess what they said! They would be happy to help me if I would pay them $30!!! It seems there is some fine print INSIDE THE BOX, that says support is only free if my whole network is Netgear equipment. The box says "24/7 Technical Support" on the outside. OK, so I am only paying $20 for this thing, it is now unreturnable, I give up. I put the Airport back into my network, I pulled the Netgear out and tried to put my network back like it was. No soap! My iMac can't seem to find the Airport base station and the Dell periodically drops the connection. This Netgear thing has screwed up my whole system! Wow! I guess I'm on my way to the Apple store to get a new Airport, instead. I hope they can give me some clues on how to fix the iMac's Airport card.
Unless you have an all Netgear system, DO NOT buy this (or any other) piece of Netgear equipment.
48 Very easy to set up and operate
I installed the Netgear router with a cable modem along with a Netgear USB wireless b adapter. The setup took me about 10-15 minutes in total. It works flawlessly.
Performance is within the expected range. But when WEP 128-bit security is activated, you can expect a performance drop of about 10% overall. For a cable modem connection, the drop is really not detectable.
Highly recommended.
49 MR814 A breeze to set up.
This router is great. The setup is the simplest ever. I received the MR814V3. It took me about 10 minutes to get on the Internet and about 15 minutes to get the wireless connection going. I have a belkin 6020 card for my laptop. I am about 50 feet away from the AP and I get 11Mb. As I said this was a great purchase for $40 minus the $30 dollar mail-in rebate. Go Netgear.
50 Soooooooo easy to confgure
It took me less than 10 minutes to setup my desktop and laptop including setting up security. This is so easy. Can't get a better deal than this.
51 Stopped working before I even received my rebate!
I purchased this router in September 04. It never achieved the range Netgear advertises. Friends suspected this was due to my old home being constructed "differently" from homes now. Perhaps this is the case. But that doesn't explain why by early November (two months from the date of purchase), the router was consistently dropping the signal. Overall signal strength became unreliable. It would rise and fall from "very good" to "low" in a matter of minutes, despite the fact that the computer, router, and I (and even my cat) hadn't moved an inch.
All in all, I wasn't impressed. I've switched to Linksys's comparable router, which has a strong signal in every room of my home. Fingers crossed I have no problems down the road with this one.
52 It has "attached devices" to let you see who's attaching it.
I saw that there's a misunderstanding at the review below.
When you log on as the administrator of this device at 192.168.0.1 as in the manual, you can select the "attached devices" to see which computers are connecting to this router.
Or if you want more security, you may bond the Mac address of those computers that you want to connect to this router there, then even if other computers know your key, they can not connect to your router unless they get your permission.
This router is really nice working.
53 Excellent Performance at this price
I had been using since last 6 month. I never had problem in connection. Easy to install. more to say ready to use out of box. Excellent for web brousing and internet gamming. I bought another one for my brother too. Power adapter is for US use only. So cann't ne used out of country but this is not the case with everyone. sometimes looses signal after 15ft and reconnect to system itself. But at this price($7) it is the best in the market in my opinion.
54 It's all about the firmware
I had been using a Netgear RT314 router for 3+ years now along with a separate wireless access point when the access point died. (The RT314 is amazingly reliable. I never even think about it)
Having such good experiences with Netgear, I decided to give the MR814 a try, even though the reviews on it have been spotty. (Hard to pass up a wireless router for six dollars after rebates.)
I received the MR814V2 version from Amazon and had it up and running in 5 minutes. Everything seemed fine with my VPN connection and online gaming, but the web surfing was terribly slow. I couldn't figure it out at first. After doing a little searching, I found out that the latest firmware (5.3.x) is just plain bad. Netgear has apparently tried to do DNS caching on the router in the 5.3 firmware and it doesn't work well at all. I went out to their website, downloaded the previous firmware version (5.0.3), installed it and everything works perfectly now.
Hope this helps.
55 GREAT product - VERY simple to set up
This product is my first venture into home networking, and I was expecting it to be a pain to set up. I couldn't have been more wrong. It literally took me less than 10 minutes to set up the router, and my laptop (with a built-in wireless card) recognized the network instantly and configured itself. It works well all over my house, and the speed of my internet access is as good on the laptop as the desktop. Setting up security is a little complex, but if you read a couple of good articles on how to set it up, you shouldn't have any problems. Overall, a very nice product at an unreal price of sub-$10 after rebates. Highly recommended!
