Buyers considering the NETGEAR RT-314 should read this before you buy!!
I Felt obligated to post/Share what I have read, I found the review below, reason enough to take the item off my consideration list.
The Netgear Received only a 3 star rating due to many issues.
Here are a couple of the some major issues I found, but be sure to check out the compete review .
[*]If you are a school or small business user, or someone who wants a configurable and secure option for their home environment,
we simply cannot recommend this product
[*]Gaming:
We tried hosting Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena games for others to join, but none were able to. We tried playing Half-Life over the Internet and more issues presented themselves. Some tech-savvy comrades chimed in with port forwarding advice and the like,
but we were not able to properly correct the inconsistent behavior. The options available in the SUA / NAT section may have been of help, but we found very little detailed documentation on these features and found virtually nothing on the NETGEAR site or in their electronic manual about online gaming.
Internet gaming was more problematic :|
NETGEAR RT-314 full 7 page Review
Courtesy of ADRENALINE VAULT HARDWARE REVIEW by: Paul D. Sullivan Published: February 23, 2001
http://www.adrenalinevault.com/hardware/
AVAULT is also reviewing the D-Link DI-704 Cable/DSL Internet Gateway if anyone is interested. It recieves 4.5 stars.
NETGEAR RT-314 rates only 3.5 stars .
Can the NETGEAR RT-314 Fast Internet Access Gateway Router effectively preserve your precious broadband-sharing connection speeds? Paul Sullivan explores this question in his review.
[*]Conclusion
Overall: The DHCP server issues are significant. Does the product support 32 clients, 64 clients or 253? All three are claimed by various documentation for the RT-314. We finally were able to get in contact with NETGEAR and they stated that the system is indeed limited to 32 clients at this point, and they were not able to explain the inconsistencies in the documentation, the web interface and the telnet configuration options.
[*]Security is very poor: The NAT based security system was very weak on the RT-314. During extended use of the product, Zone Alarm still warned us of direct attacks on each system, even though they were supposedly protected by the RT-314's firewall. After talking to the folks at NETGEAR, and a couple of others involved in the security business, it appears that this product is very easy to get past. Without Zone Alarm, any system behind the RT-314 is still open to easy attack from the outside.
[*]This product is very inflexible: We were not able to get NetMeeting or Internet games to work with the RT-314. There is no DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), though competing products have this feature, and there is no easy way to configure the router to fit even mildly complex needs. Other specific concerns:
[*]The documentation includes a 125 page electronic manual in Adobe Acrobat format but the documentation is inconsistent and incomplete, particularly for a product said to be targeted at the home user.
They do not mention any details about cross-over cables possibly being needed for proper modem connections even though the product literature repeatedly states that every cable you need is included in the package. That may be the case with their other model, the 311, but not with this one.
[*]They do not provide any level of hand-holding for those wanting to setup game servers on their systems, a key reason that many would want to obtain this item in the first place.
[*]Parents may want to block outgoing access to protect their children from harmful materials, but there are no helpful instructions on how to achieve this.
[*]Administration of this router can be a handful thanks to the disparate control interfaces. We would love to see NETGEAR roll all the functions of the telnet command menus into the browser where it will be more accessible to home users. We would appreciate the inclusion of context sensitive help within that browser interface as well. It would not involve that much effort and could pay huge dividends in terms of tech support reduction and customer satisfaction.
[*]
We are not trying to slam this product -- only highlighting its weak spots. NETGEAR could correct many of these issues if they wished via firmware and documentation updates, but the product has been out for some time and no such changes seem to be in the works. Competitors like Linksys have been very successful at adding features and upgrades to their router products via firmware patches, and we hope that NETGEAR follows suit.
Though the product box states it is designed for home, school and small business, the NETGEAR representative we spoke to indicated that this product is specifically tailored for the home user and is not recommended for school or small businesses at this time.
If you are a home user who wants a broadband Internet sharing solution without the hassles of configuration, then the RT-314 is a decent choice and merits a three star (average) rating. We do emphatically recommend you obtain and install the free Zone Alarm software firewall on each machine connected to the router, however.