NETGEAR 5 GHz Wireless-N HD Access Point/Bridge (WNHDE111)

10 Review to this product

• 

  Matthew K. Mckune
  February 22nd, 2008 on 11:01 pm

  Rating

  Love it. I’ve used a wide variety of networking solutions, some bad, some good. This one is GREAT. I’m in an area with tons of wireless networks running and some of the other devices i have had have been pretty spotty. This one on the other hand runs very well. No loss of signal or dropped connections, its been good enough that i’ve even been running a server I use for development wirelessly.

  Connection speeds have been great as well. If you have multiple public static IP addresses I recommend using the FVS124g as your router with this product.

  Best wireless device i have used to date. I have used other ‘N’ devices that haven’t been nearly as reliable.

  Draw backs are that it only supports N and A. G is not supported.
• 

  J. Marken
  May 21st, 2008 on 1:11 am

  Rating

  While I wish these bridges had a few extra features and better admin applications, they work as advertised. I just plugged them in and had them working within minutes.

  I set them up in the same room and saw data rates of 300Mbps. I then moved the bridge to its real destination, an airplane hangar in my backyard, and the signal strength is down to the 70% range and speed down to about 160Mbps, but my home LAN is still just 100 Mbps, so I’m very happy with it. I notice no difference from when I was working in the home connected directly to my home LAN with an Ethernet cable.

  I have been using these devices for a couple months now and work on my computer in the airplane hangar all day long and the bridge is working flawlessly. My Internet and network access is just as good as it was when I was working in the home.

  I also have a Replay TV in the airplane hangar and can watch recorded programs from another Replay TV in the house and that works just fine, and streaming video like that is a pretty high-volume network load.

  These devices are working great and have allowed me to move my office out to the airplane hangar where it should be whereas with Wireless G before I was seeing data rates around 8Mbps which was not acceptable and prevented me from working where I needed to be.
• 

  D. Rambow
  July 25th, 2008 on 3:50 pm

  Rating

  This Netgear product does exactly what it is supposed to do, in a fairly uncomplicated way. I have set up hundreds of routers, switches, hubs, and wireless routers over the years. This one has just enough features to do the job, and be simple to set up.

  When first connecting, it prompts you to check for new firmware, which is easily downloaded and installed. You have a switch on the back to select which type of device it is to be, in my case I needed a wireless Access Point. I plugged in a network cable from a nearby 4 port hub, which was plugged into a distant 8 port switch. I connected first though a network cable to set the security settings.

  The customer’s laptop, running Vista Ultimate, located the device, connected, prompted for security log-on, and that was it. My customer had a reliable connection, and could access the office network with her laptop anywhere throughout a 5000sf office (various walls, hallways, and rooms) We were using the ‘N’ band, WPA2 security with AES encryption. The signal was strong, and had no interference problems, even though we were in the middle of a large group of small independent offices.
• 

  dallas7
  March 21st, 2009 on 1:56 pm

  Rating

  I purchased the WNHDE111 to replace my 6-year-old D-Link DWL-5000AP 802.11a WAP. Its Atheros SuperAG mode has provided my laptops with reliable and snappy 108 Mbps WiFi connectivity with a Linksys WPC51 802.11a/b card and my current TRENDnet TEW-501PC 802.11a/g card. While the D-Link supports 152 bit WEP, even with a complex 32 digit key it was still WEP and MAC filtering didn’t offer much more comfort in the security department.

  (Early on, D-Link touted updates “to be made available in the future” supporting WPA (and DHCP among others); these never materialized. I have on file email from their support informing me of no intention to release ANY updates and in no uncertain terms indicated they could care less.)

  A few years ago, I had the only WiFi access point within several blocks of my house – smack dab in the middle of the Phoenix, AZ metroplex. Today, I can scan nine APs from my living room. I became uncomfortable having a so-so secure AP on the air, even if it was 5 GHz.

  The WNHDE111 does not support SuperAG, so in the interest of advanced security I have 54 Mbps speed tops. This is a trade off I can live with using 802.11a connectivity until I decide to spring for a dual band 802.11n laptop adapter. I’m now warm and fuzzy using AES WPA2-PSK with a nice complex 16 digit key. And MAC filtering. Given that 5 GHz WiFi is “obsolete,” chances are my WNHDE111 doesn’t even show up on any of my neighbors’ systems. I probably have the most secure WAP in the ‘hood!

  I can’t vouch for functionality other than 802.11a. That meets all my expectations right now and even on low power, the WNHDE111 offers full bandwidth throughout my house and on my 1/3 acre property. Its close proximity to a TEW-430 802.11b/g AP presents no issues for either unit. Added bonuses are an additional RJ-45 port, a real on/off switch and a three position AP/Bridge/Auto switch.

  The WNHDE111 has a splendid Web configuration interface with a sidebar loaded full of helpful information. All aspects of this WAP’s feature set are highly configurable and the automatic firmware update worked without a hitch. My out-of-the-box v1.2.3_1.0.1 went to v1.2.7_1.0.1 in just a few minutes.

  Based on the Atheros AR5133 radio and the MAC/baseband AR5415 chips, I would insist on nothing less than top performance in all phases of operation. Atheros has always delivered in that arena. My Netgear/Atmel ME-102 802.11b WAP went most of 7 years before failing and my Netgear/Zyxel RO-318 router has been plugging away for nine years 24/7. I’m trusting Netgear for this kind of reliability in this WNHDE111.
• 

  wayne hom
  July 1st, 2009 on 9:22 am

  Rating

  Purchased from another place refurbished. Newegg has this refurbished, and had a one-day special “BOGO Free”. I was looking for a network bridge product because I was moving my office space into the basement, where I did not have any hard-wire network connections. My choices were to rip open the finished basement ceiling to find a good spot to put a drop, or purchase wireless-G adapters for the two computers, or use a wireless network bridge. I was about to purchase the wireless adapters when I found the special sale on this bridge (2 units).
  
