| 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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Not For Web Servers!, October 2, 2005
By scottfeldstein (waukesha, WI United States)
I regret buying this unit (the MR814v2). I run a web server on my network and I immediately noticed a huge performance problem when accessing the pages from inside the network (accessing them from outside seems fine, thank goodness, but I can't even upload photos to my own web site that's running on a server 10 feet away! i'd have to go to work to upload them! When I reported the problem to Netgear support they first had me fiddle with the MTU setting (to no avail) and then finally told me "Since you have assigned a private ip address to the webserver, I would request you to access the webserver using that ip address and check the status." Which is no solution at all. You'd have to access the site from the IP address inside the house and from the domain name everywhere else. And that wouldn't really even work for me because my site is comprised of dynamic php pages (Wordpress) that refer to one another based on the domain name.
In short, do not buy this unit if you are running a web server. There are other units out there that handle this situation the correct way.
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What router?, September 11, 2005
By Ambrosia Brown (MI, United States)
I have tried this on more than one computer. None of the computers even see the router. I followed every instruction to the T, and double checked that everything was hooked up correctly. Looked it up on line, and apparently I am one of many people having this problem. Of course I already had sent out the rebate, cutting out the UPC so I can not return it.
If you want to take a risk and buy this, you might be lucky and not have a problem. I recommend at the very least make sure you keep all the return info together until you are sure it is working.
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Super router for a steal!, September 8, 2005
By luvs2buy (Hidden Vly Lake, CA)
I bought this router for wi-fi access at home. It works great with my Dell laptop. Dell wanted to sell me the same one for $60. Not only am I able to use it, but my son can be online on his PS2 and his PC. All at the same time. My 13 year old installed this in about 10 minutes. Excellent value and a $20 mail in rebate was a bonus.
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Netgear MR814 802.11b refurbished wireless router, September 6, 2005
By Joseph P. Isley (Asheboro, NC)
This refurbished product only worked for about 1-2 hours after first set up. I then had to turn it off for 12-18 hours to get it to work again. I also learned Netgear only offers e-mail support for refurbished products as they have NO SERIAL NUMBER to register online, via mail, or telephone. There is no recourse for return of the item except to the person from whom it was purchased.
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Piece of dung!!, August 11, 2005
By nembden (Lawrenceville, Ga United States)
This was horrible. I wish I could give it zero stars. One is too much... It worked for a few days on and off. This brand continously dropped signal from my dsl modem. It just randomly came on and off. After spending hours on the phone to Indian tech support, they suggested I install the latest firmware, at which point the router never worked again!! Of course, since it had ben working on and off, I threw the box away (my mistake) so was unable to send it back. Complete waste...I will NEVER buy netgear again. Its worse than linksys IMO. Don't buy their stuff. Its apparently a common problem...
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Used 4, all 4 have had problems., August 10, 2005
By Christopher Shi-xiang Chow (la, ca usa)
(...) Bought 3 all at once, one for home, one for gf, one for dorm.
The one I bought for my gf, the wireless did not even work and I had to send it in to netgear and get a new one. The new one's wireless works only half the time. the other half of the time, you cannot connect to the wireless and have to reset it.
The one I bought for my dorm worked fine for a month. Then everything just went horribly wrong. The speed is ridiculously slow (worse than 56k) for both wired and wireless. I've tried calling, tried firmware updates, it doesn't matter. This is basically useless and I pretty much threw it away.
The one I bought for my home works fine except I get dropped every other day. This is probably the best, or shall i say, the least worst out of all 4. In fact, the reason why I am writing this right now is because i've spent the last 30 minutes trying to make this computer reconnect to the wireless router, and it is not working so I have to connect directly to my cable box to even submit this review.
So I am 0/4 in having a perfect wireless router through Netgear. The only gamble you'll be taking when you purchase this router is how bad the problems will be. From dropped connections to dead. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS! I'm never buying anything netgear again even if it is free (...)
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It didnt work., August 2, 2005
By Prakrit Jena
Well,
The router continuously dropped signal from the cable modem.
I set up everything for hours according to the instructions and
the router would work sporadically, maybe half the time. I'd click
on a website and be unable to connect to it. After a minute, it
would work. The modem was working as I've been using that now.
The company has a great website with a lot of resources available.
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This router works great, but not for long..., August 1, 2005
By Inspector (NC, USA)
I bought the Rev. C version of this router--the latest one--with the white plastic housing. It looks really cool, but I can't say much for its performance.
