NETGEAR's RT314 combination switch and router creates the potent full-duplex backbone you need to fire up your system. Share data locally or through the Internet. Usable to 253 clients at a time, this power-packed router with integrated 4-port 10/100 Mbps switch conducts your Internet connection so that multiple PCs can use your DSL or cable modem, no additional hubs or switches needed. You'll pay for only one IP hookup for shared broadband access, yet you can also limit Internet availability, PC by PC. On top of that, the multi-functional RT314 can be configured as a DHCP server or client. You can breathe easy - network address translation protects your internal network from hacker invasions. And NETGEAR's renowned engineering ensures smooth-running usability.
The Netgear RT314 combination switch and router creates a potent full-duplex backbone. Share data locally or through the Internet. Usable by up to 253 clients, this power-packed router with an integrated four-port 10/100 Mbps switch conducts your Internet connection so that multiple PCs can use your DSL or cable modem to surf the Web, e-mail friends, play games, or shop, without the need for additional hubs or switches. You'll pay for only one Internet hookup for shared broadband access, yet you can also limit Internet availability PC by PC. On top of that, the multifunctional RT314 can be configured as a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server or client.
1 This is a very good product.
This router was easy to configure right out of the box. Have used it for 3 years without a hitch and have never been infiltrated.
Pluses:
web-based interface
menu driven telnet interface
NAT
flawless performance
Netgear web support, phone support
light-weight, slim design, sleek looks
low-price
Minuses:
none
2 Works well, but for a limited time
I've had my RT314 since 2000, and it worked pretty well 90% of the time. It ran in dynamic IP mode (with a near static IP from BellSouth). I also ran mail and web servers behind it for personal use. One time in 2001 I needed to upgrade the firmware because it was losing it's connection with my modem and not resetting.
But this month (January 2004) the router finally gave out. The router needs to be rebooted every half hour or so to work. I can't even pull up the telnet interface after about 30 minutes. After checking most of my network, I replaced the router and everything's back to normal. So if you're not running any servers on your high speed connection and get this router for cheap, I'd recommend it to work for you for about 4 years.
3 Very stable, absolutely no issues.
I have had the Netgear RT314 router for over 3 YEARS and have had NO PROBLEMS with it whatsoever. The router has been very stable through tons and tons of use. I was very unfamiliar with networking when I bought this router, and the installation was simple (just follow the instructions EXACTLY!). I highly recommend this product. Firewall, DHCP, and LAN all in one. Great item!!! I have used this router (internet-wise) for both cable internet access and wireless internet access.
Note: Remember to tape your username and password to your router. I forgot to and it took me some time to find this info to get into my router.
4 After 3+ years and still going strong!!!
It appears that Netgear is no longer making this router. Too bad. I purchased one of these right after I signed up for Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) DSL in October 1999 and haven't turned it off since.
I do work in IT and understand networking, but this box was so easy to set up. As soon as I got it out of the box I was up and running in five minutes. It has done an exceptional job at blocking hackers. As a test, I have set up Black Ice firewalls on my PCs and I have never recorded one intruder!
Netgear has also done a nice job with the firmware. The current version, 3.25, has several goodies that were not available when my model was released, including an option to use DynDNS.org. This feature allows you to run your own Internet server (in my case, a Linux FTP server behind the firewall) even with a dynamic IP address, like those used by most DSL providers, including Verizon, SBC, etc.
The only downside that I have found with this router is the DHCP will only support 32 addresses. But then again, how many homes and small offices do you know that have more than 32 PCs.
Now that everything is going wireless, I recently purchased a D-Link access point for testing purposes. I am not happy with the security of the 802.11b standard. I know that I will eventually go to 802.11g, but until then, I will keep this router going. Unlike many computer products that seem to become obsolete after two years, the Netgear RT314 router is ageless.
5 Don't bother with Netgear!
Never buy Netgear! No commitment to their product and no (real) technical support. Case in point: RT314 has a problem with DHCP assigned addresses. It will not release them, ever. They limit the number of DHCP addresses to 8 (while all other vendors give you 250!). If you go over the limit, the only way to clear the table is to reboot the box. Netgear acknowledged the problem but refused to upgrade the firmware on the basis that "The product is too old. Please buy a newer model".
6 Love this puppy ! Buy it !
This was so easy to set up. I just plugged in the cable from my DSL modem to the WAN port, plugged the cable from my computer to one of the LAN ports, plugged in the power and it worked. I also play Counter-Strike (Half Life) a lot but with the new flash upgrade (3.24 which the one I received from Amazon had) it works like a charm. I have left my ZoneAlarm firewall installed for the last 24 hours and not a single hit (down from dozens to hundreds a day). If you want to mess with it you can configure it in dozens of ways. The PPoE and the VPN options are worth noting since many DSL ISPs require you to use PPoE. The 4 10/100 switched LAN ports are what sold me. After rebate it is only a few dollars than a 4 port switch. Now I can use my work laptop on the internet without unhooking my home computer. I say BUY IT !
7 bad product, worst customer service
I bought two routers from netgear so far. The first one lasted for about 6 months and started to fail. I called the customer service. But all they want to do is to avoid replacing the router. At the end, they tricked me saying " there might be thunderstorm/lighting before it went bad". That's is it, it's not covered under warranty anymore...
The second one I bought is the wireless router, and it went dead in a couple of hours. This time all the customer service can say is to send it back... fortunately I can return to the store I got it from.
So no more netgear for me.
8 Served me well!
I have had this router for about 2 years now. Recommendation was from a friend who swears by Netgear products as his bible! I know absolutely NOTHING about computers, so he helped me set it up, took 10 mins over the phone! Throughout this time, I have only had to reset it TWICE! Other than that, not even a wisper of complaint!
9 Easy with good features
I've been using this about 2 years now. It works great (though lately, it's been failing and I will likely have to repair or replace it). In spite of my recent (after 2 years of perfect performance) problems, I still recommend this product (or one of it's newer models). It has both a telnet and a web interface for configuration. It allows you to route up to 12 ranges of ports to up to 12 unique IP addresses on your lan. One awesome feature is built-in support for the free url service DynDNS.org. You can setup a free domain name to point to your home network. This router automatically updates your record on dyndns.org when your external IP address changes, so you can always access your home network from remote, regardless of what you IP address happens to be that day. There is a wireless version of this product out too. I plan on getting that soon.
10 reliable workhorse never stops
i've had this router for over two years. throughout that time it has performed perfectly and has far exceeded my expectations. i never have to give it a second thought because it just never has problems.
11 Does everything I want it to do
I bought this unit as it was highly recommended by my friends. Almost everyone I know has had one of these. The Netgear firewall allows you to "hide" your local network, but still allow access to your servers on a port-by-port basis to the public internet. If you have DSL and your provider lets you run servers at home, this is the perfect solution. The Linksys is similar but this has a metal case and is better made. Never regretted buying this for a second.
12 excellent
Been using this model for about 2 years; it works without a glitch. Easy to use for beginners, but highly configurable when necessary, incl. UNIX-based command line interface.
I'm posting this short review since I'm going to purchase another router for a close relative, and it will be definitely made by Netgear...
It's not a Cisco, but for the price you can't beat it...
13 Monster Unit
This thing is a real monster! What can I say that all of the other reviewers haven't said? I would have like a three-prong plug so it was grounded but you can ground it fairly easily. After installing a couple NICs in our computers and the RoadRunner guy came and dropped the cable modem in, it took me a couple minutes to set it up and plug everything in then I hit a hitch that was fixed with a quick trip to Netgear's website which showed me which little setting I was missing. Their site has a list of dozens of cable ISPs and tells you the settings you may need to check. Very nice.
