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PeeWee
Premium Member
join:2001-10-21
Madera, CA

PeeWee to antdude

Premium Member

to antdude

Re: A good Netgear wireless router with gigaspeed wired?

WNR3500L
I just got one two months ago> I am very happy with it. Running on Shibby's Tomato. Selling cheap everywhere, Newegg included.

PGHammer
join:2003-06-09
Accokeek, MD

1 edit

1 recommendation

PGHammer

Member

Or any of the WNDR series routers (except MAYBE the WNDR-37AV) with gigabit wired support. I have a new WNDR-3700v4 (replaced a WNR-3500v1) which I am absolutely tickled with - so far.

First off is the gigabit wired support - it is more solid than my WNR3500v1 is in that area (which, naturally, leads to the nasty suspicion that said router is about to croak).

Second is the IPv6 support - it's there; just disabled by default. (I have an idea why it's turned off; fortunately, turning it on is simple enough.) This router is new enough that it's lacking third-party firmware support - however, the usual reasons WHY it would need it may not be an issue for most.

Third - ease of configuration. On the IPv4 side, it took all of seven minutes, and most of that was due to the router itself having a separate password from the network passphrase(s) - something I was not used to.

Last (and far from least) not only are multiple SSIDs the default, but so is a separate isolated guest section. Even better, the separate SSIDs also have separate passwords (from each other and from the router). This is a feature I actually put to use; I metioned that Mom - not me - was the big driver for buying a beefier router, as her (wired) desktop had frequent connection dropouts, and she recently got herself a SAMSUNG *smart* (Internet-connectable) TV (the model is UN40EH5003FXZA, if you want to be picky - smart/Internet-connectable, but no 3D, which is the purview of the pricier UN40EH6003FXZA). In addition to being able to stream to the TV, said TV also supports the 5 GHz high-N band (right now, the TV has the band to itself). After re-running the TV's Network Setup wizard (which had been configured to use the older single-band N router the WNDR replaced), I was up and connected on the 5 GHz band. Here's the surprise - wired connections are faster, wireless-N connections are ALSO faster, and that is DESPITE my having toughened the security aspect of said connections to dual WPA2 (TKIP+AES - one step below WPA2 Enterprise, which I'm not set up for) *and* adding IPv6. That means that this router (and the firmware - which is itself open-source) has some serious pony-power.

USB for NAS (or possibly for printing) is available (as has been the case with previous versions of this router) so expansion is available when you need or want it. (This is not a biggie right now, as most have pointed out, PCs have MUCH faster connections than the router - this or any other - generally would for NAS; however, I may yet move my *printer* to it for sharing/wireless/AirPrint for iDevices.)

Not shabby at all for a router that is still under $100USD retail.