I successfully networked a mac powerbook and a windows laptop, and I now have high-speed internet everywhere in my apartment. Now, I realize that this is what this piece of equipment is supposed to do, but frankly, I was amazed that I was able to figure it out. Because I don't "get" technology, and I had no idea what I was doing, that's why.

So, either it was sheer dumb luck, it's a lot easier to network a mac and a pc to each other, or this equipment is way better than anything else out there. All I know is that if I could figure it out, than you can too.

The product works fine, but don't fall for the rebate crap!
It will not be cheap if you are not going to get your rebate.

The netgear G unit does much better in terms of range
even running at B speeds.

### this is the original review ####
This router started great for me.

i have a dell 8600 laptop (with dell 1300 true mobile b/g card instead of intel's). the signal was great everywhere within my +1000 sqft 2-br apartment.
(tip on setting up: remember to broadcast your SSID and enable WEP)
My friends brought over their pda and laptop, all got great signal strength (after keying the WEP passwd).
For the past 2 weeks since i set it up, signal dropped about 3 times for me. minor complain.

However, the router for certain reason DOES NOT allow me to connect to websites in mainland china. (if you have the same setup, please try www.baidu.com, www.tom.com, ).
i have talked to netgear support 3 times already.
they have no idea what is going on.
(to give them due credits, they are ok in trouble-shooting common errors).
BTW, if i unplugg the router, and connect my computer to the cable moderm directly, i could get to these sites.

My friend has linksys, and it connects to these sites no problem.

so in conclusion, i think if you don't need to go to these sites,
go for netgear, it's cheaper than linksys and the connection is good (at least for me).

Oh my goodness, was I wrong.

This router does not work with Netgear's own FA311 ethernet controllers. It also does NOT work on Centrino laptops. I know all the fixes with the power cycling on the laptop, however BUYER BEWARE it depends on the make of your laptop. DOES NOT WORK WITH IBM THINKPADS!!!

It loses connection constantly, and mangles TCP packets so that bits and pieces of each packet is missing, making your computer go into over time trying to resend lost packets.

I looked at the firmware and they have not updated it to address the problems with this router.

Netgear customer support is extremely unhelpful, they do not have anyone technical on staff, nor do they forward problems to their engineering teams.
They probably employ hourly temps who are computer illerate, but sound nice on the phone.

All in all, if you want a nice pretty looking paper weight that costs roughly fifty bucks buy this. Otherwise go with Linksys (Cisco), Dlink, or even the Microsoft product (I heard Microsoft makes nice hardware [extremely crappy software tho ;-)]).

It seems as though the Netgear MR814 was not all that it was cracked up to be. The problem persisted. I used the process of elimation along with the knowledge that it couldn't be interference because the same problem occured when wiring a computer to its 4-port switch.

So, I decided to fold with the MR814 and purchase a Linksys BEFW11S4 which I had had good experiences with at a different location. The problem was solved, giving me flawless Internet on all PC's on the network. So, that was my problem! The Netgear MR814 had been the sabteur of my network.

The only reason I have the MR814 the extra star (1 more than minimally required) was that I chose to give it the benefit of the doubt that my specific router was defective.

My main goal was to secure my home computers from my cable internet connection. This router did the trick!

It was easy to install and configure. After it was connected, I went to broadbandreports.com and ran a security test. I received a PERFECT SCORE! Passing their test is pretty impressive.

The combination of ethernet and wireless is awesome! I can bring a laptop home from work and have internet access without wires.

Google search turned up a small posting by a person stating similar problems with Netgear MR814 and Centrino. Suggested turning off Windows XP control of wireless setting (open Wireless Network Connection Properties and uncheck the box "Use Windows to configure....") Then double click open Intel ProSet Wireless panel. Setup a profile of your network (self explanatory, you cannot do this unless you turn off Windows XP configuration as stated above).

I tried this and WHHHOOOOOOSSSHHHH. The network works GREAT!!! Wireless connects fast on boot up and flawlessly. I live in a brick townhouse with four floors. I have the Netgear on the Third floor office and I get excellent connection on the first floor. NO dropped signal!! Beautiful.

MAKE SURE YOU TURN ON WEP SECURITY. If not, other computers in the neighborhood will pickup your signal.

Netgear support website is crap. I would not have known to do this without reading the web posting. The installation software is not intuitive and not comprehensive. It should have more instructions on setting up the Network itself, not just the router. So, minus one star for the poor support and software.

If you want WEP (encryption), forget it. There's a problem in the firmware or hardware or something that drops your connection after 15-30 minutes in wireless mode. Disabling WEP eliminates the problem.

If you have a centriono notebook, forget it. Confirmed problem from Netgear.

If you need technical support, hah, good luck talking to a bunch of non-english speaking Indians.

Pros: Signal is consistent. Only 1 disconnect so far after 1 week of use. Happened on the 1st night

Cons: signal is not strong enough to use 64 or 128 bit WEP. I am guessing you need at least 80% signal strength for this.

I'm having the same problem that some other reviewers are seeing -- the wireless connection occasionally drops out whenever it's being used, causing annoying messages to pop up in Windows XP, and generally making web surfing unresponsive. I'm sure it would interfere with FTP, etc. as well. I've also had it "lock up" once -- my computer (a Dell Inspiron 600m with the Intel Centrino 802.11b card) disconnected from the router, and although it still showed up in the list of available networks, it wouldn't reconnect (the wired network continued functioning flawlessly, though). Resetting the router fixed it, and it hasn't happened again. When it works, though, it's fast. Range seems okay (though the Linksys was better with its dual antennas) -- I did have to try a few different channels to get one with a stable signal throughout the house.

I'm still trying to figure out if maybe there's something causing interference nearby, and I haven't spoken to Netgear's tech support yet either, so I'm still hoping this can be resolved. I did upgrade the firmware, which didn't help.

In short, when it works, it's good, but it seems a little flaky when used with non-Netgear hardware. It does *work*, though, which is more than I could say about the Linksys router.

UPDATE:

I found some more information on what was wrong, and seem to have fixed my problem. The issue is apparently that the Intel Centrino wireless card (the Intel PRO/2100) has power management features that do not work properly with this router. The recommended workaround was to disable the power management (by setting it to "manual" and then putting the slider to "maximum performance" in the Intel configuration utility). That helped a little, but it was still not quite right. However, Netgear released a new beta firmware for this router on October 15th, and after installing that and updated drivers for the wireless card, it seems to be working fine now. The router still says it has firmware from July (when the last official one was put out), but I'm sure it loaded the new file, and it works. I'm not sure why it took this long for them to fix it (this is one of the most common 802.11b wireless solutions), but I'm happy that it works correctly now.

No matter what was done the two computers still had problems communicating except when it came to the Internet. I would not recommend this problem as it doesn't seem like a very good one. Two XP machines should not have this much difficulty connecting to each other. Also forget Netgear tech support as you can't understand a word they are saying because they have it based in India now. I had to repeat the router info 3 or 4 times to them even though I went as slow as a turtle reading the numbers. If you find something better than Netgear then grab it. I can't possibly think of a worse product out there.