| 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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Great value and performance!, April 4, 2003
By muscleheadzzz (Sacramento, CA USA)
I must say that this is my first purchase of a wireless router including a PC card (MA401) but I'm not a newbie to PCs. I have to admit that I had problem with configuration to get an internet connection at first. But after calling technical support, everything just went easy. The support was very helpful and he took me step by step into the process. I'm really satisfied with my first wireless experience and its compatible with Windows XP. Trust me!The PC card (laptop) just detects the connection automatically after you have the main PC (direct) configured. I would say that it took me about 30 minutes at the most for configuring both the PC and laptop. Installation includes installing drivers to both computers and configuring the main router control window so you can access the internet. The router has built in firewall, dynamic IP, etc. You can also network both your PC using "My network connection" and share files wirelessly. The router includes a stand and a CAT-5 cable so pretty much everything is laid out for you. The router looks professionally built and it works perfectly with the PC card (MA401 802.11b).
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Better than the ad says!!!, April 4, 2003
By pinkpocky (Honolulu, HI United States)
The instructions said it would take 30 minutes, but it was more like 10. I took it out of the box, plugged it in, reset my network settings and it worked beautifully. Amazing, that it could be this easy.With my MA401 PCMCIA card, it took about the same time because I had to install off the CD. These Netgear products are altogether excellent, and almost like plug-and-play. ...
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Easy and Fast!, April 4, 2003
By Brian Baltz (Albuquerque, NM United States)
Well, I had a Linksys 4-port router/firewall whose AC adapter gave out. Apparently this is common. I decided to pay the extra $$ and get a wireless router. The Netgear seemed to get good reviews so I chose it. Now, I'm pretty familiar with setting up a router. My Linksys was pretty easy - just plug it in and access the setup menu via a browser. The Netgear is similar - it just uses a different IP address. It took me all of 30 seconds to setup the wired access and another minute to read the instructions and configure for wireless clients.
Now, my friend had brought over the Linksys 4-port wireless router to my house a few months back but got terrible reception due to the thick concrete/plaster walls so I was a bit worried about range. At the furthest reaches of my house, I get 100% max signal. This thing rocks!
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Easy, easy, easy, April 3, 2003
By unknown
Based on my experience don't worry about the setup - it was a complete breeze.
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Easy Installation, April 2, 2003
By rbfjrf (Puyallup, WA USA)
I just finished installing my home network and am happy to report that it went almost flawlessly. I purchased a cable modem, wireless router, wireless USB adapter, and mini print server - all made by netgear. I was able to get everything connected and working in about 2 hours. I now have one wireless laptop and a hard wired desktop, both sharing a printer. The laptop is connecting consistently and flawlessly from about 50 feet away through a floor and several walls. I am particularly pleased with the printer operation since it works faster, I think because of the buffer. The only thing I didn't really like is the utility used to add the printer. I was able to work around my problem in a couple minutes and eventually got everything working . I think it's easy enough for just about anyone to install if they are capable of following directions.
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Incredible Value, Incredible Product!, March 29, 2003
By neptune221 (Los Angeles, CA USA)
Even aside from the incredibly low price, this router is an excellent product. It was easy to install (took me about 10 minutes, if that) and works seamlessly with both my SMC and my Netgear wireless PC cards. The range so far seems excellent. I am a home user, but get full 11/MPS reception on the other side of my house (two story/2000 sq. ft. home; router upstairs, laptop downstairs)I actually purchased this product when my Linksys Wireless router died after 13 months (1 month out of warranty). This Netgear product actually comes with a 3-year warranty. Hopefully I won't need it, but it is good to know they are there if I need them. And the performance of this wireless router well exceeds that of my old one. I am very happy with this purchase so far. So if you are thinking about making the leap to WiFi, this is a great way to do it. The product is excellent, and you cannot beat the price.
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Set-up was so easy!, March 29, 2003
By Nathan F (Tomball, TX United States)
Instructions were simple to follow. Plug it in, follow the orders, and it works! My computer is using Windows ME, and there was not a single hitch in the install. Can't beat the price for the value.
