| RangeMax WNDR3300 Dual Band Wireless-N Router |
 enlarge
|
Model: WNDR3300
Brand: Netgear
Manufacturer: Netgear
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 24
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11n (draft 2.0), IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g
|
|
|
| |
| Features: |
Wireless N dual band router operates on both 5 GHz and 2.4-GHz bands for optimal performance
Backwards compatible with Wireless-G devices
Surf, email, stream HD video, play on-line games, and make Internet phone calls simultaneously without interference from other Wi-Fi networks and other wireless devices
Delivers up to 10 times the range of Wireless-G routers and offers throughput speeds of up to 15 times faster
Measures 8.8 x 6.0 x 1.2 inches (HxWxD); 1-year manufacturer's warranty |
| |
| Description: |
| The WNDR3300 offers more wireless channels, less interference and better connections using dual band Wireless-N. Enjoy faster downloads, high-quality media streaming, and better online gaming. |
| |
| User Reviews (24 total): |
Page 1 of Total 1 Pages
|
Continued Freeze Ups Even After Tech Support, August 11, 2008
By user
I bought a new home and my Netgear Rangemax MIMO Router, which has been wonderful and reliable for the last 3 years, wasn't able to push a strong signal to our second garage. With that said, I thought I would upgrade to N technology. I have had the WNDR3300 for about 3 weeks. I have tried everything to get this router to work properly but to no avail. Download the firmware upgrades - check. Contact tech support for help - check. Moved the position of the router - check. Changed the routers settings - check. One of my computers is a mere 30 feet away with no significant wall structure between it and the router. As with all four of my (brand new Dell) computers, a very good to strong signal is always indicated. However, over 50% of the time the internet will seemingly freeze at any given time and never recover unless rebooted. I am stumped on how to solve the problem. Needless to say, the router is going back.
|
Excellent on G Lightening Fast on N and Blows the Linksys out of the Water!, August 10, 2008
By user (Orange County, CA)
For a few years now we've been using the Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster with descent results if you were very close to the router and very below average results if you were more than a few hundred feet away from it or in a room with a closed door. Using it in a 2 story house was nothing short of a joke. We had to use a repeater if moving too far from the box and even that didn't work very well. When given the opportunity to try out and review the RangeMax WNDR3300 Dual Band Wireless-N Router, I jumped at the chance.
The packaging was very self explanatory the directions were easy, step by step, very basic and did not require advanced knowledge at all. Please note that the three computers (2 laptops and one desktop) do not have a wireless N card. However for the purpose of the Vine Program, Netgear included a RangeMax WNDA3100 Dual Band Wireless-N Adapter but this DOES NOT come with the router. We have been using this router for over 45 days to run a home business (i.e. email, email attachments, interenet browsing,Voice over IP), as well as personal use including transferring over 4 TB's of images and video. We used this router on both the Wireless G and the Dual Band Wireless N during this period of time.
Experience on G:
When using the router on the Wireless G it has been extremely stable, very fast, much faster and more reliable than the Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster. It reaches our entire house with doors closed, up and down two stories, which the Linksys did not.
We intentionally broke the Client Side WEP Security Settings in order to see how a call to Tech Support would be. We found Netgear response time to be exceptionally fast (please note, they had no idea we were reviewing this product for Vine), very precise, very helpful and helped us re-set the router no problem.
Experience on N:
Using the N adapter mentioned above (again provided soley through the vine program but is avaiable for purchase) we experienced even greater range and lightening fast speeds although G is still very fast.
In summary, I highly recommend this router. If I didn't get this product from Vine and knew how great it would work, I would absolutely purchase this product without a doubt. As mentioned above the G network is very fast with great range because of the speed and number of antennas in this router, which is more than sufficient for me. If you are looking for the absolute fastest possible connection with the farthest possible range and do not have a new computer with Wireless N available, then I highly recommend this router and additionally purchasing the N adapter. I could not be more thrilled with this router, my husband can't remember the last time I said "Honey, can you fix the Router" because this works fantastic ALL the time and ALL over my house. Buy it now!!
|
This product is crippled by adapter card availability............, August 9, 2008
By user (Florida)
I've had this item for over 6 months, it generally works well but at least with the online games I tend to favor, I sometimes have to reboot the router before I can connect to my game.
