Netgear WNR834B-100NAS Wireless N Router

10 Review to this product

• 

  K. Klions
  December 24th, 2006 on 10:41 pm

  Rating

  Let me say right off the bat that this applies to a home network with three relatively new computers (Windows XP) and the Netgear WN121T draft-N USB adaptors that are made for this product. I’ve seen a number of bad reviews for this router from people using older systems or mixed adaptors (different brands or mixing wireless-b or wireless-g), so I can’t vouch for that setup, but I must say that I have been extremely pleased with this whole Netgear system. Years ago I installed an 802.11b network in the same location and it took hours of frustration, and numerous calls to tech support to finally get the thing to work. Times have changed and, in my case anyways, the setup wizard took care of the wireless router installation, connected me to the right place to upgrade the firmware, and the wireless adaptors on the upstairs computers then automatically found the network and connected on the first try. There was only one slight glitch on the setup when the program sensed that my internet connection used a static IP address. It asked if I thought this was correct and prompted “yes” or “no” (I chose no) and it then retried and determined correctly that my internet uses dynamic IP assignment. If not for that it was flawless. Total setup time for the router was about 20 minutes. Maybe 5 minutes for each of the USB adaptors.

  Speed is palpably faster than on the old 802.11b network. In fact when I run a download/upload speedtest from the upstairs computers now I get almost no difference compared to my wired connection (about 6mbps). Running a game between home network computers is now totally lag free, which is a pleasant change.

  One concern people seem to have is that the draft-N protocol may or may not be compatable (or even upgradable) to the N standard (when and if they ever get around to that). I decided not to wait for one simple reason. Since this draft-N seems to have all the speed I need, and I will not be needing to integrate other components in the next year or two, I couldn’t care less if this ends up incompatable with the N standard. It’s a great system and it’s ready now. If you are setting up a large network that may need to be expanded in the near future you may be well advised to wait for the N standard to be finalized. But for a small home network, there’s no real reason to avoid jumping in now.
• 

  J. Schwab
  February 23rd, 2007 on 7:13 pm

  Rating

  I am using this router for three computers. Desktop Vista Home Premium with integrated wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g, laptop #1 with Vista Home Premium with integrated wireless LAN 802.11n-draft and laptop #2 an ANCIENT Dell running XP with NO built in wireless connection (this one is running with the Rangemax Next Wireless-n USB 2.0 Adapter)

  First I will start with the installation, I had to do this 3 times before I got it to run perfect. It came down to during set-up when you enter your IP addresses, if you check these on your system while you are running through a router you will be given “generic” addresses. You need to hook up directly to your servers module to get your addresses first.

  After calling tech support (of my server…not Netgear) to get my IP addresses figured out, installation was a breeze! My router is in the basement and my desktop is on the main floor, 4/5 bars with the 802.11 a/b/g wireless LAN.

  My new laptop with the 802.11n-draft…nothing but 5+ stars on that connection and signal! Simple and no need to enter IP addresses and no headaches!

  My ancient Dell laptop…with the Rangemax Next Wireless-n USB 2.0 Adapter I get full strength signal all the way on the top floor! Nothing but smooth surfing!

  I do agree with some of the hassle on the set-up, but my satisfaction with the end results out weighs my qualms with the hassles I had during set-up, this giving it a 5 star rating still…so imagine what it could have been if I had no set-up issues!

  The poor reviews on this product might have to do with improper set-up, maybe the types of connections do not match, after all…a Pinto is still a Pinto even if you stick a Ferrari hood emblem on it! Your connection will only run as fast as your lowest connection. If you buy an N-draft router…make sure you have an N-draft connection on your computer as well! This will run with any connection, but don’t DIS on the product if you don’t have your expectations fulfilled when you might not be using the product to it’s fullest potential! This only opens the door wider for faster connection speeds, you still need to have an equivalent connection speed on your computer to utilize this speed!
• 

  Evan Barker
  March 16th, 2007 on 6:23 am

  Rating

  I saw a LOT of bad reviews about this product but thought that I’d give it a shot it was only a hundred bucks. I currenly have two computers hooked up wirelessly, one is a new desktop running vista with a WN121T USB adapter hooked into it, the othre is a three year old dell with intel proset 2200 BG. This product took me a grand total of 25 minutes to hook up. I wired my laptop to it, downloaded the latest firmware and it started right up. Let me just say also that, contrary to popular opinion the install wizard works. My network is up and installed for 2 weeks giving me great performance. Three stories up my laptop is connecting perfectly. Benchmarked the speeds on line and felt them to be as quick as wired. Furthermore, the desktop is one floor above the router and is connecting at 200 MBPS. If you use this router and by the appropriate adapter it will work great. Unless this breaks I am very satisfied. Spend the money get all matching components and you will have no issue
• 

