| 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: 716
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 (716 total): |
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Best buy for the price, August 1, 2003
By unknown
I bought this router couple of days back... Took me less than an hour to set the whole thing up, needs no technical skills... Sleek, works great and really inexpensive. Would highly recommend this for all.
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Great value, August 1, 2003
By unknown
I bought a MR814v2 for $... after rebate. It works great so far.
I strongly suggest update the firmwire to version 5.01
It fixes some bugs I encountered with the original firmwire
5.0
And be careful to download the firmwire for MR814v2, not for
MR814
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Can't beat the price, July 31, 2003
By unknown
This little thing is perfect for home use - hasn't gone down once in the 2 months that I've had it so far. At 40 bucks, it's worth every penny and more.
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Wireless connection unstable; cheap; Interface is nice, July 31, 2003
By Eddy Poon
My wireless connection drops from time to time after connected for more than 2 hours or so. Router needs to be reset by pulling the power plug. I used both Linksys and Netgear, and I found the web interface offered by Netgear is more intuitive. Unfortunately the wireless connection did not work well with my Orinoco wireless card. For $$$ dollars it's good for casual users. Not recommended for heavy duty or professional users.
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Great router!, July 29, 2003
By Katie (TN, USA)
The main reason we bought this router is because we had a laptop, and felt there was no point in having a wired router when you've got a router. It's also an added bonus to not have wires all across the house now connecting the computers!The router itself is excellent. We get great reception, speed, and reliability. I've never regretted making this purchase for one second! I'd recommend it to anyone who is wanting to get a wireless router, and even those just wanting a router. Installation isn't complicated at all. Just follow the directions and you'll have everything set up in 15 minutes, max. Or, if you want to be macho, you don't have to use the directions, it's easy to set it up without directions. ;) Again, I'd highly recommend this to anyone, but I would let them know that if you want to take advantage of the wireless capabilities, you will need a wireless card for every computer. Some do not know this.
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Seamless, perfect setup & performance, July 27, 2003
By jlee1060 (Bay Area, CA USA)
Was looking for a replacement for a DLink DI-713P wireless router which was very unreliable (sometimes drops connection and could not reliably support WEP encryption). I was delighted that the Netgear unit worked straight on power up. Wireless performance is excellent- I'm running full 128bit encryption, and signal is strong & stable throughout the house. Documentation is also good as I quickly found out how to use MAC address filtering for added security.
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Great Wireless Router, July 21, 2003
By Jeffrey Claman (New Jersey)
I'm an advanced amateur. Followed the directions somewhat carefully. Installation took about 10-15 minutes. Works as advertised. I recommend it.
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Beauty is only skin deep, July 18, 2003
By unknown
I bought this router and the wireless PCMCIA card MA521 for my notebook because it has excellent reviews and it looks really nice. Took me a little under an hour to set up, and I was very pleased.Problem started when I was surfing the web. I was able to get to some web sites but not others. At first I thought it was my ISP's DNS having some problems, but when I connect to the router with cable, it works fine. I went to their website and this scenario was one of the FAQ. So I downloaded the lastest firmware and apply it to the router. No luck. I called tech support 3 times, waited more than 30 mins each time before giving up. In the end, I also downloaded the latest firmware for MA521 and apply it. Finally, it works!! I was glad. But yesterday I disconnected my modems and routers to move it to another location, and after I booted up, nothing works. No signal, nothing. I'm returning this and getting LinkSys. If you do plan to buy this, (it does look very cool) try applying the lastest firmware updates. If that doesn't work, return it and get its uglier competitors.
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No true firewall, July 17, 2003
By jawaharvr (Maynard, MA USA)
MR814 does not support SPI(statefull packet inspection). It just provides NAT which is not a true firewall. If you are looking more secure router you should go for Netgear MR814 V2. The V2 has SPI support
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BAD TECH SUPPORT !, July 16, 2003
By unknown
I have been trying to reach tech Support (phone/e-mail) for a week without any luck.
The router does not support multiple VPN connections and there is no information on how to allow them.
DO NOT BUY A NETGEAR PRODUCT!
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I like it just fine., July 15, 2003
By Rheumor (New Orelans)
I run 2 LinkSys networks, a D-Link network and a Netgear setup, all in different offices (Linksys at home). I have installed them all and have encountered no especial benefits to recommend one system over another. There are subtle differences in installation and security, but the truth is they all work (for me, anyway) just fine. Therefore, I'd be somewhat price-driven, and certainly the price of the Netgear unit is most attractive.
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Returned it, July 15, 2003
By thcholesterol (New York, NY)
I purchased the version of the router that came with the firmware update. I set it up easily, but it kept dropping my connection after about 20 min. I tried changing several setting. I called customer service, and they couldn't help me. I also called a networking friend of mine who couldn't fix it. I have a new laptop with Centrino technology, and I was able to connect just fine to a friend's wireless network, so it's likely not my computer. I really wanted this router to work for me, but I had to return it.