The setup was pretty easy, the internal firmware automatically searches for updates every time you enter it and windows provides a icon (sees it as a pnp device) for easy access to router setup, or you can do it the hardway too by just typing the ip address into your browser window. I never use any security on my network because some of my older hand held devices are still running mobile 2003 and the security doesn't work well or correctly with those. I have a fairly small house, with my old belkin products I can easily get a good connection all the way out to the end of my driveway but not here, this unit if I'm lucky goes out to the end of my garage a good bit of difference but that should also mean less wardriving off my access point.
The firewall in this router has several selections, I found that hellgate london did not like the most secure setting but setting for the lesser protection does not seem to have exposed me to any more popups or virus attacks than usual (but I also run xp 64 bit and that has a lot to do with it also, there's just less junk written for the os I'm running).
Netgear after nearly a year has still not produced a pci adapter card that works with this router....personally I think that's a pretty serious stupidity on their part; they also don't seem to have released the promised version of this router with gigabit hardwired ports. The usb dongle they do sell is junk if you ask me, I had it for a few days and returned it because it could not maintain a connection. My house is an old 50's rebar and concrete block, wood frame house, it's considered a difficult transmission situation especially since the microwave and the pipes for the bathroom are in the way between the other room where I have a media pc and the router; so far my belkins seem to do the best in this house but I've always had better luck with 5 ghz signals than 2.4 ghz signals (they travel better and bounce less in this type of house).
For what this router costs I keep hoping Netgear will pony up with the pci card and fix the firmware issues that most believe are keeping the range so poor. This router serves but it could be a much better product than it is and the lack of pci cards is really hampering their sales of this product if you ask me. I'm currently using a linksys gaming adapter dual band N with this router. I had to turn off a lot of settings and of course no security but I don't use that anyway. The linksys adapter is also a unfinished product that needs a lot of work but if you fight with it enough it's a fair setup when paired with this router. Connections are plenty fast for games and I've got a four port switch setup so my media pc and my xbox 360 share the linksys adapter simultaneously if I need to.
Not a bad router but netgear needs to pony up the pci adapters and put out the version with the gigabit ports.
|
Like a Diamond, Pretty but Flaws appear upon Closer inspection, August 2, 2008
By user (USA)
I have a couple of these for a while now. For gaming purposes and normal traffic, these are more than fine, however, this series of router has a known problem of causing traffic corruption during routing. It usually does not kick until the device has been running for a while, also, it only becomes abundantly clear on large downloads.
Obviously you overlook an image or mp3 that hasn't downloaded just right, or that when you are updating software, that the download has failed once and had to do a re-try here and there.
However, if you do serious downloading (GB+ files at a time) imagine waiting for a DVD iso to take 2 days to download, only to find that the file is corrupted!?
Granted when using a CRC checking system on small packets (such as BT) this may not be much of a problem (although, believe me, it is slowing you down!), but HTTP downloads are very susceptible to this (painfully so) as well as other mediums.
I have used these for sub-internal networks to connect them to wider, larger networks, as well as for connecting networks to various types of internet connections (Cox Cable, Comcast Cable, Wireless 800MHz Broadband, etc) and these problems manifest time after time.
If you just want to do simple web-surfing, or play World of Warcraft, then this will work fine. But for a work environment or anyone who needs real reliability, avoid this like the plague.
|
Wonderfu Router, July 29, 2008
By user (Phoenix, AZ)
I have been using a Lingsys WRT54GS for several years now, and lately I have been having problems with having to reset the Router several times a day, so I went to look for a ne router, sure I could have spent hours solving the Linksys router problems , but after 3 to 4 years of faithful serve from the Linksys router.
The WNDR3300 router was very simple to set-up, the software that comes with the router is some what helpful, but I know how to set a router up without the wizard.
I just entered my SSID and the made the WEP key and every wireless product in the house was instantly on-line.
The router is faster than my linksys router was. I have a mixed b and g set-up and am purchasing a Apple TV which will add N.
The PS3 plays on line a little better and you cannot tell if a person is making a Skype call while playing on the PS3.
