SMC SMCWGBR14-N Barricade N ProMax Draft 11n Wireless Gigabit Broadband Router

10 Review to this product

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  K. Tom
  October 19th, 2010 on 10:38 am

  Rating

  This is a great router. I have a split level house and it covers my entire house. The router is located at one end of the house in our family room. I have no problem getting a signal at the other end of the house. I never had a lost connection. Easy to set up. You can’t go wrong with this router.
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  Dave S.
  October 20th, 2010 on 2:34 pm

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  I am extremely impressed with this router. Super easy to set up, fast, and AMAZING range! I am able to stream online video from a park over 300 feet away from the router, and with a brick building in between. WOW! The built-in USB print server is a nice bonus, no need to buy a separate print server, or upgrade to a new network printer. Reception anywhere inside my 2000 square foot house is flawless, just as fast as if I am connected directly to the ethernet cable. No need to buy a fancy adapter card either. It works flawlessly, with super range, even with my laptop that only has a built-in wireless b/g card. It’s also the only router I’ve seen with a switch to turn off the wireless radio, making it invisible, and probably saving energy when not being used. I read a lot of reviews of routers, so I had a pretty good idea I was making a good choice, I just confirmed that, big time!
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  T. Takebe
  October 21st, 2010 on 2:34 am

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  I work in network engineering so I’m used to the stability of expensive commercial routers and APs. Many consumer routers tend to fluctuate in output or have software issues that cause slow downs, connection drops, and even device crashes which require manual reboots to fix. Features and ease of set up are important, but stability is usually the single most important requirement in home networks so that the router can be installed and forgotten.

  I have worked with various consumer routers from SMC, Linksys, D-Link, Trendnet, Belkin, Netgear, etc but SMC routers have usually been the most stable one for me that requires the least connection drops and manual restarts since their first 11a/b routers. Linksys routers do have the best software and most features so they are popular for enthusiasts, but they simply don’t match SMC’s stability with various types of networks.

  SMCWGBR14-N is another rock solid router from SMC that doesn’t require routine manual restarts even for very flaky PPPoE WAN connections. It’s the perfect router to install and forget. Feature wise it has mostly everything you need, from one touch set ups to advanced signalling configuration. The printer / scanner port is definitely a plus for home networks sharing a printer. It saves energy and hassle.

  The router has a small footprint and has an average but very solid signal strength. (Which is far better than various “boost” models which fluctuate in strength and cause connection drops) A design issue would be that it does not have wall-mount holes. It does come with an optional base for vertical standing, though.

  If I were asked to install a 11n wireless home network for a regular family, I’d choose this router without a blink. Like every router there may be some compatibility issues with certain wireless NICs but these can usually be fixed by updating the NIC drivers or by tinkering with wireless settings.
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  Peas on Earth
  October 21st, 2010 on 7:07 am

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  We’ve had this router for about a year. After going crazy with other routers for like 2 years, rebooting and calling customer services, we decided to get this one and spend a bit more than we’re used to. We never looked back!!!!! Set up was fine, and I think that in over a year, we needed to reboot once. The signal is great, and we’re just super happy with it! Highly recommended!
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  Marty Pekar
  October 22nd, 2010 on 4:39 pm

  Rating

  It’s always amazing to me when something works the way it’s supposed to! Unlike other routers I’ve tried set up was a breeze. Speed at first was slow but a call to tech support (who was unbelievably patient with stupid me) had me update the firmware and after a reboot I’m getting the same speed as I get when my satellite modem in wired in directly.
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  F. Yamin
  October 23rd, 2010 on 6:06 pm

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  I am IT so I know routers – I have used several D-link and still have two at home and am just fedup with them.

  This SMC is just awesome, the spot where the D-links give me variable 60%-40% strength and keep disconnecting, this router gives me at least 80% signal strength.

  The 3 built-in antenna’s help. The software is full of features and easy to setup.

  Perfect buy – I have heard SMC customer service is great too.