  Got the units yesterday, installed in 5 minutes. Basically, set one unit to AP, attached that to my existing G router. Set up the second unit as the Bridge in the basement office. Went upstairs and pressed the WPS button on the AP unit, and ran back down to press the WPS button on the bridge. Two minutes later, plugged in ethernet cables to my two computers in the basement, turned them on and was up and running. Couldn’t be simpler. Forgot to mention that one basement computer was a linux server, which was on an older computer with USB 1 connections. That would have severely limited my wireless connection, but now I have a full 100 network connection through the Bridge unit.
  
  This is a very good product for what I needed, to make the wireless connection from my old office to the basement without any drilling. I do not plan to switch anything else to wireless N because I have too much older equipment running fine on b/g.
  
  I may decide to use the Netgear software to try tweaking the network settings on the units. I saw some interesting comments on the Netgear forums.
• 

  Frank R. Anderson
  November 11th, 2009 on 8:15 am

  Rating

  Old Setup
  
  Netgear WGT624NAv3 (G – 108Mbs)
  
  Netgear WGPS606 (Print Server/Bridge 54 Mbs)

  New Setup
  
  Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700
  
  Netgear WNHDEB111

  Background:
  
  I honestly hated Netgear. The nightmares I had with my old setup were terrible. I constantly had to reboot the router; the bridge required me to reconnect wireless devices in a certain order every time; my fiance’s Apple never stayed connected long; bittorrent, VPN and video streaming knocked the router out the few times it was working; and the customer service is just horrible. I swore I’d never buy another Netgear product, but I finally had to buy something that would at least work for my fiance. I waited a few months for 802.11n to mature a bit, and was going to get the DLINK DIR-655. Recently it’s had horrible firmware issues though and the other brands had low reviews. Then along came the WNDR3700.

  The reviews were great so I picked it up and this bridge. I fully expected it to work as badly as my previous Netgear products, but I felt I had to give it a shot.

  Conclusion:
  
  I’ve had this product connected to my WNDR3700 for two days now and it works flawlessly. I have had many wireless setups and this is the best I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen people complain that it’s on the 5Ghz frequency only, but it works great. All of my other systems are wired or on the 2.4Ghz frequency so I have very little overlap. Of course the WNDR3700 is dual-band so that may not be the same for everyone. I will update this if anything changes but for now I’m extremely happy. It could work at half the speed it does and I would still be happy to have something that just works for once.

  Update:
  
  Everyone in my home has problems with the iphone and this router. We constantly get disconnected. It’s a known issue on their forums. There is a recent update that helps a lot but almost everyday I still lose my connection and have to re-enter my password. Otherwise this router is still working amazingly. I’ve only had to reset it one time.

  Update:
  
  The last update pretty much fixed the iphone issues. I rarely have to reconnect my phone anymore. If you plan on using the USB storage part of the device though I’d recommend reading the Netgear forums. Some people have had some issues with this.
• 

  C. Menning
  February 15th, 2010 on 2:59 pm

  Rating

  I originally bought just one in order to add a 5GHz network to my existing G network. There are 30 different networks within range of my apartment, and trying to keep connected on the G network was almost impossible. This cleared up all the problems I was having, and has plenty of power to cover my 2-bedroom apartment with no problem.

  I added a second one in order to put my XBOX 360 up on the N network without having to pay MS a hundred bucks for their addon wireless adaptor. I also have a Media Center PC, so having two network ports on the back is a huge plus.

  Setting up the first was pretty straightfoward if you have any experience with wireless routers. Adding the second was even easier: hold down the button on the second for 10 seconds until the light flashes, then press the button on the first once to sync everything together. No other configuration was needed.

  I haven’t yet had a dropped signal or trouble connecting after switching to 5GHz in my crowded apartment complex. It connects almost immediately, and streams HD videos wirelessly without any stuttering or buffering delays. Bonus: cheaper than the XBOX 360 N adaptor from MS, and WAY more useful.
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  Oland T. Whitecotton
  February 26th, 2010 on 4:21 am

  Rating

  I’m not sure why anyone would rate this as anything but 5/5 stars. It’s so simple to set up, and at $50 its a STEAL. I’ve got 4 of these at my house, 1 is the bridge and 3 are access points. They completely cover my entire house, and honestly just 1 of them would do. But I’ve got 1 AP in the living room, 1 AP in our upstairs media room, and 1 AP in our master bedroom. We like being able to plug things into it, plus having the complete blanket of wireless coverage anywhere in the house. I’ve got Verizon FiOS business at 35Mbps up/35Mbps down, and anywhere in the house I can max out my connection (speedtest dot com). I love it!
• 

  2 Tone Tommy
  March 9th, 2010 on 12:35 pm

  Rating

  Abosolutely the first computer equipment I’ve ever hooked up where the installation and performance were flawless and the performance was beyond expectation. Clear strong signal from all equipment where problems were significant prior to installation.
• 

  Don
  March 12th, 2010 on 12:33 am

  Rating

  I set up a dual band Wireless N (2.4 and 5 GHz). Higher frequency 5GHz DOES have better range if it’s unobstructed but the dirty secret is that the LOWER frequencies (2.4GHz, etc for Wireless G, etc) have better PENETRATION through walls etc. My experience with “N” is mixed- I do like my dual network to split traffic but have not been overwhelmed by bloated range claims of wireless N. This product is better value than Linksys options (My router is Linksys and the products work well together).