The box isn't flashy; but, who cares? It should be installed in a closet anyway... The hardware firewall has dropped the pings on my main computer immensely. It has a great web-browser-based control panel so no special managing software is required.
If you have a cable modem and more than one computer, GET THIS IMMEDIATELY. It is pure joy!
14 RT314 router/switch
About two and a half years ago I purchased a Netgear RT314 router to share cable modem service on our 3 computer network. I unboxed it and spent about 20 minutes setting it up, connecting cables, etc. The router has been running flawlessly ever since despite thousands of PC crashes. I have never had to touch it, it's just there and works! What more could you want from a product?
15 Works great - even after 10 months...
Was looking for a Firewall/Router to our AT&TBI cable connection and to network up our house. Most of my colleagues leaned towards Linksys (and were pleased) but since I wanted to mount this one on a "cross-connect" panel in the basement, I was not too keen on Linksys' plastic casing and form factor (works probably OK on a desk though). Needed something more industrial and slim.
Bought the RT314 in June of 2001 and it has been running like a champ ever since. It even provided me connection after @home kicked out AT&T when everyone with Linksys had to reconfigure theirs. My only comment today is that I should really have bought a RT318 instead since the additonal four ports would have elimated the need for separate switch/hub (which I am now shopping for). It's tiring to run down to the basement and move jumper cables around...
16 Pretty decent all around...
This unit was fairly eay to install and set-up (I had a couple of difficulties with conflicting IPs on a pre-existing home network, but these were fairly easily resolved). Can't beat the price, and it has a pretty good feature set.
17 Awsome
Easy to set-up, no issues, my home is now wired with broadband. I now surf the internet from anywhere and have access to my home pc.
18 Reliable, Easy, Secure, Quick
This is a great Router. Although installing it was tricky at first, it was relatively easy to install. My network runs fast and is reliable thanks to this router.
19 At Least it is Easy to Install / Configure...
It's a good thing that it is, because I have to keep doing it. I got my first RT314 about 1 year ago. After messing with it for a few hours, I had to take it back - it would not make a WAN connection. The exchanged unit plugged into the network and worked after minor configuration changes, which were easy to do via telnet or the browser-based configuration utility. Since then, I have had to reload the factory default configurations via ftp several times. For unknown reasons, after working well for a while, the unit would lose connection with the WAN and then would fail to get a good IP address from my ISP. Nothing short of reloading the unit's ROM would do any good. The Netgear web site was not helpful, the 'ask a question' portion would not find any relevant responses. Something else out there has got to be better...
20 Useless
I tried to help a friend configure this router for their home but failed. It had the easiest configuration screens I had ever seen for setting up but we could never get it to work and I've done several routers of different brands in the past with no problems. I tried calling Netgear tech support and was on hold for 30 min till I gave up. Web site gave sample config settings for the local cable service which I had inputed but still did not work. Also, the 314 has no off switch, and no master reset switch. My advice: get another brand.
21 purely simple junk
Dont waste your money on this! Tech support stinks.
Its also not totally PPPoE compliant like they claim.
When my ISP went to PPPoE it put this router rt314 right out of buisness, and netgear techs could not make it work!
22 Great Router to Share Internet Access
I setup the Netgear RT314 router up to allow all the computers in my house to use the same dsl connection. With the built in NAT (Network Address Translation) and dhcp server converting my home network over to a tcp based network was very easy. I was able to mix Win98, Linux, MacOS, and Win2k all using the same internet connection. Since installing the router I have never needed to "reboot" it other than when I did a firmware upgrade.
I would recommend this router for anyone trying to get a home network of up to 4 computers setup with internet access.
23 Unreliable in the extreme - And Netgear knows this!
Router technology is more than a decade old, this absolutely is old hat for most companies. Yet each time I've complained that the RT314 is simply randomly failing (i.e. all lights are on and functioning, but apparently nobody is home and my permanent high-speed Internet connection is unavailable) they have suggested another upgrade patch.
Well, 3.25 was the last one, and I still don't have reliable service. The worst bit is the inconsistency. Sometimes it's one computer that doesn't have Internet, sometimes the other, sometimes both. Sometimes rebooting the router helps, sometimes reprogramming helps, sometimes nothing helps but the passage of time.
It is amazingly frustrating to have no fixes to keep the router working more than a day at a time. To date, Netgear has not fixed the problem, while acknowledging each failure with another update that should "make it more reliable."
After a year of this, I simply had to write and share such foibles and poor equipment and software results.
24 Easy to set up, Simple Administration
This is easy, the average guy can set this up and the advance user will like the versatility of the administration page. The newer versions (as of the last 6 months) do have better advanced features in the web based admin page, the ones from over a year ago need a software upgrade, but this does not deter from the overall use.
Once set up, approx 15-20 minutes depending on how complicated you want to have your LAN be, it just sits in the shelf doine its job. I have only had to reset it once and that was do to my cable provider changing settings.
I hightly recommend, in fact I am looking at the Wireless version now.
25 Great home firewall solution for Cable/DSL
I do InfoSec as a career, and I really like this product. I used to have an OpenBSD box as a firewall, until I needed the hardware for a test machine, so I decided on the RT314.
1. Setup was painless, there's both a Web and CLI/menu interface for configuration and maintenance.
2. Dynamic DNS is great, I can ssh into my home network from work, no matter what my IP address is.
3. Packet filtering. Other products do offer more advanced firewalling, some even application layer-proxies with IDS. I don't really need this, and I suspect most home users won't as well. I have a default drop rule, and I occasionally open port 22 (ssh) for access from a remote location. Most IDS products need constant babysitting, as well.
4. NAT. True NAT isn't going to protect you from every threat on the Internet (malware, session hijacking, etc), but it is a nice feature. I have 10 or so machines behind the RT314 and they all share the same DSL connection painlessly.
Overall this is a decent product.
26 Easy Setup, then Forget About It
Like the other reviewers, I have nothing but good things to say about this router. I set it up in about 5 minutes and was up and running.
A couple of highlights:
- The MAC address spoofing is a great feature. What this means is that you don't have to call your Cable/DSL provider to register a new MAC address (which they might hassle you about)
- I've been connecting to my company LAN with VPN software and it works fine with this router.
- The router has been running for months on end without a re-start. I had a LinkSys router, but found myself having to reboot and restart the thing constantly.
- For you gamers, Quake II & III and Half-Life/Counter-Strike/Team Fortress run without a hitch.
Hope this helps.
27 Worthless tech support!!! Kept dropping connection!!!
I'm experienced with networking, as I have 5 computers networked in my home. This product kept cutting out my internet connection every 18 minutes. So any java type application, etc. would stop and I would have to reconnect mirc, aol, realtick type apps. (...) I RETURNED THIS ITEM!
28 Excellent router.
The thing I love about this router is it's simplicity/price versus performance.
It took about 10 minutes to get two of my computers connected and running on this router.Easy would be a good word to describe the configuration of this router.
I'm spoofing both my computers IP addresses with the check of a box and everything is running flawlessly.
[...] this router works beautifully and looks beautiful too. I would recommend it over the problematic Linksys dsl/cable router.
29 Excellent router.
The thing I love about this router is it's simplicity/price versus performance.
It took about 10 minutes to get two of my computers connected and running on this router.Easy would be a good word to describe the configuration of this router.