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Meets my needs very well, March 29, 2003
By cyber_surfer (Forest Hill, Maryland)
[...] worked perfect out of the box. Signal strenght 95-100% top level (where router is located).
86% level below, 56% on deck out back. Stayed at 11 Mbps at all times.
Don't forget to enable WEP, change network name from Wireless to something else and change password from the word "Password".
I picked up a neighbors router and they had not done any of the above. [...]
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Simple setup but interferes with RCA cable modem, March 26, 2003
By A. Shah (Chicago, IL)
MR814 was simple to install. Since I already had Linksys router, so all I had to do was to replace it with Netgear. I have RCA cable modem from ATT and I keep all the devices side by side. As soon as I powered on Netgear 814, my cable modem started behaving weired. I was not able to connect to internet at all when MR814 was powered on. It took little time to figure out the problem. Other than that it worked fine (in intranet only) with MA401 PC card. Good signal accross the house and no dropped connection. I am talking to ATT to provide me another cable modem.
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Great item, March 26, 2003
By kap26 (New York, New York United States)
It is easy to use but I use it in Europe and it is not compatible with PPTP connections that require user names and passwords. Don't be confused by the fact that it says PPTP compitable.
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Excellent Router for Mixed MAC/Windows networks, March 24, 2003
By unknown
This is the second router I tried to link together the three PC's in our house -- two Windows machines (running Windows XP and ME) and an iMac with OS 8.5. Most wireless routers don't even discuss Macs or provide any documentation. Netgear did both, and the manual was excellent. After trying for 2 days (assisted for hours by tech support) with the initial router (An SMC), I was able to hook up the Netgear successfully to all three machines by myself in less than an hour. The installation instructions for installing the router for all three operating systems was clear AND accurate. The iMAC was hooked up directly via its built-in ethernet port, while the Windows machines are hooked up with SMC Wireless USB adaptors. These function perfectly with the Netgear router. Best of all, the Netgear's range is excellent. The router is on the second floor of our house, and the signal remains excellent in our basement office. My only wish is that the router included a printer port so that we could hook up a network printer that the iMac (without running DAVE) could easily access. But this is a small quibble. Especially if you're a MAC-WINDOWS household, this is an excellent value.
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Great product, not so great support, March 24, 2003
By That which does not kill us makes us really, really, mad. (Oak Lawn, IL USA)
I had a couple of problems configuring my existing HP networked printer. Four e-mails to support went unanswered. Calling tech support was a waste of time. They did not want to help - they just wanted to repeat the same message over and over again "there is no blockage. It have it cinfigured wrong. It's working. It is coinfigured correctly" - all in the same breath!Bottom line - they could not/would not help. I had to return it. They would rather lay blame elsewhere instead of help me solve the problem. I also wish manufacturers would hire people that can be understood! It looks like netgear jobs out support to pakistan or india. I called several times and everyone had the same thick accent - difficult to understand.
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Great Performance for a great price!, March 22, 2003
By mechdig (Guatemala, CA)
I bought this product, since I had the problem of wiring my entire house in order to share an cable internet connection between 3 computers. I read more than 10 reviews for Wireless Routers and found that NetGear was the best buy. I went to review D-Link Wireless Products as well as Linksys, but between these three mayor companies, I decided to go with NetGear. It gives you all the features which they claim it has (routing protocols, application support, smart wizard to automatically detect ISP type, Port Rage Forwarding, URL content filtering, etc. etc.). Regarding the security, it comes with the option to enable WEP Encryption from 64 to 128 bit encryption as well as other security features. According to many reviews, some people have been having the problem that the wireless network drops every time. I connected two computers trough the 4 Ethernet ports and one computer using the MA311 Wireless PCI Adapter. This computer is more than 100ft away from the router. The signal must pass more than four walls with an angle of 90 degrees in corners, which makes the walls thicker. I haven't lost the connection ever since I connected the entire network in my home. The signal strength is at its 80% performance as well as the link quality, and I am receiving full 11Mbps. In conclusion, the NetGear MR814 gives you a great performance, excellent signal length and security. I recommend this product for home use, since it is easy to install and for the price it gives you an excellent value for your money.