Most of the positive reviews here seem to be for very small home networks with only a few computers. I have a network with 28 computers and have 4 years experience configuring routers. I used this unit only as a wired router, so I can't speak at all for its wireless capabilities. It works great for a while, but then freezes up completely, so much so that I couldn't even access the configuration pages. Rebooting (powering it off and on) would solve the problem, but after an hour or so, it would freeze up again. Having to restart a router every hour is not acceptable performance.
I tried it on another network and it had exactly the same problem. Both of the networks use Westell modems although they are different models, so I don't know if there's a compatibility issue there or what. Both of these networks worked fine with SMC and Linksys routers, so clearly the Netgear unit was the problem.
In fairness to Netgear, their tech support seems good, and they did RMA me a new unit after concluding that they couldn't solve the problem. Unfortunately the new unit had exactly the same problem, so it is clearly a design defect in this model, not limited to my particular unit. Also on the positive side, I liked the user interface, and when the router was working it outperformed my older SMC, surfing was noticeably faster.
If it hadn't been for the freezing up issue, I would be giving it 5 stars, but because I wasted my money and a lot of my time troubleshooting it, and still ended up with a piece of hardware that is useless to me, I can only give it 1 star.
The bottom line: if you are only using it with a few computers, (and not with a Westell modem?), maybe this router will work for you, but it didn't work for me.
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Cheap and it works, July 26, 2005
By goodlittlebighead (Berkeley, CA United States)
I haven't read the other reviews for this router, but I've been using mine for a few weeks with no problems. I've found the it's 802.11b range is better than my old D-Link and Linksys routers, though they are older models. The router looks pretty too -- white and clear plastic. The admin pages are clear and straightforward, though too be honest, I haven't tried out any of the more complicated functionality. The 802.11g version was an option, but I didn't need that speed, particularly since my internet provider has a top speed of 2 to 3 MB/sec, and 802.11b is good enough, and I don't intend to serve lots of video wirelessly. Admin pages are pretty easy too -- instead of having to remember the IP address of the router to login, the router automatically routes "www.routerlogin.net" to its admin pages. I got about $20 in rebates, making this a very cheap router.
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Go Wi-FI at Home, Quick SetUp, Good Tech Support,, July 22, 2005
By James E. Carroll (Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States)
I cannot say it enough - if you want a wireless home network, particularly if you have computers in your kids' rooms, this is the wireless router for you. Speeds are excellent; setup is easy with set up wizard, tech support at Netgear is helpful and patient. You can opt for more bells and whistles with other routers, but you do not need them. You can surf the internet on your laptop, your kids can be in their room, your desktop will be the home base. Cost of this router with rebates is about $29.00--how can you beat that?
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Maybe I'm doing something wrong but..., July 21, 2005
By Diane B. (Poughkeepsie, NY United States)
I have used other Netgear routers with great success but this one gives me trouble. I have a small studeo apartment but often my wireless connection will blink in and out. My laptop is never located more than about eight feet from the router. Desktop computers connected by ethernet cable don't have this problem. I also have not yet been able to find a way to put WIP encryption on my network and I am not sure this functionality is supported.
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Got what I paid for, July 19, 2005
By kewiu (Bloomington, IN United States)
It is cheap and it has worked for me for me for 10 months now. after about 6 month, started to have some problem with the wireless network, for every 5-10 minutes, it pauses for 10-30 seconds. If you are surfing the web you are not going to feel it, but I used to play music online, and it really sucks to have this problem. The wired connection with is router works just fine. anyway, it is just what you paid for.
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Excellent, July 5, 2005
By pr (USA)
I've used this product for some time now and has given me no problems whatsoever...A recommended purchase
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severe security flaw when using as wireless AP (V2, 5.3fw), July 2, 2005
By mingkee (Brooklyn, NY United States)
I use this router as wireless access point
but when I tried to configure, I got stuck on "Smart Wizrad", and I don't have to login at all
after I referred the manual, found I can bypass the stupid wizard, but I still can jump in without login
this is a severe security issue!!!
other than that, it works OK as access point, no disconnect with pdas
warning: if you use this router as AP, YOU MUST disable SSID broadcast and enable MAC filtering at least
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NETGEAR MR814 v1 & v2: sheer age factor makes it bad choice, June 5, 2005
By OliveOyl (Chicago, IL)
This product is too old to use safely. Why? One of many reasons being that -- e.g. the sensitive fields (such as where your DSL account password gets entered, and even admin password field) on this rather (old/ancient) wireless gear saves to a .bin(ary) file in clear-text. Just like all the ancient Linksys models, if you ever enable the remote management option on this thing, it won't force you to change the default password. Not good..
