| Netgear MR814 802.11b Wireless 4-Port Cable/DSL Router |
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Model: MR814NA
Brand: Netgear
Manufacturer: Netgear
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 715
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b
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| Features: |
Connect to a cable/DSL modem and get wired or wireless Internet access for all your computers
Compatible with most 802.11b wireless networking devices
Firewall, 128-bit Encryption, Parental controls
Smart Wizard automatically detects ISP type, Port Range Forwarding, Exposed Host (DMZ), URL Content Filtering, E-mail Alerts, and Wireless MAC Address Authentication
Compatible with Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, Mac OS, NetWare, UNIX, and Linux |
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| Description: |
| The Model MR814 Wireless Router provides continuous, high-speed 11 Mbps access between your wireless and Ethernet devices. Also, the Model MR814 router enables your entire network to share an Internet connection through a cable modem or DSL modem that otherwise is used by a single PC. With minimum setup, you can install and use the router within minutes.The Model MR814 router provides multiple Web content filtering options, plus e-mail browsing activity reporting and instant alerts. Parents and network administrators can establish restricted access policies based on time-of-day, website addresses and address keywords, and share high-speed cable/DSL Internet access for up to 253 personal computers. Network Address Translation (NAT) protects you from hackers. |
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| User Reviews (715 total): |
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Easier than all the ho's in college!, May 28, 2004
By pjack11 (Seattle, WA)
If you're looking for a good time without having to labor with ethernet cable, this router's for you. OK, its not 802.11g but still blazing fast for Internet surfing and residential LAN workloads. Hook it up, and configure online per the work instructions. Its easy, and no drivers are required. Its also very reliable as I've yet to experience a loss of signal during any session.For all you numbnuts out there, make sure you have a USB wireless adapter, PCI or Wi-Fi network card, or Apple Airport for the client computers. Duhhhhh!!!!
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Very fast, easy to use, but poorly made, May 27, 2004
By abw1987 (Basking Ridge, NJ United States)
The router is extremely easy to use. The internet speed is quick, the setup is easy, and the range is decent. But beware...it will break. The first one stopped working after about three months. So I bought another one, which worked perfectly for about a month. So now I have decided the router, although amazing, is junk.
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Great price, great product!, May 27, 2004
By Erin (USA)
I purchased this router and an MA111 (usb adapter acess point). It was my first time ever setting up a wireless network, although I have a good amount of computer skills. This router/ adapter setup took me only 2 hours to figure out. The router itself took only 15 minutes to setup! I soon learned how to configure the WEP (128 bit password) and firewall. The software is very user friendly. I think the router and adapter are 75 + feet apart, and two different floors / opposite ends of the house. We have a 2.5 ghrtz phone, but this does not seem to interfer. My signal strength is at the minimum 40% and at it's best 65%. I get excellent download rates from my cable modem (I have comcast and a motorola surfboard cable modem) which is attached to the router. Why go with G when B standard is so inexpensive? cable internet usually doesn't go above 3mbps, so B standards max speed of 11mbps is more then enough. By the time this router gets old, you'll be ready for something new anyway. This B standard router is fast, reliable and easy to setup. It gets a little warm, but not too hot. I leave it on 24/7, but turn it off when on vacation. For the price, it's simply amazing. Netgear has a help # for those of you who are not so computer savvy. Netgear.com has all the most up-to-date firmware. The packaged cd-rom firmware is fine to install, works great. If you get the MA111 adapter make sure to download the usb 2.0 software though, or you could face compatability issues. I use my computer alot, basically I'm online more than I watch TV. I download alot of live concert recordings (SHN files, pretty large in size). This router is great for that, and for simple web browsing. With this price, there is no reason to not go wireless with your high-speed internet.
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terrible router, May 26, 2004
By rzwwzr (Worcester, MA United States)
Terrible router. Very unstable, sometimes it works, but after one n ight, it will stop working and you have to reset everything to get it work again. Also, it slows down the internet speed a lot. Very disappointed with it and will buy one from some other manufacturer next time.