I'm spoofing both my computers IP addresses with the check of a box and everything is running flawlessly.
Only beef I had about this router is it took a bit too long to ship and Amazon is kinda slow but I also did choose UPS ground shipping so It's kind of my fault. Aside from that this router works beautifully and looks beautiful too. I would recommend it over the problematic Linksys dsl/cable router.
30 Excellent router.
The thing I love about this router is it's simplicity/price versus performance.
It took about 10 minutes to get two of my computers connected and running on this router.Easy would be a good word to describe the configuration of this router.
I'm spoofing both my computers IP addresses with the check of a box and everything is running flawlessly.
This router works beautifully and looks beautiful too. I would recommend it over the problematic Linksys dsl/cable router.
31 Very good support website (in german), ideal for T-DSL.
I am using the german's largest ISP: T-Online (T-DSL). I hope this review could help people like me who use this ISP in Germany. I'm using this router to connect an Intel based PC and a Solaris Sparcstation Ultra 5 to the internet.
I bought this router about 2 months ago ... The installation was very easy. I've been on the german webpages of Netgear in order to find out how to configure this router for the T-Online. T-Online has a specific format for the login name. Netgear support pages had a link to a PDF file which 100% answered my question. Next step was to enter my ISP's DNS IP address (found on T-online webpage). Then I could start surfing ! Since 2 months this router has been connected to internet 24 hours a day without any trouble. A solid product which comes with a 5 year warranty.
32 Great for Home LAN and Sharing Cable or DSL Connection
My RT314 has been working flawlessly for over six months now and I'm very happy with it. I've got three computers networked and sharing a Cable-modem connection. I've been a PC user and programmer for almost 20 years and am very impressed and pleased that I can get this kind of equipment for my home at such a low price.
I had a bit of trouble during setup because I'd miss-typed my ISP's domain name. I had no trouble reaching tech-support but actually recognized and corrected the error myself while they were on the phone. Reading other reviews it sounds like tech support responce isn't as good as it used to be but there are similar reports on the other manufactures. They're probably all having trouble dealing with their success with these products.
33 Dead on Arrival
I bought one. I installed it and it didn't work. I called Netgear and waited on hold for 45 minutes. We discovered it was dead out of the box. Don't buy it.
34 Great Router for the price
This was a great purchase for me and a wonderful addition to my network. The setup was easy and it helps provide me with a reliable, secure connection via my DSL link to the internet. I would recommend this for anyone with a broadband internet connection from their home. I was up and running with the unit within 10 minutes right out of the box and haven't any trouble with the unit whatsoever.
35 Buy this router!
It just works. It took me 5 minutes to setup and I haven't had a problem since (more than a month). The speed is every bit as good as a direct connect to the cable modem itself. Just plug in, change your PC to DHCP addressing on the TCP/IP properties, reboot your computer, launch your browser (no proxy server), and type in [the required info] and your set.
Also, remember, you can now share drives on the other PC's connected to the router. Attaching is simple if you know the machine name or assigned IP address. Find out your assigned IP address by running WINIPCFG from your Run command if you are on Win 98. It's IPCONFIG from a DOS prompt in Windows NT or 2000.
I can go on... but trust me, for the cost of this unit, it cannot be beat. Oh, one other thing, turn off your firewall software. With NAT, you don't have to worry about getting hacked on your side of the router.
36 Truly plug-and-play - at a great price
If you're the sort of computer user that knows just enough about your PC to feel comfortable, but is afraid of upgrades, and hates to wade through complicated instruction manuals that go with them, then this product is for you. I recently purchased a second computer for another office in our home and I wanted both offices to share our broadband service. I just ran the cable from the existing DSL modem to the input jack of the router, then ran cable from 2 of the router's four output jacks to each computer. I booted up both computers and Bingo! Piece of cake! Both PC's and DSL function seamlessly and flawlessly. Best of all, the price was 33% less than brick and mortar retail stores!!
37 RT314 Gateway Router
great piece of gear.. plug it into your cable modem, plug in 4 computers, and they all access the net with lightening speed. only one IP address, Black Ice seldom even lights up from outside connection attempts. worked right out of the box, with out difficulty...
38 Tech Support? What a joke.
Setup of the router was pretty simple. However, I could not get one of my computers to connect, and so I called tech support. What a joke. Tried several times to reach them. My total wait time was well over one hour. When I FINALLY reached someone, he basically didn't help me. The entire conversation lasted maybe five minutes, after which the line went dead. (Does this sound familiar?)
I bought this product because I was under the impression that Netgear supported their products. It looks like I was wrong.
39 Broadband sharing and home networking at its best
Unbelievably easy to setup. Great accessibility and efficiency . . . matter of fact I think it has helped my cable modem connection. I frequently use it to share simultaneous access among three machines, and I almost can't tell the difference in connections at low traffic times.
Additional "tricks" are easily explained in the numerous FAQs and various discussions on frequented chats/forums/newsgroups such as porting web access, gaming, conferencing, etc. Definitely, a must have for those who are looking to share a broadband connection and do some minor home networking.
40 Easy, Reliable ... Great!
I bought this router serveral months ago for my cable service with MediaOne. I plugged it in, told it which computer had the ethernet card that was registered with MediaOne, and it worked instantly. It took less than half an hour, and its ability to use the enternet address off another computer meant I didn't need to call MediaOne. Just yesterday, I moved into a new apartment where I have Verizon DSL. This time, all I needed to do was tell the router the username and password, and again it worked instantly. It is great for DSL, because it keeps the connection open and I don't have to redial it every time I restart the computer.
Updating the software for the router is just as easy as plugging in the cables. You go to Netgear's site, click on "RT314", and download it. The router runs an FTP server, so you can send upgrades directly to it over the network, without any additional cables or software. It then reboots automatically. It also runs a web server, so you can configure all the router's settings just by clicking on web pages, as easily as using Amazon.
Because this router is so great, ISPs have been lowering their costs to give you home networking without needing a router. But there are still plenty of great reasons to buy this. Without the router, you will still need a hub, so the price difference is only $80. (If you want to use 100 MBPs on your home network, the price difference is even less.) Over the course of one year, the router will pay for itself by saving you "home networking" charges from your ISP. It also gives you a firewall to keep hackers off your system, and hardware firewalls are faster and more reliable than software ones.
Its only downside is that setting up file servers requires one additional step: telling the router that you are serving something. So if you are sharing files online, or playing a network game, you will have to read the documentation for your software, and find out which port to tell the router about. However, this is a limitiation of any firewall, not just this router; it is what makes its security features possible.
41 Great, simple router for the home
I like computers and use them all the time but I'm not networking savy. I was very fearful of leaving me home PC directly connected to our cable modem (AT&T @home) without a firewall. I also needed to connect my work laptop to the Internet and share files with the home PC. The Netgear was perfect for us.
It took about 15 minutes to set up only because @home in our area uses "static IP address". If this applies to you, don't worry, AT&T gave you this info on your original order. Also, Netgear instructions show you how to retrieve it from your PC if you can't find the paperwork. It sets up via Internet Explorer and the router prompts you to enter the information. For DHCP users, its even easier as this is the default for the router. It took longer to reboot my PC after changing its settings than setting up the router.
It was a great buy. After 1 month, we're very happy with it.
42 Great Value, Easy Setup
Even as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, routers can be a real trick to set up. God only knows how an average home user would make out. The Netgear RT314 was a very pleasant surprise, though. I expected to spend at least an hour figuring it out and configuring it, but even with my PacBell DSL connection using DHCP, setup was a breeze. I highly recommend this product.