In the Con column, I put down that the blue lasing lights are a problem, you can easily turn off the blinking lights, but I like the lights, they remind me of Christmas.
If you are looking for a moderately priced router, I would look no further than this one.
|
Works well but hard to patch into an existing system, July 17, 2008
By user (Brooklyn, NY)
While this product works well as a dual band router it was very hard to configure to work with the Verizon Fios router that I need to use to connect to Fios. The lack of gigabit support on the wired portion of the router is also dissapointing. Overall, decent wireless, too dumbed down for power users and obnoxious presentation. Scrap the giant blue led button and and more functionality the next time around.
|
A Few Issues, July 16, 2008
By user (MI United States)
The setup was very easy and I was able to connect to the Internet on my main PC connected via cat5 after only a few minutes. I also got the wireless working pretty quick and my notebook was connecting just fine to the Internet too. Then I tried to access one computer from the other and I really started running into some problems. So I thought it might be my Norton Firewall, so I disabled that and played with a bunch of stuff and finally it started working. Then I setup my 3rd computer that is connected through a hub in another part of my house and I ran into the same problems, only doing the same steps didn't seem to make that computer available on the network...so about 2-3 hours later I finally got all 3 computers working. Then the next day I got home and my power had gone out, so when I turned all of the computers back on once again I had Internet on all of them, but they could no longer see each other on the network. That is still where they are at, I know if I keep playing around with things they will see each other at least temporarily, but for the most part I don't share too many files and mainly just use the Internet on my computers so I'm not going to worry about that until I actually need to.
So the setup was easy and I never ended up changing any settings on the actual router, but for some reason my network seems to have some real issues that it didn't have with the Linksys. If I ever figure out what is causing this I'll update this post, but as of now it seems somewhat random, so that's why I only gave it 3 stars, it would have been 4-5 if my network would be working correctly.
|
A Very Versatile Router, July 14, 2008
By user (Grayslake, IL USA)
I really like this router. It's easy to set up and get working. It also has a ton of options that let you control everything you would ever need to. You can have both a wireless G network for your older devices as well as a wireless N network for your newer faster devices. Both at the same time! When I switched to this router I noticed right away that web pages came up faster on my wired computers. Both the wireless G and N worked fine in our house.
For wireless N connectivity on our notebook we use the RangeMax WNDA3100 Dual Band Wireless-N Adapter. For greater coverage we also added NETGEAR HD/Gaming 5 GHz Wireless-N Networking Kit (WNHDEB111). The notebook gets great speeds a floor away from the access point. I am very happy with the performance of all the router features.
Cool Features:
- The Web interface is easy to use covers everything I need to do.
- Allows the router to email you the logs on a user specified schedule.
- Firmware is easy to update and the router will check if there is an update available.
- It is easy to find the grid of attached devices along with all the stats for each connected device.
- IP reservation is easy since it allows you to pick the device from the list. No more typing in MAC addresses.
- Security for wireless also allows you to just pick the device from the list of attached devices and add it to the allowed devices. On other routers you have to type in MAC addresses.
Items to note:
- It is not a 1 gigabit router. But you can easily plug it into a 1 gig switch and then plug all your 1 gig devices into that switch.
- The large blue light on the top cannot be shut off. It will light up a fairly large area in the dark. It's cool looking though.
|
Does What it's Supposed to do and does it Well, June 30, 2008
By user (Portland, Oregon and the sunny Caribbean)
And it really is very easy to set up and that was a pleasant surprise. I unpacked the router, connected it, followed the simple instructions I got from the wizard and son of a gun if the router didn't find and connect up with all two of my computers, my desk top and my laptop. This is heads and hands above the last Netgear router I had. I needed no help here, found nothing to be frustrated about.
The last time I had to hook up a Netgear router I spent a lot of frustrating time with people who spoke questionable English on the phone. Not so this time. No phone calls to tech support and that makes a happy router user out of me and what more can one ask from a router.
Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne
|
Good Router and Night Light Combination, June 30, 2008
By user (Tallahassee, Florida)
First off I want to say I was pretty impressed with how easy it was to install this router. Not exactly like installing the Linksys I retired, but easy peasy, just follow the directions. I was excited about this router, because I wanted a bit more range than I'd been getting. I have it set up in the living room, because it's where the cable comes into the house. My desktop is only one wall away and I've had no problem with the wireless connection with it, but I like to take my laptop out on the patio at night and I just wasn't getting the oomph I needed and bad signal strength translates into slow, slow internet.