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Great Deal, Great Router, May 25, 2004
By John Danek (Princeton, NJ United States)
I had read all of reviews of how easy the MR814V2 was to set up and it sure enough it was! Spent 20 minutes from opening the box to being able to access the Internet via wired and wireless networks. It did take a bit more time to test the firewall and setup the blocking and port filtering, enter the WEPs keys, etc. But all in all the installation and configuration was not a problem.Only issue with the firewall was that port 113 was only closed and not stealthed, port forwarding addressed that. Great connection speed, my notebook gets on the wire side transfer speeds of over 7 Mbps and on wireless ~4Mbps (Optimum Online's speed check). I have a Windows 98SE, Win2000 (WLAN), and 2 Linux boxes (1 WLAN) on the network, each works great without issues. Good range on the wireless, It reaches all the way out to by property line, ~160 from the AP in all directions. Happy with that! I did notice that it keeps loosely time (hey its not a Swiss watch ;-)) since I do not use time based blocking so it is not an issue for me just a peeve. The audit log only monitors outbound traffic, I really don't care where I've been, but would like to know whos been trying to get in. The log is only good to watch where the kiddy poos have been surfing. I did receive the $20 rebate, so for $23 Netgear provided me with a DHCP server, SPI firewall, wireless AP, 4 port 100mhz hub, DMZ, MAC address filtering,etc. How can you go wrong with that?! It been up and running for two months,would buy it again.
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Mixed feelings., May 21, 2004
By JB (Lebanon, IN United States)
You can't beat this for the price. It works. Setup was not quite so easy. I spent a few hours rebooting the router and my computer, and when it finally did work I couldn't really tell you exactly what I did to get it to work. It's also not as fast, obviously, as what you can get. However, now that I have it set up, I haven't regretted it for the price. I don't use wireless all that much, and my desktop that I have directly plugged into it has not had any problems with it. I would recommend it for a cheap solution.
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An Excellent Router, May 21, 2004
By Edward E. Cook (Lanett, AL)
I bought this Router to replace The pile of junk router that i got From Cisco-Linksys. Overall, I am very impressed with this router, Bot myself and my brother are On hardline together on this one, He can be playing Half-life online (with an average of 60 ping) and i can surf the net at the same time with out a single Hiccup, And the Wireless capabilities of this router are Phenomenal. With the router upstairs an on the other side of the house (thru 4 walls and a floor) I can still get very Good receptionOverall, An excellent Product at a Great Value
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WEP doesn't work all the time, May 20, 2004
By redfin.com (Seattle, WA USA)
WEP sucks. Contacted tech support. They suck too... Awh well. Buying a LinkSys...
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Things you need to know., May 19, 2004
By Michael Darnton (Chicago, IL United States)
I'm running one of these at work, and a previous model at work, without problems on seven computers, total. Most of the problems I had were solved by one of two things: downloading current drivers for the routers, and not letting XP handle connections at the computer ends of things. Most computer cards have their own software, and you should update it, first, and used it for making the connections, rather than taking what's built into XP. I've had no Centrino problems--in fact that was the only system I didn't have to upgrade (it's an IBM Thinkpad with their own IBM Connect software).Once I did those things connections were reliable, stayed connected, and gave excellent range. Without doing them, connections got dropped, I had difficulty reconnecting, and signal strength was rotten. Forewarned is forearmed--if you're not going to do those things, your results will suffer.
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great buy, reliable, May 18, 2004
By John D. Osterman Jr. (USA)
This thing is running, like, (...) amazing. I've bought three of these now, setting up WAPs anywhere anyone will let me (home, friends, etc)!(...)you literally set it up in the basement or wherever, and never have to look at it again. The first one has been running for about six months now with no resetting or anything. Kind of makes up for all the other IT nightmares over the years!
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good enough, May 12, 2004
By unknown
It seems its problem of dropping internet connection is bothering many people. I had this problem before, I was using Verizon DSL. After I change my ISP, it never happened again. The only thing bothers me sometimes is that in some angle, my laptop can't get good signal even the direct distance is not too far.
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Works well, but hard to setup for Intel Centrino'sy, May 10, 2004
By oz_b (Cleveland, OH United States)
It's a great product if you can manage to install it properly. Old firmware has some problems with connecting to Centrino Mobile processors and wireless cards that work with Centrino. So you need to update the firmware. (But figuring that out took a few hours with customer support)
After installation I had no problems with the product, worked very well till now.
