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I really like this wireless router. I just wish it had a longer range, I get a weak signal on the other side of the house.maybe 35-40 feet.
This is the router I'm using now. In conclusion, you won't go wrong with the 624, but if you're not jumping on the WiFi-N bandwagon, the 614 is a better investment if you want Netgear stuff. This is not a router that will knock your socks off.
It seems to work fine passing packets back and forth, and the range seems okay, although with it being located in the basement it probably could be a lot better. It's not especially hackable either; there's four major hardware revs out there and OpenWRT doesn't seem to know what to do with any of them (they say they're working on it). It's unobtrusive and it does its job, just like a home router is supposed to.
The web interface is fine, but Netgear for some reason doesn't provide telnet access the way my old RP114 did (you can enable it, but it's difficult and I don't think the functionality is anywhere near as nice as the 114's menu-driven interface). It handles a Mac laptop old enough for middle school pretty well despite the Powerbook's WiFi-B card. Perhaps most importantly, I got it for $20 at a flea market.
On top of all that, unless you're willing to go end-to-end with Super-G gear and have an actual application for it (wireless multimedia/NAS, maybe, or a clustering system of the SETI@home ilk), Super-G is a waste of money, since it's nonstandard and not really supported out of the box on most laptops. Why pay extra for the privilege of vendor lockin.
Both times it took 6 weeks of emails back and forth before they would agree that the unit was defective. Since that time the router has been replaced by Netgear 3 times as it was defective and has stopped working again. I purchased the original router in December 2007. In each instance I needed to ship the router back at my cost before they would consider shipping out the replacement. The first time it stopped working, I spent several hours on the phone with a tech support rep that I could barely understand before he would agree that the unit was defective. The second and third times it stopped working, I needed to correspond with tech support via email unless I wanted to pay a $75 fee because the unit was over 90 days. Four defective routers in less than 18 months is crazy, not to mention I've had about 5 months of lost usuage during that time. I would never buy a Netgear product again.
Just connect the LAN cable and you get connected immediately. I gave it 4 stars as it drops the connection once in a while and reconnects in a couple seconds. This is a nice router and runs well. Go to http://192.168.1.1 to setup wireless connection and other settings. You won't really notice this unless you are downloading something.The setup was very easy. Didn't really needed the manual. The web interface is nice and easy to use. Would recommend it.
Though I am tech dependent I am not exactly tech savvy. This router was simple to set up, i easily set up the wireless internet and printing, great buy.
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