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D-Link or Netgear 802.11g combo - $30-35 - which is better?

R

RajunCajun

Senior member
These deals may have been posted earlier, but I'll put both of these here for comparison:

D-Link Combo $30 AR

Netgear Combo $35 AR

Anyone with past experience would be helpful. I bought the Netgear router at BestBuy last weekend. It works OK in general, but the wireless connection sometimes drops and the ethernet connection to the main PC gets slow after 2-3 days. I use my notebook at a distance of around 40' from the router, going down a hallway and through about 3 wooden walls. Rebooting everything seems to get things back OK.

Funny thing is my old Seimens combo worked great at this same distance. It would drop the connection after about 5-10 mins, then resume with no further problems. But the old router seemes to have died.

Any recommendations made would be appreciated. I've read various reviews from websites and users, but they seem really good or awful, with everything in between.
 
I use the d-link 624 router with the g650 pc card, which is their 108mbs line, and I find I can get incredible usable range between the two.
Buy.com Link
I can't speek directly about their 54mbs line, but I have found d-link to be very good in general.

From various things I have read I stay away from netgear. They look pretty, but don't perform as well, and netgear is slower at releasing updates.
 
D-Link's 24/7 tech support is great, if you happen to need it. They give solid and often very candid advice without running you through brain damaged protocols, like too many other major brands. I've used or installed quite a bit of their gear. The 524 router is not well recomened, but the 624 is a champ and a bargain in the bundle linked in the comment above. Customers using the 624 have been very pleased.

No, I don't work for D-Link. However, I am very pleased to plug good products with great service.
 
Yes, I forgot to mention that their customer service is surprisingly good. If you're looking for a review of the 624, I think c-net had an extensive one a while back.
 
I build a new system recently, and as is sometimes the case with new computers there were a few problems with components. D-Link took the best care of me, they didn't give me the runaround and shipped a replacement router right out. Incidentally I was replacing a Netgear product which couldn't hang with heavy P2P loads. I'd go with D-Link out of the two.
 
I've got a Netgear WGT624v2 108MB wireless router and have had many problems. Their customer service is Indian, and their solution is always to reset the router to factory settings.

Problems include: random reboots, crashing and loss of wirless access. Even with the latest BIOS these problems persist.

Since the latest BIOS update these issues may happen once a week maybe every other week, however previously they were a daily thing.
 
Originally posted by: Rivian
I've got a Netgear WGT624v2 108MB wireless router and have had many problems. Their customer service is Indian, and their solution is always to reset the router to factory settings.
Click to expand...

[SupportRep] Oh, sir you say router smoking?

[Customer] Yeah the thing shut down and started smoking and shooting out sparks. So I unplugged it, now what should I do?

[SupportRep] Ahh good you unplug, now reboot and problem gone. Tanks for calling.

[Customer] What the?
 
If the D-Link has a replaceable antenna, then definitely get it b/c the WGR614's antenna cannot be removed.

I have a WGR614 v5 that has been working fine (WEP 128, B/G, no DHCP) but I've read in several forums of overheating problems.
 
I appreciate all the responses - it does help to clarify which to get. The d-link I've read does have the removable antenna which I'd forgot about.

I haven't forgot about the 10% off coupon I got via email - that's good till mid August. Don't know how wide spread coupon availability is, but I'll use it.

In your experience has the range of wireless been good? I do like the small, sleek look of this Netgear. I'll keep it for awhile longer and play with the firewall settings and channel to see if I can fine tune it some. I'm still using my Seimens 802.11b pc card in my notebook which is working fine.

Again, thanks everyone. I trust the recommendations here, not blindly of course, but we have lots of experience floating in these forums (and other forums naturally). I've helped people here in the past and will continue if I have anything useful to say.

BTW, I use Zonealarm on both my desktop and notebook behind the router firewall. I've used this for over 2 years with my old router without a hitch - could this pose a problem?
 
Agree with a lot of the other posters. The only experience I've had with a Netgear product was a very bad one due to shoddy hardware. Their CS is also... lacking.

Just bought a couple of D-Link products so hopefully I'll have better luck when they arrive.
 
The only 2 manufactures of routers that I purchase from are D-Link and Linksys. Linksys to me is the best quality/reliability and Netgear routers just plain suck. Bought one of the top of the line routers and it is really unstable.
 
D-Link 524 (g) or 624 (super-g) are great routers. It got the best performance, great interface (netgear html admin screens suck), and compatibility (works with my thinkpad, dell laptop, dell axim PDA, linksys WRT54G client router, and numerous other wifi adapters - in fact it never had a compatibility issue).
 
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