56 A great, basic wireless router at a great price!
I finally decided to take the plunge and get a wireless network set up in my house. I wasn't looking for anything fancy or cutting edge, just the ability to share an internet connection among 2 computers and a video game console. I have no need for high speed connections, and so this router fit the bill. It was a great price (got it while rebate was offered), comes out of the box pretty much plug and play. Settings are a breeze to a configure through the web based interface. Port Forwarding works great, and I feel more secure with this hardware device than I did just with a software firewall.
The wireless connection works with no problems. I also have a ported connection going to my desktop.
I especially like the security settings that allow you to specify which wireless devices to allow access to and to deny all others access.
57 Don't know what others have been complaining about
I've had this router for over a year and I have had absolutely no problems with it. I have the 2nd version and not once have I had to reset it or unplug it or anything that was its fault. All of the features it has that I use, including port forwarding and service blocking, work as I would expect them to. Setup is really easy and I had it up and running in less than 30 seconds, from the time it was all plugged in to the time I was on a website. Playing around with the settings can be a bit weary if you don't know what they are or how they work, but if you don't know what a setting is then don't play around with it. There are also numerous sources online that explain all of the features on the router, so if you need to, do some research. This router is a great product for its price and I would recommend it to anyone who would benefit from it.
58 Note! there is version 3 of this product
I've got version 2 of this product, and I am using it very well in my living room into two bedrooms.
I also bought another from another seller, then it didn't work; I RMAed it, then I've got a new one of version 3; yet I didn't test, but I hope it is better (new color/similar but new shape!).
59 bad product, do not buy.
Bought the router at sale price for a friend. After reset, it only works for a few minutes before dropping off. Tried all kinds of firmwears from Netgear website, no use. Spent hours trying to coax it to work and reaching custormer service before finally giving up on the product.
Overall, it's a bad. A waste of money even at 1 cent.
60 3 machines flawless for over two year now
This is an excellent router for all generic settings. Keep in mind, the faster speeds such as G & super G really help you only for internal networking (computer to computer), not with the internet speed. 802.11b does up to 11Mbit/s, more than you get with regular cable/dsl.
I have three of these boxes, all version MR814v2. I have them daisy-chained to enable wired 100Mbit/s connections (2 PC XP/W2K/2 G4 Powerbooks) and 2 work as access points throughout the place. Comes with basic firewall and you can turn the access point on or off. Easy to connect to. Now the best: v2 only comes with WEP encryption, and Netgear (website) says the WPA update only works with v3. I tried it with v2 and it worked fine (update to latest v2 version first), so all my original v2 boxes now pretend to be v3 machines and have WPA encrytion (try at your own risk, of course).
These boxes have been dirt-cheap, do all I need and are reliable for the last 2 years!
No problems. Great deal!!!
61 Sorry, people, but...
The MR814v2, at least, is quite annoying. Like some other reviewers, I have had to turn it off and on periodically throughout the year or so that I have owned this router.
I won't even mention how bad the port forwarding is. It's horrible. Very.
62 DO NOT BUY!!!! CONNECTION DROPS OFTEN! NO SUPPORT!!!
I have experienced the same problem as many others have done. When you first connect it, it works for a while but then the connection drops. I think this product is defective. Read the other comments here. Technical supports do not help at all. They have not accept thised to repair. 90 day warrant is WORTHLESS. Why you think Amazon is selling this for just $6 after rebate. In my opinion, this doesn't even worth $6. DO NOT BUY!!!!!
63 Nice gadget, useful
I decided to get this router because of two reasons: its advantage of wireless connection option, and I have a problem with my prevouosly bought Linksys BEFSR41 EtherFast Router w/4-Port. Inspite of its good interface and easy installation, for some reason long wires make connection loose. On the other hand the Linksys has not this problem. Any way I would recomend this router to anyone who wants to install a wireless home network without much experience.
