Netgear MR314 wireless router at Amazon, $60 after MIR

[Slugbait]

Did a search, couldn't find a dupe. Credit goes to Techb@rgains

Not sure how to link to amazon stchuff without a ref link...just search with netgear mr314, you'll hit it. Link to rebate is also there

 

[babyjayc]

Saw it at tb as well... awesome, since I ordered it for $30 more from Dell last night.

 

[Slugbait]

Ehhh...after reading this review at Practically Networked, this unit doesn't (easily) allow for port filtering, and suffers a 50% degradation in speed when WEP is enabled.

Personally, I'm gonna keep looking, perhaps somebody else will find this a decent deal.

 

[may]

Originally posted by: Slugbait
Ehhh...after reading this review at Practically Networked, this unit doesn't (easily) allow for port filtering, and suffers a 50% degradation in speed when WEP is enabled. Personally, I'm gonna keep looking, perhaps somebody else will find this a decent deal.

it does not support UPnP as well.

 

[frankqfrank]

I would go for the SMC7004VWBR for $60 after a $40 MIR at microcenter instead.

Linkosaurus

 

[dascud]

Slugbait ,

The review from practicallynetworked is more than a year old. I recently purchased the netgear MR314 from Dell and the latest firmware release 3.29 allows port filtering and also restricts associations based on MAC addresses for wireless comm.

You can also filter based on content ( certain keywords for all/some machines on your internal network and the router has the capability to mail you when a restricted site is being accessed)
One cool feature is that it automatically updates dyndns.org whenever the ip address changes so you can bind a domain name to the dhcp address. Allows you to run servers even on dhcp addresses.

I had WEP enabled and got d/l speeds of 450-500 kbps ( around 4.0 Mbits.) with RTS-CTS enabled. I am sure the perf will increase with RTS-CTS disabled. I am quite pleased with the MR 314 and for $60 its certainly a steal.

 

[ahsia]

Originally posted by: Slugbait
......and suffers a 50% degradation in speed when WEP is enabled.

Which wireless router doesn't suffer from that?

 

[ericboo]

I agree with Dascud. I have used mine for the past few months and it works well. My only disappointment is that you cannot use aftermarket antennas like I use on my Linksys.

 

[bit]

it appears to be a one day only deal.

 

[JavaCool]

buy now...worry later.

 

[Slugbait]

Which wireless router doesn't suffer from that?

None, I assume. However, I read a review of the SMC model that frankqfrank mentioned, and it only suffers a 30% degradation...I'm a bit of a speed freak (ex: got a 1.6a chugging along at 2.4)

But it's not only perf I'm concerned with. My main issue is losing my machine's IP with the 'net, and letting the router do it. Right now, I can make and accept videoconferencing calls with either NetMeeting or Windows Messenger. Also, I like to remotely access my home machine using NetMeeting's Remote Desktop Sharing feature. I fear the wrong wireless router means I lose RDS capabilities, and videoconferencing and online gaming will be a pain to configure. I think UPnP support is supposed to solve this kind of thing (hey, I'm a wireless newbie, step in and correct me at any time), but from what I could see with the SMC router, it also does not support UPnP.

I'm not trying to crap in my own thread (that would be weird, no...?), this is a good deal for many others. Just need to make sure I don't buy the wrong thing for myself.

 

[beatniks3]

great deal. I paid one hundred for mine two months ago and thought that was a good deal. easy to setup and maintain, but make sure to update the firmware. I use remote desktop all the time and i have never had a probelm. wireless is the bomb!

 

[RichieZ]

Range on this guy is not very good compared to the Linkysys WAP11 I replaced it with (borrowed the MR314 from a friend)

 

[dlaw]

Originally posted by: dascud
Slugbait ,

The review from practicallynetworked is more than a year old. I recently purchased the netgear MR314 from Dell and the latest firmware release 3.29 allows port filtering and also restricts associations based on MAC addresses for wireless comm.

You can also filter based on content ( certain keywords for all/some machines on your internal network and the router has the capability to mail you when a restricted site is being accessed)
One cool feature is that it automatically updates dyndns.org whenever the ip address changes so you can bind a domain name to the dhcp address. Allows you to run servers even on dhcp addresses.

I had WEP enabled and got d/l speeds of 450-500 kbps ( around 4.0 Mbits.) with RTS-CTS enabled. I am sure the perf will increase with RTS-CTS disabled. I am quite pleased with the MR 314 and for $60 its certainly a steal.

Wait.... 450-500kbps = 4Mbps? Isn't it 0.4 Mbps?

I am looking for a cheap wireless solution too.... thanx for the info.

 

[Kreggo]

Downloads are commonly measured in KBps (Kilobytes per second), while data rate is often measured in Mbps (Megabits per second). The capitolized "B" represents bytes and the lowercase "b" represents bits. 500KBps would be equal to .5MBps or, converted to bits, 4Mbps.

That's pretty impressive. My cable modem only runs at 2Mbps max. What kind of connection are you running?

 

[dascud]

500 KBytes/sec = 500*8 = 4.0 Mbits/sec
Max thruput in 802.11b is 11 Mbits/sec. But if you account for propagation delay + SIFS + DIFS interval + mac ack packets etc theoretical max you can get is approx 6 - 6.5 Mbits/sec.

 

[Plantsman]

dascud, are you getting those kind of download speeds on the computer that has the wireless network card (or wireless usb unit)? The one thing that has kept me from going wireless has been the possibility that the speed of the connection to the wireless computer would be too slow.

 

[tech]

Thanks. SOLD! Been waiting for it to get cheap for quite awhile now. Thanks again.

 

[dascud]

Plantsman,

Those were the download speeds for a scp transfer from my laptop ( wireless connection) to my desktop ( same internal network). The laptop was about 12-15 feet away from the access point.
Hope this helps

 

[Kreggo]

Just for comparison, I can run up to around 6Mbps over a Dlink DI-614+, but the range on that is pretty weak (low power unit).

 

[Quailbert]

Yup, I saw this in the movers and shakers page at Amazon. It increased in sales by 9500% which is pretty funny. Not a bad deal at all.

 

[scarfase99]

guys, don't forget to check the FW for a $5 off coupon

 

[dlaw]

Originally posted by: dascud
500 KBytes/sec = 500*8 = 4.0 Mbits/sec
Max thruput in 802.11b is 11 Mbits/sec. But if you account for propagation delay + SIFS + DIFS interval + mac ack packets etc theoretical max you can get is approx 6 - 6.5 Mbits/sec.

Oh, our (maybe only mine) convention is B=Bytes, b=bits.

That's not bad.....the DHCP can be switched off on that thing, right?

 

[DavemanUT]

I got the Linksys 4 port wireless. I'd never setup/used a wireless router until this (and I use one on campus now), but it is pretty nice. The only thing I'll say about mine is that I get a fuzzy signal after moving it to the other side of the apt (2 walls, ~25 feet away), and it isn't NEARLY as fast as the hard wired computers running on the same cable connection. Anyone got suggestions?

D.C.

 

[dascud]

Daveman,

you can try changing channels, if the interference is high then the cards have an auto rate mechanism which falls back to 5.5/2 Mbps.
Another thing you can do is to set the RTS threshold really high ( Request to Send is the mechanism to access the medium) if yours is the only wireless connection in your network.

Try tweaking the MTU size with Dr Tcp etc.

DaScud