43 Netgear, the one to buy!!
I bought my Netgear router from Amazon about 4 months ago in March. I have two computers and they are both always on. The router has performed flawlessly during this time. What else can I say...I love it!!
44 Good for some, the rest of us...
The Netgear RT314 router works if all you want is to share an internet connection. If you wish to access the so called file/printer sharing and networking options then look for something else. The company dosen't even provide instructions for how to use the network if you can even figure out how to set it up. The best of all Netgear dosen't provide technical support for network related questions. Let's review company name: NETgear support provided: anything but NETworking. If you want to try and squeeze any information out of Netgear's horrible support people you might as well buy a book while your at ... because the average wait time is over an hour.
45 Pretty simple, pretty powerful, pretty inexpensive
A bit surprised at minimal, but complete, contents of the box, I plugged it in and called my ISP, to give them the new MAC address. 1 minute later, I was browsing the web, again.
Most users probably won't care about advanced configuration of the device, but for those that do, I'll relate my experience. First of all, the terminal-mode interface is sometimes confusing and ambiguous. I wanted to setup some additional filters, so I read a slightly confusing pdf, on the CD. I didn't get it right, at first, and had to borrow a bunch of serial cables 'till one worked, just to login to it and remove the filters I applied. When I finally figured out how to apply them correctly, and configured a machine for it to dump the syslog messages to, I found out that the filters don't always seem to fire!! Sometimes I'd get a log message that a filter would fire, and sometimes I wouldn't!! Also, sometimes (admittedly, in both cases for stuff the NAT shouldn't forward, anyhow), the packets would get dropped, and sometimes it would send NACKs!
Other than that, it works fine.
46 Impressed from the start...
I was leaning to the linksys brand but I saw all these great reviews, not to mention there was a rebate out on this item, and I decided to give netgear a try. I hooked everything up, powered it on and rebooted the computer. I followed the install instructions and I was up and running w/ my roadrunner service instantly. I use VPN for work and it worked flawlessly. I hooked up my two other computers while using vpn on the third and still everything worked fine. We'll see in the long term how it all pans out but everyone knows how it is when you install a new whatever for your computer.... It can end up w/ alot of frustration. I'm happy to see Netgear made a product this easy to use. Total install time... 15min, maybe a little less.
47 Works fine. Documentation could be better
Initial setup was a blast. It worked out of the box after I entered my ISP data.
Documentation is weak. For instance, some configurations menus are not described or described very briefly (e.g., menus 11.1 and 11.5).
When I began to play with "advanced" feaures, I had a problem with configuring filters. When I (mis)configured the filter set so that the last rule in the set said "look at the next rule", and there was no next rule, the router just dropped all the incoming packets. Of course, this behavior is not documented.
I needed to reload factory defaults before I understood what is the root of the problem. Reloading factory defaults is well documented and relatively easy (you do it via FTP).
I also found that log entries are timestamped incorrectly. Appearantly, router assumes that when it boots, it's midnight January 1, 2000. I did not find how to change the real-time clock to correct value.
Performance on the DSL line is very good. I get 67-68 KB/sec on my 680Kbit/sec DSL line - the same numbers I got with direct connection.
On the LAN I got just about 3MB/sec when transferring data between my main computer with NetGear FA311 PCI card, and a laptop with NetGear FA350 Cardbus card. I don't know who is the bottlneck though - the router or one of the cards.
48 Setting up is easier than learning to drive!
I had read all the reviews on this product, and most of them had a positive review, I decided to purchase the product, and yes! it was that easy to set up, and it's working great... no problems to date... this product delivers.. 110% satisfied customer... Before purchasing this product, I had heard that setting up a network was going to be a hassle. but with this product, It was no problem, everything is automatic, you just plug it in and the router configures it self. even when I have friends come over the bring their laptop plug in into the router and have instant net access, no need to configure, the router does everthing automatic. Now, that's automatic!
49 Perfect SOHO Router
I was surprised not only with its ease of installation, but its features. The ability to manipulate or create your own filters, or forward your ports is great. Got up and running in no time and even set it up to allow port 80 (web access) to one of my machines. Great product.
50 Great!! After you get it configured
It is easy to set up, but if you use a cable service like Road Runner, your best bet is to call them and give them the RT314 MAC address.. but there are two so let the tech support guys tell you which address the cable modem sees...Don't listen to Netgear guys, they were wrong about mine.. It must be the WAN address the other is for the LAN. after back and forth with Netgear and ATT I got it configured and it works GREAT! I have 4 pc's sharing the cable modem and dropped my double NIC card (Internet sharing protocol)server setup.. I would highly suggest this product to any home user. Oh yea be sure to configure the router correctly with the setup program...and then you MUST reboot the cable modem, and then turn on the router after you have reconfigured it!
Good Luck
51 Stability is the last word
I bought this router after having problems with a similar competitor's router that kept failing sporadically about every two days. I can't return it becuase I have tried to live with it and fix it for 9 months. Huge headaches.
I have had the RT314 for two weeks. I set it up in about an hour, established a VPN connection with my office immediately and that connection has been live since then.
I know that ease of setup and advanced features are nice. My previous router had them both, but what you really want is a piece of network equipment that you install and forget because it is rock solid. The last thing I want to do when I get home is screw around with networking equipment or worry that my work email won't work when I need it.
The RT314 is a capable piece of equipment that performs its job very reliably. I recommend it.
52 I never thought networking could be so easy
I was able to get my first computer online in about 15 minutes. If you have RoadRunner in NYC you should specify your primary computer's private IP address when prompted for the MAC address for the router to use. Otherwise, you won't be able to connect. It's also a good idea to write down your current network configuration (run "ipconfig /all"). I had to specify my ISP's DNS names.
The router web page configuration is super-easy to use. Under Advanced->Ports, I told the router to forward all FTP, HTTP, and TELNET traffic to my computer (normally it blocks this). IMPORTANT: You have to do an extra configuration step which isn't explained in the user guide...
Its hard to tell if your web server is accessible from outside. You will know if it works by specifying your router's IP address...
If you want a DNS name for your web/ftp server then checkout ...
Connecting my 2nd computer was a snap, just plugged in the ethernet cablE ...and, BAM! You have to turn on Printer and File Sharing to allow the computers to see each other in Network Neighborhood and map each other's drives.
Connecting my laptop was interesting. The laptop uses a Dell wireless network PCI card and the Dell RG 1150 wireless base station. I plugged the base station into the router with an ethernet cable and got internet connectivity (LOOK MA, NO WIRES!). However, the base station was creating a separate network from the router. I could access the internet but could not see my first two computers.
I called NetGear tech support and was told by the tech guy that I would have to configure the RG 1150 to be a "transparent bridge". On the RG1150, I turned off NAT, DHCP Server, and said "Bridge to ethernet" and everything worked! Now I can wirelessly transfer files from my laptop to my PCs!
53 up and running in 5 mins, problems with advanced settings
I was amazed at how quickly I was able to get this working. I just plugged it in and it worked! I went throught the setup wizard and really didn't have to change any of the defaults. Out of the box I was able to use all the web features I had before including Counterstrike. The problems come when you want to set it up to allow inbound traffic. The browser configuration interface is easy enough on the surface but what isn't clear is that even though you set everyting up to forward your incoming traffic to a particular computer IT WON'T WORK! You have to dig through poor help documentation to find out that you have to use the telnet interface to change the filters to allow HTTP(web) and FTP requests in. It wasn't that difficult for me since I had a little experience with it but I can imagine that your average home consumer who expects plug and play will be bewildered. I really hope that Netgear completes the web interface and makes the documentation and help for advanced features more clear. In summary, if you don't plan on having a server set up behind the router, this will be a quick set up for you. If you do plan on having a server, expect to have to dig through the docs, use telent and do some trial and error experimentation.
