| 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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Need some networking background, April 14, 2004
By unknown
Setting this up on a DSL/Cable connect is a breeze, however, if you have a satellite modem or require extra configuration due to the lack of DHCP from your ISP then you will need to have some background knowledge of networking to configure this access point. Dont bother calling Netgear customer support, it's just a waste of time, better luck asking a computer nerdy friend.
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Burned up, April 11, 2004
By Robert Heckman (Eugene, OR USA)
Worked fine for about 12 hours, then apparently burned itself up with a noticeable smell. Now the power light wont even come on. Now I know why Netgear is getting rid of these so cheap.
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Netgear 802.11b MR814, April 7, 2004
By Telecom kid (Independence, KY USA)
I currently work in telecommunications with alot of CISCO gear. One on the features that I like is the Parental control and URL blocking which the Linksys does not have. Both the Linksys and Netgear 802.11b access point/4 port hub both cost the same. I chose Netgear. The Netgear router connected with no problems. The CD step by step instruction makes it a no brainer for non technical people. I recommended the Netgear MR814 to a co-worker who also bought one and he to had no issues with the setup. Signal Strength is execelent to very good in my house which is a 2000 sq foot bi-level. I would recommend this product to my friends and co-workers. I can now work from home on my deck. Netgear also provides a 3 year parts and labor warrenty
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Pretty good router, April 6, 2004
By unknown
I've been pretty happy with this one for about a year now. Rarely drops wireless connections.It does, however, lock up pretty frequently if I use certain streaming connections, and it only affords 20 firewall port exclusions. That should be plenty for most people, unless you play a lot of online games, I suspect. Once it locks up it must be un/replugged to get any network activity at all. Other than that, a great router. Several other problems are easily fixed by updating to the latest firmware at Netgear's website.
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Bad product, awful, awful support, April 2, 2004
By unknown
I'm on my third router, trying to get this wireless to work. Their tech support is in India, and they are both rude and incompetent. For whatever reason, even though I have a cable modem with Earthlink/Time Warner Cabled, when I use their router, it drops my wireless speed to less than that of a dial-up connection. For each router, I've walked with them through the steps (putting up with their smart-aleck attitude), with them finally telling me to take the router back to the store. When I asked about product quality, customer agent Meghna (the rudest) and supervisor Suchin said it didn't matter if it was the 10th one I had received, that I'd still have to take it back if I ever wanted it to work. I think my next stop is going to be Linksys.
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good product, NO rebate., March 30, 2004
By unknown
Had this product for about eight months now. Although the wireless range could be a bit better, it has worked fine...
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Easy Setup, range is excellent, great price, March 30, 2004
By Musashi (New York, NY USA)
Never had a network go up without some little hitch along the way before...this was 1-2-3. The router is in the basement of a three-story house, but measured throughput is the same (give or take a few kbits) in the kids' bedroom upstairs as it was for the pc downstairs, when it was the sole broadband connection. Some people say in their reviews they're not getting that kind of range...the problem might be in their PC's net adapter (I'm using two Netgear MA111 802.11b Wireless USB Adapters...don't pay more for a PCMCIA card if your laptop has USB, these are great!), or possibly a protocol conflict (I used to do tech support for an ISP, half the real problems were resolved by removing then reinstalling the network protocols correctly). You can see this router elsewhere for 10-20 dollars more. Couldn't be happier, but I am shy of giving it five stars -- if it still works a year from now without hassles, I'll mentally add one...
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Netgear MR814 v.1, March 27, 2004
By unknown
Went like this...1.2.3... Now I enjoy the new OC3 down the road just a bit. Netgear... good router for those that can push the 'OK BUTTON'!
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Inexpensive, effective wireless solution - got my rebate too, March 20, 2004
By Michael R. Pugh (Chicago, USA)
After reading other reviews here, I had low hopes of receiving the rebate for this product. But still I went for it because it was the most cost-effective solution for creating a wireless network in my home. It was a snap to set up; my PowerBook recognized the signal instantly. I've been surfing the Web from all over my house - even my backyard - for three months now, and I'm more than pleased with the product. Best of all, my rebate just arrived in the mail. Better late than never!
