Anyone have a Netgear MR814?

[Gerbil333]

Are they reliable? My old RT314 (wired 10/100, 4 port router) is barely getting the job done. It routes, but it has almost no features, and isn't very secure.

I noticed Newegg has the Netgear MR814 for only $10 shipped after rebates!

Some reviews say it drops connections or has to be reset. How true is that? From my experience, dropped connections are usually not the router's fault, but the OS and driver settings for the wireless card, or simply the wireless card itself.

So, is the MR814 reliable? I've never had to reset my RT314 in 3 years.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Its a decent router, however I think you are confusing the netgear with linksys with the connection drops and it having to be reset. Also, the connection is only lost on the wireless, wired is fine

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
Its a decent router, however I think you are confusing the netgear with linksys with the connection drops and it having to be reset. Also, the connection is only lost on the wireless, wired is fine

I've heard it happens on both, actually. Look at the user reviews on Amazon.

 

[The J]

At home I had the MR814v2 (which is what the one in your link appears to be) and it worked very well. It's easy to set up and has never dropped a connection, at least nothing that was the router's fault.

 

[Arcanedeath]

I got one of these (a V2) free after rebate when my dad bought a laptop last year, it's not a bad router but doesn't have the bells and whistles of newer models and the advanced features leave much to be disired + it only has 1 of the 2 antenas it's chipset supports and no option to add another so it's range / recption isn't as good as other models using the same hardware.

 

[redbeard1]

Netgear's do have a problem working with the local telco DSL here. They lose connection after 20-30 minutes. Put the same router on the local cable company's system and it works flawlessly. The phone company claims the Netgear isn't complying to internet standard dhcp protocol. Put a Linksys in it's place, and all problems go away.

 

[Gerbil333]

What telco and provider did you have trouble with?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: The J
At home I had the MR814v2 (which is what the one in your link appears to be) and it worked very well. It's easy to set up and has never dropped a connection, at least nothing that was the router's fault.

My gf has one of these at her place; for a while it was occasionally dropping the cable modem connection (although they have a very old and cranky cable modem; a Linksys router wouldn't even negotiate DHCP properly when connected to it!)

I upgraded the firmware on it, and lately it's been fine -- I don't know if the newer BIOS fixed it, or the cable company made some change on their end. I'd strongly recommend a firmware upgrade if you get one (very easy through their web admin interface). I haven't done anything fancy with it (port forwarding, etc.), but for basic usage it seems to work well. Wireless was occasionally flaky, but newer drivers on the host side (it's a Dell 600m with the Intel Centrino wireless chipset), combined with the latest firmware, seem to have fixed that.

Edit: Cox cable (Providence, RI) was showing these issues. However, it seems fine now with the latest firmware.

 

[DGath]

I'm not going to claim it is the best router in the world, I haven't had any problems with mine though. It's a v2 and I have networked drives and don't ever have dropped connections. For the features I want, if I was going to buy a wireless router right now, I'd go with the linksys VPN G router.

As far as speeds on the mr814v2, I'm not too impressed. I max at about 5 mbits/sec.

 

[Gerbil333]

Ok, cool.

I've upgraded the firmware on my Netgear RT314, and yea, it sure is easy.

Netgear's do have a problem working with the local telco DSL here. They lose connection after 20-30 minutes. Put the same router on the local cable company's system and it works flawlessly. The phone company claims the Netgear isn't complying to internet standard dhcp protocol.

Since my Netgear router has worked (mostly) fine, I probably don't have to worry about that.

I have one problem. I've tried fixing it, but I've had limited success. I bought the router probably 4 years ago, and at that time my DSL provider was DirectvInternet. Their modem worked great. I think I only had to reset it 3 or 4 times in about 2 years.

DirecTV shut down their services, so I switched to SBC DSL. SBC gave me a SpeedStream 5360, and it hasn't been as good. I have to reset the modem at least once a week. For a while, I had to reset it once or twice a day, but it got better a few months ago. The router never has to be reset.