64 Not a good router
Shitty router. Very bad connection. Drops signal all the time. Have to turn it off and on couple of times a day to make it work.
65 Great router
I have used this router for the last year, it has handled everything I've thrown at it and works absolutely flawlessly. The control panel is nice and easy to use, it has good flexible security features and the speed is great for both wired and wireless connections, even though it's 802.11b. I don't know about support because I have never had a need for it not with the MR314 I had for two years before I got this router and no need for tech support for this one. However, if it's anything like Linksys support and is in Bangladesh then it must be quite bad. NETGEAR makes the finest routers for the consumer market at the best prices, bar none.
66 Don't buy it
After three months, this router became unreliable. Tech supports try to help me out but this router requires refurbish. Considering the amount I spend on this router, this isn't worthy.
67 Unreliable, loses DNS
This has been extremely unreliable. It loses WAN connection frequently( within minutes). Sometimes it is connected but will not pass any DNS traffic. Even resetting does not help. Stay away from it.
Update: This is completely dead now. Even the ethernet ports are dead.
68 Drops connections, customer service inadequate
I've had this router for a few months, and am going to buy a different brand to replace this as soon as possible. Here are the issues I've been having:
Drops the connection frequently, every couple of minutes.
Customer service tried to help me out. After ninety days, they insist that you have to pay $1.99/minute for help. Considering that I've spent a few hours with customer service and it still doesn't work, this is unacceptable. Looks to me like they want to make some money on their customer service for a faulty product.
69 Extremely solid product
I had this Netgear Wireless-B router for a while and I can say it is quite a solid product. It does its job quite well without being annoying or obtrusive. The web based configuration utility is very handy and feature complete. If you do get one of these, be sure to periodically check for firmware updates from Netgear. Also be aware of Wireless-G technology which is newer and faster.
70 M‡s simple........IMPOSIBLE!!!!
Quiero escribir mi experiencia personal sobre este router.
Tan pronto lo saquŽ de la caja, lo que me sorprendi— fuŽ su tama–o....apenas un poco m‡s grande que la palma de mi mano, lo que lo hace muy conveniente.
Inmediatamente lo conectŽ al cable modem de mi servicio de internet y dos de los 4 puertos al‡mbricos a mis 2 PC's.
No solamente obtuve Internet en las 2 PC's al‡mbricas sino que mi laptop VAIO serie TR wireles LAN reconoci— inmediatamente la se–al inal‡mbrica del router, sin necesidad de configuraciones, ni accesorios o adaptadores.
La se–al es lo suficientemente fuerte como para trabajar inal‡mbrico alrededor de toda mi casa.
Yo no soy ningśn experto en computaci—n ni nada por el estilo, solo un consumidor comśn y corriente y realmente me sorprendi— que en tan solo 4 — 5 minutos mis 3 PC's estuvieran navegando.
Al principio tuve dudas si elegir un router 802.11b — 802.11g. Si tu intenci—n es trabajar interconectado inal‡mbrico con varias PC's en tu lugar de tabajo u oficina utiliza el 802.11g pues tus PC's se interconectar‡n a una velocidad de 54Mbps de lo contario utiliza el 802.11b que te ineterconecta con tu cable modem a una velocidad de 11Mbps, que es la velocidad m‡xima de conecci—n de tu cable modem hacia tu PC y as’ te ahorras algunos d—lares.
He le’do algunos malos comentarios sobre su durabilidad, la verdad no lo he tenido el suficiente tiempo como para opinar al respecto, pero tambiŽn toma en cuenta que actualmente tiene un costo de menos de $20.00 con la rebaja por correo, en realidad me sali— costando $17 y centavos despuŽs de completar el cup—n y enviarlo y recibir por correo mi cheque.
Creo que por este precio lo covierte en un router desechable y si se te arruina mejor reemplazalo por otro igual.
He le’do los mismos comentarios de mala durabilidad en otros routers mucho m‡s caros pues recordemos que todos son hechos en CHINA!!.
En mi caso en particular estoy muy contento de este router y como escrib’ en mi t’tulo....M‡s simple.....IMPOSIBLE!!.
Espero sea de ayuda. (En Espa–ol es mejor!!)