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great great great great great product, March 19, 2004
By Glenn Sanders (Valley Village, CA USA)
I bought one a few months ago for my home network and simply love it. Took me just a few minutes to set up and configure - it took longer to decide where to set it and connect the wires to the DSL modem than it did to get the wireless part of it working.Now this past week I helped a friend go wireless - since he already had a free USB adapter made by DLink we decided to go with a DLink wireless router. It took me 3 full days of work plus several support calls and I could never get the thing working properly, and configuration was darn near impossible. We went to the store this afternoon, returned the old router and replaced it with this Netgear model. That was an hour ago. We are now running a wired connection on 1 PC and 2 wireless laptops, all perfectly - and most of that time was spent configuring the older Win98 laptop. Wonderful product. Highly recommended.
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Looks good and works good., March 12, 2004
By alsayed alhashemi (MD, United States)
I bought one from Best Buy (I do not know why I got it from there) and they sold it to me for so much ($70)!!! I never buy anything from any store, I always buy stuff on-line, because they`re cheaper. Anyways, this product really good and is working perfectly with me. The only thing is, when you buy it, use the software immediately, and that will make installing it so easy. Because following their instructions paper is kind of confusing. Recommended.
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I cannot get Netgear to honor its warranty, March 12, 2004
By taronger (Broken Arrow, oklahoma United States)
I Bought a wireless Netgear Mr814 almost a year ago. After a couple of weeks of usage the wireless connection started to break up. Assuming i had interference from my unshielded TV cables, I hardwired ethernet connections to the router and everything worked fine. A couple of weeks ago I started to get download error messages, then I started having trouble with sending and receiving E-mails (same problem two different computers).
I sent six E-mails to Netgear, and called twice. They had me update the firmware, and change the MTU size to 1500, 1400, and finally 1000. Nothing helped, in frustration I bought another Netgear Ethernet router (RP614) - I am still using the same settings as with the original router - and I got perfect communications.
I tried to get an RMA from Netgear under the three year warranty. Even though the replacement RP614 from the same company works fine, I was told that they could not give an RMA and that I would have to call their premium service at a cost of $29 to have them diagnose the MR814 over the phone (note that I have already been in touch with customer support for two weeks). If premium service is unable to fix the problem they would then give me a RMA. It seems to me that the $29 probably covers the cost of the replacement router. They have lost a customer.
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caveat emptor, March 12, 2004
By Sierra Mel (CA)
Nice looking unit is the positive.
Now for the negative. Drops internet connections repeatedly about 15 minutes to 30 minutes. Tech support is lacking but tries to help with an inferior product. Had me update the firmware, but the unit still didn't work properly.
Unless you want to waste a day of your time like I did, buy another product. I personally decided to go with a tethered router.
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Very disapointed, March 9, 2004
By petrinam (Royal Oak, MI United States)
Duration of Ownership: 10 Months
Strengths:
works well as a wired router
Weaknesses:
wireless is so unpredictable but most of the time down Summary:
I have this router for almost a year and I was never able to use it for its wireless fetures more then a few hours at a time, and only once. It usually drops the connection after 10 minutes. Then it does not work for days. Customer support is really bad, they give you the run-around trying to save a buck replacing the unit. They blame your wireless computer for it and want you to upgrade everything like there is no tomorrow. (My wireless worked well with other networks, and even in the house "sees" a neighbour's wireless network). I really wasted 1 hour on the phone with them so they told me (after on hold most of the time) they will connect me with level 2 technician. Probably somebody smarter at the run-around. THIS WAS MY FOURTH AND LAST CALL TO CUSTOMER SERVICE AND I TOLD TO THEM HANG UP BECAUSE THEY MIGHT BE ABLE TO "HELP" SOMEBODY ELSE (WHO IS PROBABLY ON HOLD FOR HALF AN HOUR). These were totally 3 hours wasted. I will never buy from NETGEAR again. (I have a 15 year experience with computers.) Thank you!