  The D-link customer service is horrible.
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  doctj
  October 24th, 2010 on 5:29 pm

  Rating

  I had to upgrade my 8 yr old SMC 7004AWBR, due to incompatibility with a new wireless printer I bought. Initially bought a linksys WRT 54GS2 ( a disaster: frequent dropped internet connections, couldn’t download large email attachments, crawling download speeds, unable to even connect an old network printer that worked with my smc or the new wireless printer) which I returned. I hadn’t thought of going back to SMC because I no longer saw it on the store shelves. After research I found this item with great “professional” and consumer reviews.
  
  So far I haven’t been disappointed at all, initial setup was tricky due to my own idiocy (connecting wrong network cable to WAN), but after that everything has been great. Download speeds have doubled/tripled, no dropped connections and my new wireless network printer connected flawlessly. Connection with other wireless pcs has been great, both have wireless g cards so can’t comment on wireless N capabilities.
  
  USB print server worked with my hp 6310 mfc which allows my other networked pcs to use the scanner which wasn’t possible with hp’s software. In summary a highly recommended router especially if you need network printing/scanning.
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  Chris Olson
  October 25th, 2010 on 9:08 am

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  This is an incredibly powerful router, packing processing power that pulls no punches.

  The wireless-n is *truly* wireless-n. I was enjoying sustained transfer speeds of about 7,000 KB/s from 40 feet away, through floors and walls.

  It is feature rich, highly configurable, and very powerful – easily handling multiple packet streams, torrents and P2P traffic.

  One thing to keep in mind is that this unit is a rebranded D-Link DGL-4500 Gamer’s Lounge Extreme Dual-Band, which you can find on Amazon.com. It comes in at about six or seven dollars cheaper than the D-Link – but if you are thinking of getting this router and are in the mood for something a little “flashier”, then you may want to consider the D-Link.
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  Stefanie
  October 25th, 2010 on 1:09 pm

  Rating

  I’m a Network Engineer and I have a habit of over doing it with my home equipment. I was limping along with my old Linksys router. The Barney of home networking equipment. My Vista laptop did not get along well with it at all. Refusing to upgrade convinced that N was just a stepping stone and the moment I bought a new router they’d release a new better product that actually lived up to the hype. However I was to the point that I would only use the internet if I was wired in. I did a lot of research and I finally chose the SMC Barricade Router. I installed the Barricade yesterday and I was shocked at how many features this router really came with in the Admin console. And my wifi connection is fast, 100% reliable and my laptop hasn’t kicked me off of the internet since the moment I turned the router on. Signal…100% excilenta all of the time. Buy it, you’ll love it. Stay away from Linksys you deserve better. The only thing that could make me happier with the Barricade is if the built in Gigabit switch had more than 4 ports. I have a few ethernet network storage drives and I’d like to have some extra slots for other devices. But 4 is standard with wifi routers. Thank you SMC for fixing my relationship with Wifi. It has really lived up to the good reviews. Check out Cnet.com for a good run down on it’s features.
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  Ungerdog
  October 26th, 2010 on 2:38 am

  Rating

  Setup would have been easy, except that I messed up something and had to call customer support to straighten it out. They answered quickly and helped me reconfigure it in short time, so I can say that they’re support is fine.
  
  I have 2 wired and 2 wireless computers running through this router and the speed and range are great. My laptop can be taken anywhere in my 2 story house as well as 70 feet into my backyard without interference from neighboring networks, which was a problem with my previous router. The USB printer port was one of the key features for me and it works well, although setting it up took several attempts before the printer would work everytime (i.e., after a PC restart). Initially, the printer worked only until the PC was shut down – after a reboot, the port had to be setup again. Numerous reviewers have complained about the front location of the USB port. Yeah, it’s not so nice for routing the cable, but once it’s set, who would move the router or cable anyway? Not me, so it’s no issue.
  
  After 3 weeks of use, I am quite happy with this router.

  I have to mention a comparison of this router to a D-Link model that has nearly identical features and that I tried before buying this SMC. The D-Link required a firmware update that was really confusing to choose (there are several versions) because it has to work in conjunction with a USB port update (2 to choose from). The printer functioned terribly and the router worked for only 2 days.