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plug and play for mac!, March 21, 2003
By unknown
I have a 15" 1ghz powerbook and I used to connect. Basically I did not even read the directions. I plugged it in and somehow I played with the airport settings...I think all I did was plug it in...and it turned on and started the network! I love it. I get an 80% signal though...but then again that maybe due to my powerbook as they are not good with their signal since the antenna is internal.
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Great product. Very simple installation, March 19, 2003
By unknown
The installation of the MR814 was much simpler than I expected.
I had only to plug the wire from my cable's modem in the router and the provided RJ45 from the router to my first PC (Windows 98). Following the instruction from the manual, I unplugged the modem, the router and turned off the PC. Then, plugged the modem first and waited a couple of minutes, plugged the router, turned on the computer and that was it!!!. I didn't need to do anything else.
On my second PC I plugged the MA101 also following the instructions. Put the CD that copied the drivers, plugged the USB in the computer (Windows XP) and the screen showed strong signal.
I am also sharing files with no problem.
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This is the router to get, March 19, 2003
By cascade00 (Seattle, WA United States)
I wanted to add wireless connection on top of my 3 year old Linksys wired router, so I bought Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless router. What a wrong choice I made! The connection was dropped every few minutes. After many hours's fruitless work to try to get the problem fixed and consult with Linksys tech-support, I had to request a replacement because it's finally declared being defective. Guess what, the replacement is defective too! No way that I was going to give a third try.
After friends' recommendation and cnet.com's review, I bought this Netgear MR814 router. What a difference. It was very easy to setup and has been working perfectly. And it's cheaper than Linksys too. This is definitely the wireless router to get!
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No setup required, well, almost !!! Love it !, March 19, 2003
By Soverdi (SoCal, USA)
Got it last night. Followed the pictures on where to plug each cable. Opened browser. My PC immediately got an IP address from it through DHCP. I told it to use my MAC as an Alias for my ISP, with the click on a button. Presto! I'm in !!!I then inserted my new wireless card to my laptop. Loaded driver. That's it! I am now checking e-mail in the other room! Advise: change the SSID and enable WEP or else your neighbors might use your line, unless you want to share it.
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Just Like New, March 18, 2003
By shaheda rizvi (Washington, DC United States)
Excellent Service and now am a thoroughly satisfied customer.
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Great product, reliable fast, quality made, good looking, March 17, 2003
By J. Sundquist (New York)
I got this router upgrading from my Netgear RT314 router. I couldn't be happier. This router works just as flawlessly and easily as my last one. Of course the added bonus is the Wireless network I now have at home.I am actally writing this review from my kitchen table about 50ft away from my router through a few walls with Excellent signal strength and 128 bit WEP encryption enabled. The only thing I'd like to see is the ability to disable the SSID broadcast. Even that doesn't bother me though, as all of the other security features in this product pretty much eliminate fears of wireless hacking or squatting on my network.
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Great value, strong signal, March 15, 2003
By John E. Hoover (Hudson, OH USA)
I have an Inspiron 8200 laptop with True Mobile 1180 mini-PCI card installed (802.11b). I wanted to be free to roam the house and back deck with my laptop, so I looked into WAPs and wireless routers. I worried about this router's capability to go through walls and looked into 802.11a/g solutions.When I saw the price of the a/g solutions, I decided to stick with 802.11b transmitters. I noted that routers cost the same as WAPs, but have 4 ethernet ports. Even though I have a Linksys cable router, I decided to go with a wireless router, too, since I have 3 PCs and a port replicator wired into the router. Can never have enough ports! I looked into verious brands of wireless routers. Netgear appeared to have the best signal strength from various reviews. I bought it and hooked it into my existing Linksys router. On my laptop, I had to delete my 1180 card from the "Bridge" section of "Network Connections" in Windows XP. It popped up in the "LAN" section. After that, it was a snap. With the router in the basement, I receive strong signal all over the house, even in my second floor bedroom (up 25 feet and over 25 feet). The speed is just fine. I am completely satisfied.
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