71 avoid this router-it sucks
I don't know why amazon review don't have 0 or even negative stars option. This router sucks, the customer service sucks.
Frankly if it works, it works great. Mine works for 5 month flawlessly until one day the wireless function drop dead suddenly. After 5 phone calls and a great hassle, I finally get those indian tech support issue a RMA. I spend $6.80 ship the faulty unit back to the netgear return center in Memphis but for two weeks they refuse to ship the replacement unit to me and insist they haven't received the item. I called them twice and give'em UPS tracking number (remember to use a carrier with tracking number) and told them it was delivered. Then they send me a replacement, a unit not working at all (that's why they want you to send the bad unit back, huh?).
so what happen next? I call rma center and the lady politely told me to call tech support AGAIN and get another rma. ok, netgear, this is the first and last business from me.
72 Great!
The router works greats. The signal is strong, and has enough distance to go upstairs, although it is limited (but it's cheap enough that if you had to, you could get a booster and still come out okay). The setup is easy- it automatically detects the modem, and it sets up easily for wireless, where there is no loss in speed. Definitely good. Buy it.
73 Product has been horrible
I successfully connected the product & it functioned for a while. After about 4 months (free service lasts for 3 months) the product began dropping the connection between the PC and the internet modem. I was told by Netgear to just reset the machine when this happens. Doing that worked for about ten minutes and the connection would drop again and the cycle would start all over again. I would spend the whole day resetting the router and not get any work done. Then they informed me of a customer service number to call & generate a return allowance - unfortunately the number automatically disconnects every time you call it - the one time a person actually answered I was told they had computer problems and could not help me - but would call me back. Of course, they did not call me back.
74 Excellent product
I purchased the unit some months ago, so it is much less in cost now but let me tell you. It a great deal and delivers speeds as if your computer was connected directly to the router. A great buy if your thinking of going wireless.
75 Don't Update To The Latest Firmware
This product is real good, unless you upgrade to the latest Firmware (currently, version 5.3). The latest firmware is designed to change the DNS settings, making this router the only DNS server (proxy server). The idea is that the router acts as the DNS server, so when you type in an address the router queries the real DNS server and the router returns the DNS information. The result: slow connections, and a lot of errors (among them, not being able to check Hotmail). It will work fine if you manually input the real DNS servers (this means not using the easy to use built in DHCP server). My advice is DO NOT upgrade the firmware and if you have upgraded it, download the previous firmware (version 5.03) and perform a downgrade. With this previous firmware I haven't had any problem and I'm enjoying a real fast and reliable Internet connection.
76 Works great now after shakey start
I cannot change the star rating, but I would drop this to one star, if I could.
It broke on me again. This time, it would not allow connection to the internet at all (previously, only the wireless part broke).
I have had this for almost 2 years. It went out on me once in the first year. It has been working great and trouble free for over a year now. Range is fairly good, but it doesn't penetrate more than 4 interior walls. It has also made my DSL more stable. You might want to see if you can get a g instead of a b for a similar price.
Initial installation took about 2 hours. Part of the reason is because my operating system was Windows ME and part was because I was just learning. It was the typical Windows issue. Although I wasn't instructed to, when I rebooted the computer everything started to work. When I got a new computer with Windows XP, it hooked up immediately.
After about 6 months, the wireless radio went dead. The router part still worked and I could use the cable connection. I had to spend about 3 hours on the phone with the technician to prove it was bad. I sent it in (at my expense) and got a new unit (free) in about 2 weeks. I haven't had any problems since. Note that I also bought a Buffalo wireless router that went bad in about a month. After reading reviews on all brands of routers, I don't think any one is very reliable. They probably all get their chips and parts from the same suppliers.
The wireless router almost covers my whole house. I have it in a corner bedroom upstairs. It covers all of downstairs, which is fairly open. It doesn't reach into the corner of a remote upstairs bedroom, that was an addition on to the house. The signal must penetrate 4 interior walls, one of which used to be an exterior wall.
The unit comes with a 2dBi antenna. I tried using 6 and 15 dBi antennas, and neither showed a significant improvement. I replaced this Netgear router with a Buffalo router and repeater set to reach the far bedroom. That set up worked great, when it worked, which wasn't very often. The Buffalo router finally crashed for good, and I had to send it back in for repair. I rehooked up this Netgear system while I am waiting for the Buffalo to come back.
