Rated 
I've now installed three WGR614v3 and one WGR614v4 ...
Easy setup, good performance, good feature set
Unreliable, terrible support
Posted Oct 18, 2004 - I've now installed three WGR614v3 and one WGR614v4 routers. The first (a WGR614v3) worked perfectly -- it was so easy I didn't know what to do and it worked well. I bought two more -- and also got v3 models even though the website suggests that v4 and v5 were already in the field. That might have been for the best since the one v4 router that I tried seems deficient. I only had problems with one of the WGR614v3 routers. It had the annoying habit of freezing -- especially under extended Internet load such as viewing streaming Quicktime movies. Sometimes it would happen after 20 or 30 minutes and other times I wouldn't experience the problem for several days. After finally convincing their Indian tech support that my unit was bad, they sent me a WGR614v4 as a replacement. I don't know if the unit is bad, the firmware is bad (it came with the latest on their site), or the design is just flawed. However, it exhibits very flaky behavior. WiFi connections between the clients and the router just slow down over time. Resetting the connection (e.g. turning the wireless off and then on) fixes the performance for a while but then it just slows down again. Its also only in one direction -- download (from router to the client) is slowed but upload (client to router) is fine. The other problem is that devices on the wireless network often just don't see each other. The router shows each devices as attached and each device can ping the router but they can't ping each other. Maybe a few packets will get through but I measure> 99% packet loss. When I put my old v3 router back in place, I never see this problem (nor the slowing wireless performance mentioned above). Note that the slowing wireless performance and the dropped wireless packets are independent -- even when the wireless performance is very good, connections between certain devices on the wireless are broken. Support is very frustrating because they basically assume your a novice user and refuse to deviate from their resolution flow charts. I've been working with computers and networks for> 10 years and it just wastes so much time to deal with people who know less. Especially when they refuse to acknowledge it. Normally I wouldn't even work with consumer-class devices like this but business class-devices are too expensive for most home users (such as families and friends). For the money, the feature set is great on these units. I am working with a mixed 802.11b/g network and using WPA-PSK encryption, SPI, and NAT. A more robust "bussiness-grade" unit with the same feature set could cost $300-$500 or more, and that is a hard sell when they see $70 versions in the store. You just have to treat these units as disposable. From a time versus money point of view, you are probably better off just throwing the units away rather than dealing with tech support. If you get lucky on the first try (such as my first two WGR614v3), you are ahead of the game. If you end up with a bum WGR614v3 or the WGR614v4, then you just wasted $50 or $70. You can get a replacement from tech support out of principle but you'll probably waste so much time (and your shipping money) that you'll have wished you just paid for another unit (perhaps from another disposable manufacturer) and went to the movies with the extra time. Best of luck
94% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful , unhelpful, or inappropriate?
Comment about this review
Netgear quality down
Comments - Post a comment