54 Great router -- get a 4-port switch + firewall in one unit
I bought the Netgear RT-314 router to replace a Netgear DS-104 4-port hub that I was using on my home network (no problems, but I wanted the convenience of a router + firewall). It has worked flawlessly and improved performance significantly. I was using a dedicated firewall machine to restrict access to my home network; this meant that my firewall machine was always on. Also, every machine on the network shared the resources of my hub.
With the RT-314 gateway/router, I have the following advantages:
* no dedicated firewall machine required; the router performs this function (with a lot less energy consumed). * fully customizable firewall protection for my local network. * full-duplex, 100 Mbs performance (= faster communications between all networked machines). * eliminated one network card in the firewall machine to support bridging between phoneline and ethernet networks ... .
I use the RT-314 with both Unix/Linux and Windoze machines with no problems. Setup/configuration was reasonably straightforward, but it definitely helps to have your network planned before you install the router. If you have an existing network (as I did), you will be able to drop the router in place without a lot of effort.
Bottom line: excellent performance, solid construction, good documentation. Does what it claims to do right out of the box. Recommended.
55 Perhaps the best and cheapest way to have a DSL/Cable Router
To IP Masquerade the Road Runner service here, I had a linux box configured as a proxy server. This DSL/Cable Router allows me to do the same, and it frees up another computer to fool around with.
The RT314 comes with a built in Firewall, and is very easy to setup. Who wants to pay for more than one IP address from their DSL or Cable modem service? Not me.
I would highly recommend this item for anyone who subscribes to DSL or cable modem service, as this item comes with a built in 4-port Switch, so you may not necessarily need a hub. Unless you plan on running more than 4 computers, then a hub will be needed.
This is a great item, as it has customizable features that are built in. You can create web servers or ftp servers behind the firewall, other features as well, which are accesible via a RS-232 port or by telneting in by a computer inside of the LAN.
Definately worth the money, especially since the price came down since I first bought it.
56 Great product, once you get it up and running.
This is a great product but I somewhat disagree about the ease of setup. I myself have never networked anything in my life and I found it quite difficult to configure it properly, especially if you have PPPoE connection installed like myself. But once I called tech support(which was very helpful), I got everything up and running and it has been very stable since, no down time yet, plus it logs in for you automatically so you can get rid of Enternet or any other PPPoE software you connect with! I recommend this product to anyone looking for a good router, but you should read up on networking before you try and install it.
57 Just buy this box!
I just got this box from Amazon yesterday. Using it I was able to
1. Share Roadrunner connection between my two PCs.
2. Use VPN on one to connect to my company's intranet while using regular non-VPN connection to the internet on the second one.
3. Share my computers's files and the printer attached to one of the PCs.
The whole setup took me about 5 minutes and was painless, and smooth as silk. The whole setup is working flawlessly ever since. Previously I had bought a Netgear hub, one extra ethernet card to create a home LAN and boy did it screw up. The software (WinGate) that Netgear support recommended to share internet connection was freezing up my machines, failing randomly and disbled/blocked my VPN software completely.
Finally, to be fair to the Netgear hub and WinGate software I should say that I am using Windows 98 and 2000 on my two PCs respectively. It could be possible that if I spent a few more hours (actually I have spent quite a few already!) the whole setup could have worked or I should have done it little bit differently (oh yeah tell me about it!). And to complete the equation please add Windows!
Why bother? Just get this box and be merry!
58 I like it, but...
I like this product. It was simple to install right out of the box. The catch is, if you have no networking experience (like you don't know what DHCP means) then don't consider using their firewall. It is quite complicated and the docs are poor on this, even for their examples. This router will NAT your network so that you can share a single IP connection and all this is handled automatically with the default setup. I had it running in about 5 minutes. The firewall is much more complicated but you don't have to have it. Two quick suggestions: 1) Get an RS232 serial cable (one male end one female end) since they didn't use CISCO standards for their console port; 2) Set your default network to something besides 192.168 since that is a well known address. Oh, you should also change the admin password since everyone will know it and you can't create another account.
59 Easy to use
My first Gateway/Router. Only took me a few mins to plug some cables and configure via web. I would definitely recommand this product to anyone who is looking to connect PCs at home.
60 I love it!
It took me only ten minutes to get my network of 3 PCs up and running. Works beautifully with my @Home cable service. I'm not an expert on network or anthing like that, but this is so easy even I can do it in such short time. I absolutely love it! (Great price too)
61 Love this puppy !
This was so easy to set up. I just plugged in the cable from my DSL modem to the WAN port, plugged the cable from my computer to one of the LAN ports, plugged in the power and it worked. I also play Counter-Strike (Half Life) a lot but with the new flash upgrade (3.24 which the one I received from Amazon had) it works like a charm. I have left my ZoneAlarm firewall installed for the last 24 hours and not a single hit (down from dozens to hundreds a day). If you want to mess with it you can configure it in dozens of ways. The PPoE and the VPN options are worth noting since many DSL ISPs require you to use PPoE. The 4 10/100 switched LAN ports are what sold me. After rebate it is only a few dollars than a 4 port switch. Now I can use my work laptop on the internet without unhooking my home computer. I say BUY IT !
62 Easy setup, slick support for multiple computers
This unit is a snap to install and begin using immediately. The RT314 combines a personal firewall, dhcp server and four-port switch (10/100 autosensing, full-duplex) to make sharing a DSL/Cable connection for a small/home office a painless process.
First of all, it's got a slick "how to set it up from scratch" poster which shows you enough graphics to make the physical setup easy. Once it's cabled and powered on there's a decent web interface (...) for administering its settings. Just enter the administrator password and a first-time-use wizard that will walk you through configuring all the stuff that lets your PC(s) talk to your Cable or DSL provider (DNS settings, default gateway, etc). There are more advanced features available through a telnet session and ROM upgrades can be made through a routine FTP connection.
Best of all, its got a basic, port-filter/firewall that stops almost all unnecessary activity between your computers and the internet, allowing only the most common by default. Online gaming and chat enthusiasts may have to tweak the default settings to let their favorite software programs do their thing, but for regular users the defaults should be fine.
For the neat freaks among us the cable ports are located on the back of the unit, so they're easy to tuck out of site. At the same time all of the status and activity lights are on the front for easy viewing.
One other note: I almost went with a similar unit from Linksys (it was a little cheaper) but many customer reviews indicated Linksys provided horrible technical support. I went with Netgear instead and haven't regretted it once.
63 Great Tech Tool
If you have Cable or DSL you must get one of these. This Router has been wonderful for us. I am an IT guy but you don't have to be to set one of these up. Follow the directions that come with the product and away you go.
64 RT314 Router
Only four stars for the lack of information. The router gets five.
I have had this router for about eight weeks now. Almost as soon as I installed the router problems began to exist. My connection to the Internet was continuously being dropped. I tried everything to keep the connection for longer than a few hours or at the very most, an entire day. After reading almost every help file on the web and multiple calls to netgear, and even installing a third party program to help I was practically ready to return the product. I later happen onto a help file on AT&T's web site, which explained that I was supposed to have the router provisioned by them. In other words I was to give them the "router's address", (which is indicated on the bottom of the router.) instead of the NIC card address. Once this is done, go to the Telnet session and under "Getting Started" choose option #2 (WAN Setup) and change it to "Factory Default" then restart everything.