My DSL is not reliable because I am at the maximum distance from the main station allowed. Half the time when I have problems, the DSL company tells me that I shouldn't have DSL. When I connected the DSL modem to the Netgear router, instead of directly to my computer, the DSL seemed to be more reliable.
This is 802.11b, which is 11Mbps. The 802.11g is 54Mbps. Is it worth the extra money to get a g instead of b? Probably not. I certainly haven't noticed a difference (this Netgear is a b and the Buffalo is a g). DSL doesn't come close to this speed, and most cable modems are half the speed of b at the best. So, unless you are sending data like video between two computers, g doesn't really give any advantages.
77 Poor Reliability
Con: (1) Two MR814v2 units failed in the first 8 hours. Outsouced/foreign support available but not much help. (2) Really slow performance for some websites (hotmail for one.)
Switched to another router mfg and no problems.
78 It is a gamble.
I bought the MR814v2 several days ago and have had only frustration after the first day. At first I thought it was the result of updating to the latest firmware so a downgraded to the old revision. But the problems persisted. Then I started reading the reviews.
The MR814 was intended to replace a Siemens SpeedStream 2604 that has worked flawlessly for me for 3 years. The 2604 was another device that fared poorly in user reviews. My point? NetGear's (and Siemens) quality control appears to be poor. Some people will get the winners and some the lemons. The unfortunate thing about all these review sites is that they have no legitimate way to give % results. What % of the MR814s are junk from the start? If I knew the answer to that I would know whether to return my unit or exchange it for another.
79 Please wait before reviewing at 5 stars-Disposable Router
I bought this router from Amazon.com in February. Last Friday I took a hammer to it out of frustration. THERE IS A REASON THIS ROUTER IS ONLY GUARANTEED FOR 90 DAYS -- it will quit soon after that. My internet was choked, nothing I could do would bring it back. I contacted Netgear, they told me to disable the SPI firewall. So, not feeling real good about it, I did, and I still had the same problems. Here's a couple of things to keep in mind before writing a review or purchasing this router:
--Wait at least 90 days before reviewing this product. It will probably die on you soon after the 90 days are up. Sure, it's easy to set up, and it works great when you first get it. Rating this router a 5 before giving it ample time to "adjust" is doing the other buyers a dis-service.
--Watch the firmware updates -- there hasn't been good firmware for this product yet. And I guarantee you, you will have to update the firmware. I even tried a German release, and it worked for about a month before the router completely died on me. If you don't know what firmware is, don't even consider this router.
--Don't be fooled by "Easy Setup". All routers are pretty much easy to set up. It's configuring them to your specifications that becomes a problem (such as encrypting your connection.)
--Make sure that your wireless adapter is not 54g compatible. If it is, you're wasting your money on this router -- you can get one that supports 54g for the same price or better. This one is only an 11MBPS, which isn't much if you have a broadband connection.
Of course, I bought a new one, and I will wait to review that one as well. There's a trend with the five-star ratings on this product -- they're mostly issued by people who just received the router.
I hope this helps
80 Cheap and easy on the eyes -- but totally unreliable
I've been using one of these for the past year or so, and really need to warn people away from them.
It's nice and cheap, and it looks great and has a great user interface through its web UI -- but it has a serious bug. Heavy internet use will cause it to crash -- it won't even respond to pings from the LAN. To fix this requires a manual power cycle.
This really bit me badly last weekend, when I was on the road and needed to log into my home machine via ssh -- the MR814 had crashed and the internet connection was down as a result.
It's a real shame, as in most other respects, it's a perfectly good product. But the reliability problems are just too serious.
81 Why dont we have a -ve rating?
I bought this after I heard some good reviews. Unfortunately it turned out to be a hopeless router for me. The wireless worked exactly twice for 2 hrs. I tried for nearly 3 weeks. Tried ALL possible configurations, updates, restarts, reboots but never managed to get the wireless network! The netgear support is pathetic. The waiting time for the call to get through is more than 1/2 hr..!! After doin everything the support guys told me on phone, i still didnt manage to get the wireless working, kept using the wired network. The firmware upgrade doesnt work either. Finally have returned the product to Amazon for a refund. Netgear was askin me to pay $14 for the one way return shipping!! Sad return policy for a sad product.