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Not bad, awful tech support, March 9, 2004
By Eric Koldinger (Portland, OR USA)
I had one of these for a while, and had trouble getting it to work. Tech support with these guys is mediocre. They've apparently farmed tech support off to India. I called them twice, the first guy was helpful, the second just wanted to get me off the phone so he could get his count up, and was worthless.If you're getting this, be sure to get the MR814v2 (most probably are that these days). They don't tell you if you're getting the v1 or v2, but I'm guessing everything they manufacture the v2 these days. I have a Sony Laptop with a Orinoco wireless chipset. It had major trouble keeping a solid connection with the MR814. After several calls to tech support in which they didn't give me much help. They finally released the 5.03 firmware update, and it solved my problems. I find that the MR814 also has a major misfeature. It keeps a log of outgoing accesses, but it does not keep incoming access attempts. I personally prefer to know who's been attempting to get in rather than where I went. The moral of the story is it's an OK part, but be sure to get download the 5.03 Firmware release and upgrade to it.
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mr814, March 4, 2004
By Fredware (LA, CA USA)
The MR814 is pretty good for anyone at a tight budget. The tech support is bad, but if you can live through that, this router works as fine and dandy as any other. It uses a SMC reverse connector for those who are wondering if you want to add an antenna to it. Works okay. If your internet goes down alot, this router can suck trying to reconnect. (I'm on dsl, goes down when it rains, takes the router forever to figure how to get back online)Anyways, overall, its pretty good. The signal is pretty strong for the price so I won't argue about that.
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Netgear Support is terrible, March 3, 2004
By unknown
Simply put, the support staff is terrible. After encountering a problem the technician had not come across before, I was told that the problem would be escalated to a more experienced technician. I would definitely recieve a response within 48 hours was what I was told. That call was placed in January and I have never recieved that call back.Email support is just as terrible. After carefully wording a summary of the problem I had and noting in the first sentence that I had downloaded the current drivers for the hardware, the response was a one-lined "Please download the current drivers". Mind you, I ommited the spelling mistakes in that one-lined response to my 3 paragraph issue. After I scolded the technician for not carefully reading the issue before responding I was ignored and never recieved anymore emails. Is it too much to ask that customer support spends more that 1 minute to carefully understand the issue before responding? I have since fixed my problem but my the whole episode has left a bad feeling when the next issue occurs.
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Terrible Support, March 3, 2004
By unknown
Simply put, the support staff is terrible. After encountering a problem the technician had not come across before, I was told that the problem would be escalated to a more experienced technician. I would definitely recieve a response within 48 hours was what I was told. That call was placed in January and I have never recieved that call back.Email support is just as terrible. After carefully wording a summary of the problem I had and noting in the first sentence that I had downloaded the current drivers for the hardware, the response was a one-lined "Please download the current drivers". Mind you, I ommited the spelling mistakes in that one-lined response to my 3 paragraph issue. After I read the response, I responded by wanting a manager to review the support I was given. I have yet to recieve a follow-up and don't plan on ever recieving one. Is it too much to ask that customer support spends more that 1 minute to carefully understand the issue before responding? I have since fixed my problem but my the whole episode has left a bad feeling when the next issue occurs.
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Okay but unstable, March 3, 2004
By High Def (Crystal Lake, IL United States)
Overall this router is easy to install and set up. However, the default settings allow anyone to access your network. After several hours of playing, I ended up using the Access Control feature to limit what computers access the router. I could not get WEP to work with my wireless adapter (Netgear MA111) with the latest drivers.Ocasionally the router locks up and I have to either power it off/on or perform a reset. Yuchh!! This is with the latest firmware. Now that I got all of the bugs out, so far, I can enjoy using my laptop anywhere in the house!
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This is GREAT!, March 2, 2004
By Ganagex (Indiana)
This cable/dsl router is one of the greatest money can buy!If you are wondering wether to get it or not i encourage you to get it, it helped me so much.It saves me minutes of waiting and walking, one of the greatest things about it is you don't have to worry about where to put it! It is wireless! I hope you consider getting this it is worth it!
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