I was surprised that after making so many calls and speaking to nearly everyone at Netgear that none of the Techies knew this. After all, it is their product. So if you are having the same problem, try calling AT&T and giving them the router's address. I have now been on for several weeks and no problems yet running both my laptop and my PC. I am glad that I did not send this back. I just think that someone at Netgear should have known. This is not so much a review as it is a help file for someone unknowing soul like me.
Excellent Product though!
65 Very Easy to set up, Incredibly Stable, Couldn't work better
I have had the Netgear router up and running on my two computers for about two months now. Both computers are on 24/7 and this thing works awesome. It never has to be restarted and my computers always connect fine into the SETI servers unattended. My wife can get on the other computer and we can surf at the same time with no noticeable loss in speed or any lockups or crashes. I wholeheartedly recommend this router to anyone.
66 It took me about 15 minutes to have my PC and MAC sharing...
...the web like brothers. Didn't even need the CD that comes with it. And it's still mighty fast too!!
67 Literally Splits ur BAndwidth
Let me first say that I haven't even taken this product out of the box. I'm writing this review to clear up some other conflicting reviews that stupid other users have written. First off this product odviously does not contain a manageable switch, duhhhhh! If it did it would cost about 2,000 dollars more. Because it's not a managable switch, you can't control how ur bandwidth is cut. Like if you had two computers and ur conn. speed was 4mbps downstream, then each one gets 2mbps. You can't set it up to have 1 computer with 500kbps and the other with 3.5mbps. Besides, only large offices need that kind of power. Even if you wanted a product with a managable switch for your conn., nobody makes one. Like others have said give all of your systems static IP adresses and host names, but keep DHCP ON! that way if a friend comes over to game, ur ready to go.
68 It was just THAT easy!!
WOW!!.....
I`m not a network guru or anything close,but this was one of the easiest computer tasks that I have done. The directions are very clear and easy.
I have a DSL connection and have put my two other computers on it also.
The router also serves as a hub for a LAN to share a printer and files between my two computers.
It took a little doing,but I got it to work in about 2 hours.
Highly recommend the Netgear RT314.
69 Great Gear
Installation was a snap and lucky for NetGear that it was. The instruction manual does need to be worked on as it really doesn't explain very much.
Works very well, haven't had any problems with it mechanically. One problem I do face is that now I can't do a ipconfig under Windows 2000 to see what my dynamic ip address is from my cablem modem provider.
Otherwise, this router is really efficient. It assigns and handles as the DHCP server so that all my networked computers are able to access the internet with just one IP address from my internet provider. Throughout the week I have yet to see any attempted intrusion to my computers via ZoneAlarm Pro because of the router's firewall security protection and NAT technology features.
A great buy for multiple computers in a home.
I'm not sure if it can be compared with Linksys' BEFSR41 4-port Etherfast Cable/DSL router, but both seem to offer very similar features. Linksys cost more and I think the router has a plastic shell rather than a metal casing. I favored NetGear mainly because it matched my NetGear FS105 switch box.
70 Worked like a charm!
Net Gear RT 314 worked perfectly right out of the box. After spending an hour running 100ft of CAT 5 cable through my house it was a pleasure to hook up the router. Just plugged everything in and both computers were sharing cable access. Didn't even have to go through any setup programs! Did speed checks and no change in speed. Will work on advanced features as time permits. But for high speed Internet sharing, it couldn't be earier. For those interested, my cable service is Cablevision in NJ and my cable modem is by 3 Com. PS: Really like the fact the router case is made of metal. Solid construction!
71 Worked like a charm!
Net Gear RT 314 worked perfectly right out of the box. After spending an hour running 100ft of CAT 5 cable through my house it was a pleasure to hook up the router. Just plugged everything in and both computers were sharing cable access. Didn't even have to go through any setup programs! Did speed checks and no change in speed. Will work on advanced features as time permits. But for high speed Internet sharing, it couldn't be earier. For those interested, my cable service is Cablevision in NJ and my cable modem is by 3 Com. PS: Really like the fact the router case is made of metal. Solid construction!
72 Great little router
I have to say this router works great! No problems setting up or getting my computers set up to share my net connection. Instructions are fine but I have to say if you want to do anything complicated like run a game server over the net or a ftp server it can get a bit complicated. Directions on how to set up the router to mask or open up certain ports is a bit on the lean side of things. To access router controls you have to go through telnet and trudge through text screens. So it could be more user friendly but I guess if you are going to do anything complicated that type of user should be able to figure it out. So for ease of use I give it 4/5 everything else if a 5/5 though.
73 FABULOUS! A Must Have!
Straight out of the box, I had this router up and running between my Win2k and Win98 boxes sharing a DSL line and files in only 15 minuites. Almost no effort at all. Instructions were very clear and consisce. I have never had a problem with NetGear products, and this was no exception. Very pleased with my purchase. It supports PPOE (WinPoET) and has eliminated my need for firewall software. I don't even have to log onto my DSL service, the router does it for me. I can turn on either one of my computers and have instant internet access. A+ Product!
74 Not what I was expecting....
First off, let me say that I work as a Network Engineer. I previously used a Netgear hub in my home and have been very pleased with it. When this switch/router became available, I decided it was time to pick it up to share my cable modem with my wife's computer.
When the router arrived, I was disappointed to find that I can not change the WAN MAC address. I can only specify factory default *OR* spoof the MAC address of a card that ATT already has the MAC address for. Because I wanted to upgrade to a 10/100 NIC from my 10 NIC that ATT had on file, I was left with no choice but to call ATT and give them the MAC address of the router. I could have saved time if the router would have just let me change the MAC address to the one ATT had on file. After an hour of getting ATT to change the MAC and waiting for the settings to take place, I was finally able to boot off of the router's MAC address DHCP.
I am returning this router back to Amazon after a week of use. This router appears to be working fine when I surf the web and, then, all of the sudden drops http request packets. I'll request a web page and it will just 'freeze'. I know it's the router because the ISP light on my cable modem is still lit *AND* I can still instant message with friends and play games online while the router refuses to forward http requests. The only way to fix the router is either to: (1) reboot it through telnet or (2) unplug it. I have to do this at least 10 times a day. I have upgraded to the latest firmware (April 13th) and it didn't solve this problem. I'm sorry to say that this router is useless to me and it seems that I am the exception based on other reviews.
Tonight, I reluctantly ordered the comparable Linksys. I can only hope it works better.
75 Lived up to its claims..
Needed a means to tie my two Macintosh computers, a WinPC and them my Linux laptop to my cable modem plus share files between all of them. So, from reviews read here about several products, I chose the RT314.
Just looking at it and checking its overall construction gives me a feeling that it is a substantial product. Connectors, metal work, features, and finish all say, "I'm a REAL serious router!"
Plugged it in to the iMac first and checked to see if it made it out the cable modem to the net. Worked like a charm. No tweeking or anything. Proceeded to add on the other computers with equal ease. I did use their browser based configurator from my Mac, but found there was little I had to change from their defaults to make everything work. The manual provided on the CD is in pdf format and is quite through for when I need to go deeper, like for the firewall stuff.
Only problem I ran across was not really the router's fault, but mine. When hooking up the RJ45 cables to the router from the comptuers and modem, I ended up grabbing one of the wrong cables. There are "straight through" and "crossover" cables. Pay attention to which one you are using on this. No harm, just wont work. Symptom was (besides not working) is that the lights on the front of the router for the port in question did not light up. That means it is not seeing the network port on the computer. So, try another cable.