82 Undoubtedly the worst hardware purchase I have ever made.
I cannot speak more vilely of the Netgear MR-814. I purchased this piece of hardware from CompUSA. Despite struggling with various options and settings, I still found that my (cable modem) bandwidth was choked back to levels approaching that of an old-school dial-up modem, images would sometimes not load, and if I attempted to do multiple things at once (such as load many webpages at one time), only a few of the webpages would actually connect, the rest acting as if there was no connection to the Internet. Fortunately, I was still within my warranty replacement period, and I exchanged it for a Linksys BEFW11S4, which so far has performed very admirably right out of the box. Interestingly enough, I am not the only one to have problems: there was another Netgear product on the shelf behind the refund/return clerk, and I heard from a friend who works at a Staples store in northeastern Indiana that Netgear products have quite a bad reputation amongst their customers there, too. Stay away from this product with a ten-foot pole, as it's not worth its purchase price let alone the hours of frustration you'll sink into attempting to get its configuration to work.
83 Amazingly simple install
Set up was amazingly simple for wired service (I did not need the wireless set up but it appeared simple also). In less than 15-20 min I had all 3 of my computers running on the internet. I have minimal computer knowledge. The price was perfect for my needs and since I do not plan to use the wireless -the type of wireless did not matter for me. I would recommend this product. (I have a windows xp, windows 98 and windows 2000 OS on the various computers.)
84 Buyer Beware
I had purchased this from Amazon.com in August. The installation was very easy... But the router started to misbehave within few hours of operation. My laptop showed 5 bars in the signal strength but could not renew the IP address. I switched off the router and re-started it after a few hours- it started working and again failed to provide the IP address after a couple of hours. Same thing happens for computers physically connected with the network cable.
I wondered why and asked around- couple of guys in me university also had similar problems with the system. We figured that the system was getting overheated or something and that is why it fails...
I was irritated with the performance and sent it to amazon for refund. I appreciate Amazon for a swift refund.
In conclusion, do not buy this unless it is used outdoors in Alaska.
85 Great router, even Greater Price !
I have two of these, and for the money, you can't go wrong... I believe one user mentioned he had problems connecting using his apple powerbook.. Well, let me tell you I have mine at home hooked up to my PC, and have an apple g4 powerbook with an airport extreme card- no problems, in the other room, downstairs, or on the porch.. try it .. you'll see !
86 90 DAY SUPPORT
Netgear offers very limited support for their products. DO NOT BUY.
87 THE WORST WIRELESS ROUTER. TRY OTHER BRANDS
I've just bought MR814V2 for a week. it was really good in the first 2 day. After that, it make the internet connection much slower. I tried to test by using command ping www.google.com . With MR814 , both wired and wireless, the packet lost 30%. When I tested my internet connection without MR814, it worked perfectly with 0% packet loss. Moreover, upgrading the newest fimrware doesn't help.
88 Decent Product; Non-existent Customer Service
This product worked well for about 1 year, then it crapped out. Tried calling customer service on several occasions with no luck; the service line hangs up on me each time. Stay away from this company unless you want to take your chances.
89 Excellent Router & Great Value For Money
Let me first start by saying that I have bought four of these for myself and family/ friends. This is an exceptional router and at this price you can't find a better choice. I see a lot of disgruntled people here who can't connect to the router wirelessly after changing settings. I would like to give a couple of tips.
First of all, make sure you configure the router when you are hard wired. You have to ensure that you are connected to the router via a LAN cable whenever you are making any changes to the router's configuration. This way when the router restarts etc. you will still be connected to it. If you are carrying out any changes to the router through your wireless card, for example if you have changed the WEP encryption code in the router, then once you submit those changes, the router will not let your wireless card connect until your laptop's card is configured for the same WEP key. So once again, please ensure you carry out changes to the router only when hard wired. The moment you get your router, I suggest you carry out a firmware upgrade (go to netgear's support site and download the latest firmware for your model from there). Once again follow instructions and make sure you are connected through a cable to carry out the same.