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It does all I want it to, July 14, 2003
By danmccorm (Brooklyn, NY United States)
Just wanted to say that I got this router to do everything I wanted it to with minimal pain. I wanted to add it to an existing LAN using a static IP and have it NAT the wireless network via DHCP, and after a few false starts with the configuration options, everything is now working beautifully. I'm using it with a Macintosh Powerbook G4 laptop with no problems at all.
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Very easy to setup and it works out of the box, July 13, 2003
By nicksmac (Mountain View, CA USA)
It literally takes me minutes to setup my wireless while the cable guys were here setting up my coax cable internet connection. I decided to run WEP 128bits anyway and it worked. I am streaming internet radio to my laptop and my Desktop PC. Throughout my house, I get at least 80% signal and link strength. I do have both netgear usb and pc cards with the netgear wireless router. I recommend this.
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Wireless Router, July 13, 2003
By schenker (Laramie, WY)
I use this router both in its wired mode (for fixed place desk top machines) and wireless mode (for the laptop on which I am writing this review) in a small home network. It is my first venture into wireless and I am quite pleased. By the time of my purchase, however, the 802.11b standard had already been superceded. However, this is why this model was heavily discounted and I have no regrets. For my modest home purposes the transfer speeds are more than sufficient and speed - so far as I can tell - is the only improvement in the new standard. The device is compact, easy to set up, and works seamlessly. (It sure is nice being able to work with the laptop wherever in the house I choose!!)
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Switch may be defective, July 12, 2003
By John G Faughnan (www.faughnan.com) (St. Paul, MN USA)
I suffered with this unit for about 2 weeks before I caved and returned it. I replaced it with a FAR more expensive Apple Airport Extreme, which works wonderfully. (I have a mixed Mac/Wintel LAN).I think my unit was defective, probably a defective 10/100 switch. It worked well in wireless mode, with range better than my older SMC (wireless card failed on that one). I really stress my LAN (backups, etc) so I might expose problems others might not notice. I suspect though that this is a true defect that hits some of these devices. I wonder, though, if the MR814 ever works properly with a secondary external switch. When I bought the device it didn't work at all with my Cisco 675 DSL/router, but a firmware update fixed that. Still, a bad sign that out of the box it was DOA on my LAN. Tech support never replied to an email inquiry. If you buy this device, ... DO NOT SEND IN THE REBATE UNTIL YOU'RE SURE YOU WON'T RETURN IT. ...
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Great Value, but Some Shortcomings for Advanced Users, July 11, 2003
By John E. Heyer (Seattle, WA USA)
I purchased a Linksys BEFW11S4 about a year ago and have been pretty happy with it, but when I saw the Netgear MR814 ... I decided to give it a try. The MR814 is about what I expected - a nice sleek design, great extras such as site blocking and Dynamic DNS support, and the ability to assign fixed addresses in the DHCP server. However, it does have some shortcomings when compared to the Linksys. The main problem is any type of configuration change results in the router rebooting, which is quite annoying if you make changes often. The port forwarding is a little confusing because it doesn't differentiate between TCP and UDP, and it lacks support for ranges. The DHCP server is a little limited too - namely there is no field for a WINS server, and no way to change the lease time. In comparison, the Linksys supported all these features, but did not do site blocking or Dynamic DNS.I doubt any of these shortcomings will be a problem for most basic home users, however advanced users may want go with the business-class FVM318, or just check out the Linksys models.
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GEAR your NETwork presence wirelessly, July 11, 2003
By rchandru (USA)
Context: The Netgear MR814 is used in the home network to distribute the cablemodem (obviously). One desktop (ethernet), 2 laptops (Cisco Aironet) and occasionally another laptop get connected. The Good:
1. No problems since the purchase
2. Sleek design; looks good even in the living room
3. Good product for the price
4. Very easy to use web interface
5. Easy firmware upgrade option
6. Supposedly works great even with Linux (overheard)
7. Not much of interference with cordless phones
8. Cool features like Access list, Dynamic DNS etc
9. And the mail-in rebate check came fast The Bad:
1. No inbuilt firewall
2. Becomes considerably slow with 128 bit encryption
3. Weirdly, it is not possible to reach an Intranet port from inside with port forwarding set, with the outside address And the Ugly:
1. Sometimes doesn't reach across walls and thus practically unreachable
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Nice, but not scalable, July 11, 2003
By doorslam (Atlanta, GA USA)
This has a much better configuration interface than the linksys product but it won't talk to other Wireless Access Points. If you're planning to use wireless in a large area, this isn't the one for you.I bought this to add to my existing wireless network, but there's no way for it to acknowledge that another wireless network already exists and join to it. This is per their tech support, who were at least competent and rapid in their response, even if I didn't like the answer.
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Tech support for Mac is a joke!, July 10, 2003
By Jennifer Andrews (Los Angeles, CA)
I purchased this product to make my Powerboook G4 wireless. I spent 6 hours discussing this problem with NetGear and Apple with no luck. On my final call to NetGear I was told they do not offer tech support to Mac users, which pretty much makes this "plug and play" device worthless to me. I was then hung up on by the man at NetGear tech support. The router works fine when it is plugged directly into the USB port, but when it comes to wireless I would not recommend Mac users buy this product, you will be on your own if it does not work properly.
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