Finally, with perhaps two units "surfing" at a time, I don't see any degradation that I can attribute to this router. Plenty of capability for home and small office setup.
76 A Solid and Capable Performer
A solidly built device, the RT314 provides a good means for sharing a single DSL or cable connection amongst multiple computers, and increasing the security of the connection. It can be installed and configured in an hour or two, but you'll want to spend additional time enhancing the filter settings, as the default ones leave you more exposed than necessary to scanners. Numerous sites offering enhanced filter settings and lots of other help and information can be found on the web by searching for "RT314." To be safe, before you begin altering the configuration, make sure you have a 9-pin, male to female serial cable on hand, as if there is a problem and you can't log in through the network, you can connect through your PC's and RT314's serial ports. My only complaint is that most administrative functions need to be performed though a character based telnet sessions, as the capabilities of the browser-based interface are anemic, at best. All-in-all, though, a good product, and well worth the money.
77 Nice, but inflexible.
Granted, I'm used to using actual routers and I'm accustomed to IOS, but this thing is nice, and cheap. The cheap part is what attracted me, actually. I paid for it and it works flawlessly. I have to say, I'm impressed, it does all it claims to do. One problem turned out that you need a firmware update to run a Half-Life server, but that's it. I'm successfully running a Linux box with http, ftp and pop services. No problems, ever. Just drop another machine on this thing and *bam*--on the 'net. Easy.
78 Fast easy setup!
After reading many customer reviews, I decided to purchase the RT314. I had only had my DSL for a few days and wasn't too impressed with the speed. When I connected through the router, to my amazement my speed increased by 30 to 40%. There was no setup to contend with and it took longer to install a phone line than to install the router.
In addition I have had no alerts on my software firewall,(Zone Alarm). Highly recommended!
79 An absolute necessity for the new "networked home"
If you have more than one PC at home and need to connect to the Internet, this is just about the easiest and cheapest way to go. Two years ago, you could not get a product like this at any reasonable price, but now it is practically an off the shelf consumer item. I love tinkering around and learning all of the internal stuff that turns most people off. But, the RT314 doesn't really require you to learn much to get it to work right out of the box. A pleasure indeed!
It took me about 20 minutes to get the thing connected and working with my cable modem (Cablevision in New York). No problems at all. The lights blinked, I rebooted everything and up she came! Very fast throughput. Comparing connect speed with and without the RT314 inline shows a small difference, certainly smaller than I expected. When you have two or more PCs accessing the 'net, it is amazing how the slowdown you expect never really happens. Of course each PC is not getting the full bandwidth, but it sure seems that way.
Buy it. You'll like it. Easy to set up, easy to upgrade and hardly needs maintenance, if ever. Best hardware purchase I've made all year! :-)
80 Awesome!
One of the easiest devices I have ever hooked up in my life. Just go through the simple instructions step by step and it is done. Hook your DSL/Cable modem to the device, add TCP/IP on all PCs, set them to Auto Detect the IP #, then go into the router setup via a web browser, click next a few times and boom....You are done.
Total setup time...less than 5 minutes. Awesome product!
81 Tips for @HOME cable modem users
Since I am not familiar with networking, it took me about 4 hours to analyze and read the setup instructions repeatedly, and another 1 hour to test and complete alternative setup procedures. I got two 4-year old Windows 95 PCs that are now sharing one @HOME cable modem using the Netgear RT314 Gateway Router. There are two setup problem areas that I spent a lot of time to solve: 1) System, Host, or Account Name is actually the ISP-assigned Computer Name in the Identification of the Control Panel-Network (and NOT your User ID or E-mail Name) - router cannot obtain IP address with an invalid name. In addition, leave the Domain Name blank to allow the router to automatically determine it. 2) PC is unable to load any web pages even after router obtains an IP address - this was solved by manually entering the default gateway of 192.168.0.1 in the TCP/IP Gateway Properties for the Ethernet adapter.
82 sad waste of time
Would not connect to earthlink/Mindspring over Covad; the largest ISP ( non-AOL) As a newbie to Networking, I bought this at Circuit City because I wanted a simple consumer product that would not immerse me in tech. It promises to connect to DSL with just your name and Passsword. There is NO way to give it a DNS address. I struggled for three weeks. Learned a lot of stuff I never wanted to know, and then returned it while almost losing all my money. Saddest part was the tech support. It Looks really cool, but was not working during the time I needed it. I actually got an email after I had already returned the product apologizing for it being down,-- and what was my problem??
83 Works as advertised
My girlfriend uses the Netgear RT314 along w/ a DSL modem to share our connection to the Internet. She gave our computers unique, non-routable IP addresses (192.168.0.x range), and the RT314 got the address that was assigned by our ISP. The RT314 sits between our network and the Internet. She said this unit is very easy to configure, maintain, and includes a simple default firewall.
84 Works out of the box without a hitch! Top Quality!
In this day and age of "Plug and Play", I have found very few things that really are. This Netgear product, however, truly is! I followed the tip of a previous reviewer here on Amazon.com to turn off the power to the cable/dsl modem while you connect the router, power up the router first, then the modem, and lastly your PC (my PC was off when I connected it all up). Everything powered up and saw each other without a hitch! I was up and running literally in under 5 minutes and I didn't even need to look at the manual! No software needed either! I then hooked up my laptop to one of the other ports, powered up and "presto" I was sharing my internet connection AND networking with my desktop right off the bat!! One thing to note is that I am running Windows ME on my desktop, and Windows 98 SE2 on my notebook and they sync flawlessly and FAST! This Netgear box has solved the problem of transferring lengthy files between my computers and keeping key files updated fast.
Quick note: My Dad has the identically equipped Linksys router/switch and he did not have as easy a time as I did getting it to work. It does seem to work just as well however. I'm glad I went with the Netgear. Hope this helps.
85 So simple
A company I work for purchased this router so that I could share my DSL connection with the three computers (2 PCs and 1 Mac) in my home network. Setup took less than 5 minutes, and everything so far has worked perfectly. All three computers now have instant net access. In fact, the setup and operation are so simple I really don't have that much more to say :)
86 Very disappointed. Buy the Xsense MIH-130 instead.
I use Netgear products at work and at home. For PCs and for Macs. This product was a huge disappointment. The only bigger disappointment was Netgear's support. I'm using two Mac computers at home. Netgear advertises Mac on their box. Yet, after not being able to get their so-called 24/7 support on the phone on the weekend, I instead wrote an email for support. The first email gave me information for a totally unrelated problem. The second email, from a different support person, told me that they don't support Macs. Hmmm. Fine, then don't advertise that your product is Mac compatible either. Once I did get a tech person on the phone, he was unwilling to go through settings to see if it was a user error. He said it was broken and to return it. Just for kicks, I bought another RT314. It, too, performed poorly with my PacBell DSL. It crawled. The ROM upgrade procedure is a joke when compared to the way Xsense has you do it with their Macsense MIH-130. Download, double click and its done. With Netgear, you have to go through telnet hoops, which, by the way, only got me Netgear error messages. Don't let that pretty blue metal casing fool you. Sure, it's nice. But you're paying for the stuff inside. Get the Xsense MIH-130. I think you'll be much happier with the product, it's interface and the responsive and helpful tech support. I am.