Now log onto the router and then do a couple of things. First of all, rename the SSID to anything you want (eg. Joan's Arc). Then go to the wireless settings, then to wireless access, and click on 'Disable SSID broadcast'. This ensures that the SSID is not broadcast to others around you who have a wireless machine. So when their software searches for a wireless access point all they will see is a blank name. To be able to connect to your network they would have to know the name of your SSID (Joan's Arc in this case) and manually type it in their machines (Highly unlikely that they will be able to think of the same name as you do. You can make your name even harder to obtain by simply using numeric characters in it.. for example Joan's Arc2004). Secondly, to make it secure use a 128 bit WEP key (this has to be a 26 digit key consisting of alphanumeric and numeric characters. You can use only certain alphabets in small and large case so you need to check that out. Also remember that you have to feed the same WEP key number in your laptop wireless card software (or the windows wireless settings if you are not using your wireless card's software). Finally you can ensure that only the wireless devices you specify can logon to your router. Go to the Wireless settings, then to wireless access setup and then click on 'enable wireless access'... Thereafter click on 'Setup access list'. Once there add your wireless device by using its mac address (the mac address is a unique number given to a wireless device, very much like a phone number- this enables the router to identify the device trying to connect to it). The mac address will be listed on your wireless device and you can also see all the devices that you can allow to connect to your router in the router's configuration window. (One important note to remember is that if you have already enabled WEP then you will have to first feed in the same key into your wireless device software settings before the router will display it in it's list of devices). Select the device that you want to allow to connect to your router and apply.
Hope this helps to a certain extent to configure your routers. Trust me, this is an amazing router and if you are having connection problems, it most likely is due to the settings in the router- not because the router is faulty.
90 Excellent Wireless Router, works with Apple too...
I had this router for about 2 months, it works like a charm with Verizon DSL, it is fast, reliable, and even looks good. I had to reboot it once so far. Setup was ridiculously easy, basically just plug and play. Securing the network takes a little bit more effort, but it is very far from daunting. I was a bit worried when I ordered it, seeing all the negative reviews. It seems to me that most negative reviews on this item stem from inexperience and not reading the manual (I am a network admin so I did not read it either, but then again, I am not crying foul after I am disconnected when I enable WEP... Please!)
This router works fine with a 3rd party 802.11b adapter in my PC, and also works OK with an Apple iBook G4. The only snag is that Apple's Airport Extreme card has the worst reception of any wireless adapter ever made!!! One can only get good reception within about 20 feet of the base station (if there are no walls or other obstacles), and this holds true with Apple's own base station as well. This is in no way Netgear's fault. If you want to use wireless in a productive manner, forget Apple.
91 Very very unreliable
I would strongly advise against buying this router. When I first got it, I couldn't have the wireless part turned on if I wanted to get to the Internet. Customer service was useless the first few times, and then they led me through this absurdly complicated procedure to do a special reset on the router. Now the reouter occasionally just dies on me, requiring me to unplug it and plug it back in to get it to work again. It's phenominally unreliable.
Finally, their free support is limited to 90 days. In other words, if you have a problem after that time, even if it's a problem with the router, you have to pay!
92 Horrific to set up; horrific customer service - a nightmare!
Just bought this and received it 3 days ago, along with new Toshiba Satellite laptop. The Netgear router box brags of the easy, 'automatic' connectivity with laptops. Not at all true!! I am not a computer expert, but am pretty adept and much more tech savvy than average - yet took forever to get the router to 'recognize' the IP address and thus the wireless internal Centrino card within my brand new laptop.
The router worked for approximatly 24 hours; then I went to the website to enable to the encryption and other protective measures the box also brags about. this somehow shut down the internet connectivity from the router to my laptop altogether. And *three* hours (no exaggeration) worth of back-and-forth with several marginally knowlegable Netgear support staff did *nothing* to solve the problem. I have spent another three hours finding the online manual (hard to find in and of itself) and painstakingly folowing its directions so that the router would automatically 'recognize' my new Centrino laptop and I could simply gain wireless access to the internet - again, all to no avail.