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make sure u save the reciet, May 10, 2004
By Richard Eichele (Bayside, NY United States)
ok i hooked this up two months before i got dsl to wirelessly game and it worked fine, then i got dsl and it was too also good although one thing i didnt suspect was that it was slowing down my connection...i leaned this later
one day my sister tried to send a lenghthy email and everytime she sent it it was "interupted" i thought it had to do with my eamil settings i tried everything and didnt work finnaly i tried unhooking it and hooking my verison dsl line directly into my computer and email and everything, my speed was even dramatically improved.I tried updating the firmware and even turned off the firewall yet this problem continued to persist. I am very dissapointed with this product and am kicking myself for not keping the reciet.
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Works great but has issues when power cycled, May 4, 2004
By unknown
I bought this to replace a Linksys wireless access point. I didn't realize this was also a full blown router and not just an access point until after I purchased it (I already have a Linksys wired router). When you have a 2 year old ready to go home you don't have a lot of time to read the box! :)Making it just an access point with the Linksys wired router was pretty easy, just disabled the onboard DHCP on the Netgear and assigned it a static IP on my network and off we went. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this but the only hitch I've found is when the unit loses power (I've unplugged it several times to change locations). Once I've plugged it back in, the transmitter stops working (no transmission signal at all) and I have to do a hard reset to get it back. The rest of it works fine, you can connect to it via the wired network and get the configuration info but can't connect to it wirelessly until the reset. A bit of a pain as this resets all settings to factory default but setting it back up takes only a moment or two. Range is pretty good, I have it on the ground floor of a 3000 sq/ft home and can't beat the price for a cheap wireless network.
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Great--if the chipset didn't keep overheating, May 1, 2004
By unknown
Great piece of hardware--very configureable. I especially appreciate the option to set the MAC address for the internet side, because my ISP will only give out IP's over DHCP to the MAC address I originally supplied. I got it set up in minutes and used it for 3 days straight without problems. Then it stopped working for no apparent reason. Unplugged it briefly, tried again. No luck. Unplugged it for the night, and it worked the next day... for an hour or so. Basically, something inside is overheating. I have to leave it unplugged for several hours before it will work again. No wonder netgear is ditching these at such a low price--there is a major engineering slip-up.
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Quick and easy set up!, April 24, 2004
By unknown
I am confirming that the set up was as quick and easy as the other reviewers have claimed. It took me less than 10 minutes starting from the point where I opened the box it was shipped in.Great deal after rebate too!
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Easy Set-up, April 20, 2004
By marctv (Clifton, NJ United States)
I had an older NetGear MR-314 Wireless Router that died for no reason. I always had a lot of problems with it in that my laptop's internet connection would always lock up. To fix this problem I had to re-boot the router. I couldn't stay on the laptop for more than 30 minutes before I had to re-boot. When the thing died, I said that I would not buy another Net Gear, but when I saw the price of this router, I couldn't pass it up. I installed the new MR-314 and was up and running within 5 minutes. Everything works perfect and the signal strength around the house seems to be stronger then my old router. So far, no need to re-boot the router due to freeze ups on the lap top, but I need to work with it a little more just to be sure. Overall, this seems like a good product at a great price. The negative reviews that I've read about this product seem to be from people who got defective units.
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Easy setup, works great!, April 19, 2004
By Destiny (USA)
I can't believe that so many people are having trouble setting up this router. I never setup a wireless network before, but I had the router connected in about 5 minutes. I didn't even need to read the instructions except to see where to connect the modem with the router. I have a wireless computer upstairs, and the router is downstairs. The wireless connection is always excellent. Sometimes something will cause interference with the router, but it is easy to change the channel that the router runs on. The speed that the router runs at is amazing considering the fact that it is all wireless. The built in firewall always keeps out hackers. A program on my computer tells me when people hack into my computer, and when the router is connected, I haven't had one person enter my computer without my permission. I have tested my Internet connection speed, and the Internet connection runs at the same speed with the router as it does when the computer is connected directly to the modem. This router is great if you have more than one computer, but only one modem.
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perfect for wireless web, April 18, 2004
By unknown
this product is perfect for wireless web brousing. there is no detectable decrease in speed compared to being directly wired to the cable modem. nothing to set up, just plug it in and it works with great range and my wireless card detected it instantly and automatically... rebate came as promised...so cheap
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no problems, April 14, 2004
By unknown
other than the occasional firmware update, it hasn't given me any trouble. i've had it for almost a year and it works great.
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