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total junk, June 2, 2005
By Regular Joe (Denver, CO)
I have a masters degree in telecommunications and have worked in networking for over 10 years. I tried this device in two similarly configured DSL networks and had the same problems with both.
Not wanting to believe that I completely wasted my money on this POS I have spent many hours trying to get it to work. At first the problems were just intermittent -- the wireless would work for 5 or 10 minutes and then stop forwarding packets. The wireline wouldn't work for even that long. I found a known issue on the web site with Centrino-based wireless cards that seemed relevant. (But, jeez!!, what kind of morons make a device that doesn't work with Centrino out of the box?!?!?) So, I upgraded the firmware per all the instructions on the web site.
The upgrade was smooth, but after the upgrade the thing was pretty much useless. The alleged "SmartWizard" could not detect my network type and could not be avoided. My DSL modem has a built-in DHCP server and router as well as handling all the PPP stuff. So, all I needed the Netgear box to do was essentially be a switch -- there was no way to turn off the routing.
Anyway, I should have been able to use it as a router, but when I manually configured the box to use DHCP it just plain didn't work. I set up a hub between the switch and the DSL router so that I could sniff the traffic. I could see the DISCOVER from the Netgear box and the OFFER come right back from the DSL modem. For whatever reason it did not like the offer and would not pick up an IP address.
Anyway, I could have probably spent more time dumbing down my DSL modem and handing over the routing and PPP stuff to this box, but it should have worked period -- there really isn't a simpler network than the one I was trying to get it to work in.
I did try manually configuring a static IP on the switch. If I remember right it would forward packets from wireless clients, but not responses. Again, I sniffed it and I could see my DNS requests leaving and the responses coming back, but they were not getting forwarded over the wireless network to the client who requested them.
I've had really good luck with a lot of Netgear products and I hesitate to say that this is the last one that I'll ever buy, but I think I'd need a pretty good reason at this point. I'd probably spend more time trying to get this work (despite the fact that I've already wasted 4 - 6 hours on it), but I was toying with upgrading to 802.11g anyway so, forget it, I'm just going to take a hammer to this brick. I don't even want to give it away and trouble anyone else with this junk.
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simple, good features, perfect for home use, May 23, 2005
By A. Adamo
I have used the router for several months now and I haven't had a problem with it. It's simple to set up, fairly powerful, and for the price it's great. I have no problem with the range, I sat my laptop at the other end of my apartment, and left it pinging the router for about 20 minutes, through a few walls, and the packet loss was about 1.2%, more than acceptable. I'm not sure why other people are seeing so many problems; maybe they need to make sure the position the aerial properly?
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Good for about 6 months, May 22, 2005
By Tech Geek (Michigan USA)
I bought this router last year and it was working fine. But for the last 3 weeks the router is a piece of crap. It connects to the internet through the LAN, but when it comes to wireless it is as slow as a modem. And that too it works for only 15 minutes and then drops the connection. I have spent at least 6 hours on the phone with Netgear support and they are not helpful. They kepp telling me the same thing over and over again. I have told them that it works for only 15-20 minutes and that too at a modem speed. When they send you a replacement, it is a refurbished one which someone else had sent in to Netgear with problems and obviously that has problems too.
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weak signal, April 21, 2005
By John (SF, CA)
I just installed the item and the signal is weak (low on laptop wireless link status). The unit is only 50 feet away in a small house. grrrrr! A weak signal is nearly useless as it slows everything down. Does Netgear make a booster? If so, then thats a hidden gotcha on the cheap price for this useless unit.
I also have the dual-antenna model and its much better. Conclusion: only buy if you use it in a small apartment.
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Excellent Product (Version 3), April 10, 2005
By Jong81 (NY)
I think the other reviews written for this router that were negative might have been for earlier versions that required advanced users for time-out settings. Version 3 (white) seems to be dummy proof and works excellently! When accessing the settings menu, you can add 128-bit protection. If you need to know how to do that, the instructions pop up right next to the menu you're in. I paid $10 for the WiFi router after a rebate. Even at it's original price, this is totally worth it. Don't even think twice! You're not going to find better quality at such a low price. And if that's not enough, for a router, this thing is small and sleek looking. It includes attachments to make it stand vertically as well.
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