I will be returning this waste of money and time tomorrow and purchasing another brand and spending more money (certainly the hours spent on hold, then talking with inept tech staff, then trying on my own are definitely worth an extra $50.
Save yourself frustrating hours of your life (that you will never get back) and buy another brand and spend a little more. What a nightmare.
93 No Problems
I've had the product for a year. Never had a problem with it and its been under heavy use. My roommates are file sharers. One was wireless, the other plugged right into it. There have been Gigs upon Gigs of data pushed through this and its never needed a reboot. Currently it has 2 wireless clients on it at all times, and a third on and off. Never had a problem. Had a combination of linksys, netgear, and proxim cards used with it as well and windows and linux. It looks kinda cool on top of it all. I am just using it as an ap right now so I've turned off all of the nat and firewall stuff. Took a while to make that work, but no issues.
94 Big trouble maker
It worked one day for 8 hours, then took one day off. I mean it. 24 hours could not do anything about. Tried upgrading firmware to 5.3_5, tried reseting using the tiny button, tried cooling it off. Even the power LED was not stable. Then, it worked fine for another 4 hours, and refused to respond to me the next morning. I believe it freezes just seconds after initialization. My wife was screaming on me because I wasted so much time trying to figure out what happened. Search for "mr814v2 problem" on google and you'll see how many people complaining its quality. This unit is going back to shelf for sure!
95 Great for Windows....bad for Mac.
I bought this router because it was cheap and did everything I wanted it to do. I used it to connect my Windows XP desktop to my cable modem via ethernet cable and allow my Windows XP laptop to connect wirelessly. This worked great! No problems at all. Plenty of signal, no hassle connections, administration interface is fine.
However, I recently got a new 15" Apple Powerbook for work, which includes an Airport Extreme card (802.11g). I've had nothing but troubles getting the router to give an IP address to the Powerbook. It'll do it if I physically cycle the power on the router or reset it via the administration interface, but no options I've found will let it do this automatically. Major hassle.
I've updated the firmware on both my router and my laptop...no change.
So, I recommend this router if you think you'll only be using Windows machines.
96 Best 802.11b Router out there
I have two of them and have never ever had a problem.
BEST 802.11b ROUTER!
97 Good value / Medium performance
I have had this router for about 6 months. It works well with a static IP from my ISP and as a DHCP server to my wireless clients. I have not tried the auto coniguration as I do not have DHCP on my DSL service. The one flaw I find is that I cannot maintain a steady connection to my wireless clients when using WEP. My solution was to create an access list on the router and limit wireless access to the mac addresses of my wireless clients. I have also noticed that I need to recycle the router once in awhile (maybe once a month or less). No big deal.
98 Best Quality/Price Option
I live in New York City and needed a wireless router that could send the signal throughout my oddly shaped apartment that has many concrete/brick walls. I compared the Netgear MR814 with the Linksys BEFW11SF as both are wireless b routers and all anyone really needs.
I have Time Warner broadband cable internet and the setup for the Netgear was plug-and-play. As with any wireless router, you'll want to make sure it's secured: change default password, disable broadcast SSID, and enable MAC filtering, and enable WEP/WPA security. There are plenty of different options, but I found that administering the Netgear MR814 was simple and quick.
I am now able to wander all over my apartment and receiving a 100% quality srong signal.
Overall, I believe that Netgear is just as good (or better) than the Linksys while costing less. How can you go wrong?
99 Netgear MR814 Wireless Router
I have had no success with this product. Netgear doesn't provide warranty support for Macintosh computers and this router drops connection constantly. After doing a firmware upgrade, I could no longer to access the router to reconfigure, so it is essentially useless. I don't recommend this product for Macintosh users.
100 Incompatiable with Centrino
I cannot get laptops with centrino to connect to the MR814v2 (this is the version that Netgear is shipping now). I've tried IBM and Dell notebooks to no avail. I can get my other IBM to connect but it isn't a centrino. Search on the web and you'll see a lot of other people having the same problem. Tech support for netgear is outsourced to India and it is not very helpful, they'll tell you to update the firmware but that still doesn't work. If this network engineer can't get it to work then it's not worth the hassel, buy some other brand.