87 Beats any proxy/firewall software
I bought this unit and after plugging it in and recycling power on cable modem and the Netgear all I had to do is enter host name on the router and click NEXT -> FINISH and I was up and running. The best money ever spent on a computer junk. Beats all the proxy and firewall stuff available out there. For $50 more you have unmanned hefty piece of hardware without fear that it will crash when your PC does. And it comes with a 4 port 10/100 switch too!!! So if you add up cost of proxy software ($50) and a switch ($50) you pay same money (with $30 rebate) but get much better solution. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!
88 ABSOLUTELY WORTH EVERY $
I got this router/switch to enable a windows, a linux and a machine to share one dsl connection. It works just fine. The setup took about ten minutes. after pluging the cables in and setting up the router over your webbrowser (or telnet if you prefer) you don't even need to manually reestablish the connection by logging on every time. It does it automatically for you! This is one easy to use piece of hardware that is even uplinkable! The e-mail support by netgear is pretty and very helpful, too. The only thing I think should be changed is that the advanced option during the setup is not available over your webbrowser. Netgear did that not to confuse newbie with a lot of tech-junk they don't need to worry about anyway. But you can however still acces it, for instance with tellnet. Another good thing about htis product is the dhcp-server function. This way you don't have to manually configure the IP addresses any more! Finally I have to say that I am absolutely content with this product. The manual was precise and helpful and the router itself seems to be high quality.
89 There has to be something better
After reading all the reviews about this and Netgear, I bought this and 2 network cards. I guess I expected to much.
First, you still need a cable modem or a DSL modem if you use this. That was my first mistake. I expected it to have a connection for a cable modem. It doesn't.
Second, I expected good documentation. The documentation that it comes with is very sparse and has almost nothing useful.
Third, support.... After waiting on the phone for over 2 hours and hearing ringing then music again, over and over again, I finally gave up hoping that someone would pick up the phone.
Anyway, during that time, I figured out what I need to make this thing work. It still took the better part of the morning for such a simple thing. I still don't know how to get the DHCP to work nor do I know how to change the admin name or password. Then again, that is not anywhere in the documentation either.
I guess I can rule out buying anything else from Netgear in the future.
90 Rock solid, cheap, router. Don't buy linksys, get this.
I bought this machine because my linksys router was unreliable (it freezes up and has to be power cycled). This is much more stable. Mine has run for 150 days so far (3600 hours) without a single glitch.
91 Great device with DSL
Excellent performance with my Verizon DSL. I couldn't get it working initially so I called their tech support. All I needed to do was change the standard setup to the PPP over Ethernet in the config wizard and it worked. I also had problems in that I couldn't ping or get the web config wizard to work at all after numerous attempts, powercyclying, checing cavbles, etc. Finicky. Now that it is set up, I never have to 'log in' again. The router logs into Verizon on it's own and grabs an IP address for your whole network. All you have to do is set DHCP on your PC and as soon as your PC is turned on, you have an instant internet connection- like at work ! Great.
One complaint: The tech guy said he didn't know what Verizon's DSL parameters were. That seemed odd considering that there must be thousands of Verizon DSL customers using their product.
92 Works great, but check e-mail accessibility after install!
Netgear's router works as promised, saving you money by allowing you to share your cable/DSL account on your network via your host computer.... w/out having to shell out monthly fees for another IP address for each additional computer on your network. In my case, it'll pay for itself in just over a year. Initial network setup was routine. However, after installing it, I couldn't access e-mail thru my @home account. The somewhat sparse installation guide, CD resource, and online setup wizard weren't much help so I sent my problem to Netgear's tech support. It's been a week and I still haven't heard from them as to a resolution. Ironically, I found the solution on the Linksys web site in their cable router FAQ area! Now everything's working and I can access my cable account e-mail on all my computers.
93 Netgear RT314 solves my internet sharing needs!
I was running a proxy/firewall machine to share internet connection between two pc's (other than the firewall/proxy machine). It would crash, and have problems when trying to refresh a server list of Half-Life games from a client machine. I needed an alternative bad.
The RT314 was a complete snap! I spent about 10 minutes setting it up. Didn't need the CD resource that came with it, I only used the quick setup guide. After skimming the quick resource for about 3-5 minutes, I ran cable, hooked it all in and finally plugged in power. After that just reboot all the PC's and go to the very easy to use 'web configuration interface' that is being served right off the router! Filled in 2 text boxes of info and I was done.
I can run ... email, internet browsing, Quake 2 and 3, Half-Life and all mods. I couldn't have hoped for a easier solution!
94 This Box Rocks
One word to describe it, Fast. Set-up took about 10 minutes from the box to the internet. I have cable internet thru @home, and although they told me and others that these boxes don't work on cable, I knew it would. I haven't played with the advanced configuration yet, so i can't rate that part. But over all I would recomend this for quick and easy cable/DSL internet sharing.
95 RT314 Cable/Cable/DSL Router
I used the wizard setup. Was connecting both of my pc's in approvimately 10 minutes. My connection is noticably faster. I am very thankful for the other reviews. I was going to purchase linksys but decided to go with the 314, very glad I did. Great job netgear.
96 Up and Running In Ten Minutes!!
After spending hours getting Windows ICS to work and then having it stop working because of upgrading to IE 5.5 I finally purchased the Netgear RT314. In 10 minutes I was up and running with no problems whatsoever! Just follow the directions and remove all but 3 things from your networking setup, setup your online account using a web interface for the router and off you go. My online provider uses PPOE which is why I bought this also. Plus I have 2 pc's that can now share the internet and files with each other. I can't believe I waited so long to get a router and the RT314 works without a hitch! If you use Windows ICS and hate it like I do, do yourself a favor and buy this.
97 It works well for me
My roommate and I bought this router so we could share a common cable connection, and to connect our computers, and we have been impressed. It was relativly easy to install with directions, and the speed has been fantastic. I have not noticed any slow down since adding the router, in fact i recently tested the bandwith at speed over 1MBps over the internet. Between computers, the thing flys. We both have fast eithernet cards, and I have found that I can download 60 MB of material from his computer in less than 10 seconds.
98 Opinion from a networking novice
The RT314 is an excellent choice for anyone, expert or novice, wanting to share broadband as well as gain the efficiencies that networked PCs allow. The installation went more or less flawlessly. The only issues I had were on the "user error" end of the spectrum. A couple of points worth remembering... First, the install program inherent in the router can only be running on one PC at a time otherwise you get an authorization error - yes, I should have known that. Second, make sure you know what the cable internet tech named your host PC. The first issue was quickly resolved through a very friendly, knowledgeable, and patient tech support rep at Netgear. Buy it, it is a very solid product both in terms of functionality and physically. The machine itself has a metal case and is pretty hefty. Definitely makes you feel like it will be around for a while.
99 A Great Product!
I bought this router to replace the equivalent Linksys router which would constantly "hang" and needed to be powered off then back on.
The Netgear RT314 installed easily and has worked flawlessly for over 3 months. I've never even looked at it (unlike the Linksys which required almost daily attention).
It's not as pretty a box as the Linksys and if you want to do advanced configuration, you have to use Telnet instead of the nice Web (html) interface the Linksys has, but these are really minor, as the Netgear just works and works and works.
I've tried every online security test with the Netgear and not one has found a hole in the security.
I highly recommend this product!
100 Worked right out of the box!!
I had my 314 up and running in less than 15 minutes. The system I hooked it up to is an HP Pavilion N5150 notebook. I was pleasantly surprised to see the 100mb light on my Netgear PCMCIA NIC light up when I connected.
Works great!!