  Joshua C. Scott
  September 14th, 2007 on 8:43 pm

  Rating

  First let me say that have Verizon FIOS service outside Washington DC. We’ve been relatively impressed with the service (30/5), especially in our wired computers. I’ve been less than impressed however with my wireless laptop connection. The Verizon-provided Actiontec router sucks with wireless so I made the decison to upgrade to this Netgear router for wireless because of the speed. The setup was completely simple and Verizon even helped me out with it which was great. I am using the USB connection for my laptop and the speed difference is unbelievable. I am seeing virtually no degredation in the speed over the wireless from the wired. Before I was seeing at least a 50% drop. I would highly recommend this router.
• 

  I'm a Good Name
  August 8th, 2008 on 10:32 pm

  Rating

  I was really skeptical of this router (given the bad reviews), but I picked this router up today at Fry’s as a refurbished/open box special for $42. I planned on putting DD-WRT onto the router. DD-WRT is a 3rd party firmware that changes how this (and many other routers) run. I wanted this router to run as a repeater, ie to boost the signal of another router.

  I brought it home, plugged it in, spent 2 minutes putting the new firmware on. I followed the instructions on DD-WRT’s website to get it up and running as a repeater. It was much easier than cracking my old Linksys WRT54G v5 for DD-WRT.

  It’s been running for around 4 hours now perfectly. It repeats the signal of the other router beautifully, even though the other router only has 25% signal strength where I have this router installed. My whole house is now blanketed without any problems.

  Putting DD-WRT on this was a breeze, and with DD-WRT, this router works wonderfully so far. Highly recommend it, especially with DD-WRT. I bought another one for my parents, who are in need of a new router. I’m not sure why others were having so many problems, but perhaps Netgear has shoddy quality control.
• 

  Leonard Helton
  September 4th, 2008 on 7:48 pm

  Rating

  This is a great router once you load DD-WRT. FAST FAST FAST. I tried a couple of the dual band routers (WRT610 and WNDR3300) and they are just unstable and DD-WRT doesn’t support them yet. This router worked best for me. I just wish it made hot dogs.
• 

  LARRY
  February 11th, 2009 on 5:29 pm

  Rating

  Excellent prodcut, Easy set up and works great. Much easier setup than previous brand that I used. Saved money buy purchasing at Amazon over Best Buy and bankrupt Circuit City prices.
• 

  rdh1079
  February 16th, 2009 on 9:05 pm

  Rating

  I have only had this router for two days now, with no problems. Its fast, and consitent so far. The biggest thing that excited me was the ease of setup.

  I have macs, so maybe it worked easier than with PC, not a knock on pc, but in my experience thats usually the case.

  Anyhow, all I did was plug my macbook into the first ethernet port on the router and plugged the router into my Comcast modem. On the back of the router it actually says where to go to log in to the admin setup for the router, which is great if you are new to this, you dont have to type in a long ip address, just a web address, admin for user name, password for password, easy.

  The router downloaded the latest firm ware,then i went to basic set up, i fill in the name of my network, click on wpa encryption, type in my pass key, save settings.

  Disconnect my laptop from the ethernet port, connect to my new network, enter wpa access key….done.

  I have set up many a wireless network, this was the easiest…I have yet to check if my brother’s pc laptop has connected, but i know my macs have…the refurbished router was a great buy in my book thus far.
• 

  A. F.
  February 20th, 2009 on 12:28 pm

  Rating

  I just got the product today from Amazon and decided on it because Consumer Reports rates this model #1. When I opened up the box and tried setting it up, the CD didn’t start up. I have Vista 64bit and not all CD’s will work on my system so I called the customer service number listed on the support browser that poped up and they not only had me up and running in less than 15 minutes, they also had my laptop that has an HP wireless card connected within those same 15 minutes and they also help me set up maximum security with this unit. I did not have to update any software or drivers either.

  Great customer service and very knowledgable as well.

  Granted that I’m very happy from the first day, I’m hoping that it stays that way.
• 

  Christopher Beaugrand
  February 20th, 2009 on 12:30 pm

  Rating

  I have installed dozens of home and small business networks (wireless and wired) and have recently started using this router as my ‘standard install’ for homes. I have been very happy with the setup (the netgear wizard in the web-based interface is dead-easy and makes life much simpler than it used to be). The rest of the web-based interface is very familiar to anyone that has set up a Netgear device in the last few years.

  I have had no problems getting UPnP (for game consoles), WPA security, and custom DHCP ranges working (some of the things that a few of the reviews mention problems with).

  The most complex network I set up with this guy consists of him, 3 additional WPN802s to fill out coverage throughout the (large) house, a combination of 5 wireless and 6 wired devices (laptops, desktops, game consoles and network printers), PLUS a separate industrial-strength router providing a separate secure subnet for a home office. This setup has been running very well for weeks now with no problems.

  For the price, this is the best router out there for pretty much any home setup in my opinion.