And let me tell you, I'm very happy out in my patio these days. I know it's not down the block, but it's where I want to be on a summer's evening, laptop on lap with a speedy internet. I've got that now.
And as an added bonus I now have a night light in my living room. Yes, the Netgear RangeMax Dual-Band Wireless-N Router also doubles as a night light. A blue one. It's pretty bright, that blue light is, but heck, I kinda like it.
|
|
|
Amateur at this, June 23, 2008
By user
I'm pretty computer literate, but networking-not good, so I followed the instructions to the letter and had no problem at all. I allowed myself a whole afternoon to get it going, as from experience nothing goes right the first, second or third times, but this was up and running in 15 minutes! I have two computers hooked in directly and one in another room that I set up to receive wireless, plus my laptop - all work well. I'm very happy with the product.
|
An excellent router, June 19, 2008
By user (Brooklyn, New York USA)
I'd been using a wireless G router system with built in speed boost and was largely happy with download speeds. However, I had noticed several quirks in the way the system was set-up, ones that I was able to work around but never conquer. These problems interfered with file sharing on the network as well as using a printer across the network, a nuisance, surely. By setting up a new network, I was able to eliminate these problems. My download speeds have increased several fold, and coverage is uniformly superb. I am quite impressed with the Netgear Wireless-N Router. It is quite easy to recommend it.
|
Rjk1, June 2, 2008
By user
the new router is much better then the Linksys G router that I had. I recieve better reception in the house even in areas that I could not get service before.
|
WOW!! (A- Grade), June 1, 2008
By user (Bloomfield, NJ USA)
Netgear is known for their top line routers and this one blew me away! I was a bit skeptical and the price seems a bit high but since I have started using this router with my laptop, I haven't been kicked off the internet and my connection is unbelievably fast.
I urge you to spend the money and get this wireless router for all your internet needs. The setup is pretty easy and portable.
Katiebabs
|
Good so far, depending on your hardware..., May 27, 2008
By user (Vienna, VA United States)
I've now had this router installed for about 24 hours. Signal consistent within that time frame. Set up fairly easy, though likely not so intuitive for a newbie, and may be a little easier for someone making a first time network install, rather replacing a prior one. Perhaps my confusion was because of familiarity with the LinkSys setup system and different terminology and process. The Netgear system utility is pretty cool looking, though with a lot of information a novice user may not understand (or would be very confused by).
Now the good news. When used with a Rangemax wireless card (the excellent dual band WNDA3100), throughput is fantastic. I am using this mainly through two floors and the signal is strong in the basement and throughput is high (as high as 22MBPS down, 2.2MPPS up).
The bad news is that the range and throughput on G-equiopped devices is not good. Using the same cable connection to a laptop with Intel ProSet A/B/G card struggled to get above 8MPS down, yet upload speed was still around 2MBPS. This is especially important as I was using the laptop on the middle floor of our house and this wireless card is very reliable in my year or so experience with it.
I am not able to test the router with other non-Netgear N devices - but I am sure other reviewers will.
So my conclusion is that if you are setting up a new home network this is a good choice. It is pretty easy to set up, but I would ensure that your gear is N-enabled and preferably Netgear as well.
Good luck!
|
good router, May 25, 2008
By user (United States)
This seems to be a good router, I won't know how dependable or durability for some time, but it appears to work well now.
I am very much a beginner when it somes to routers and networking so I did some research, printed out the manual (which I think should have been included in the package) I tried to figure out the security stuff which I find very confusing? Why can't they give a step by step directions for the security that a person can more readily understand? The initial setup doesn't give the security that it should and there is nothing in the manual about how to change settings on the other pc's on the network after you set up the security. This should definitely be covered and would give a person less reason for hair pulling if this was explained. That is why only 4 stars since this is still not beginner proofed yet.
I await for any company to give presice steop by step instructions for me to follow so I don't feel so panicky trying to do this.
|
Power & Security, May 22, 2008
By user (Springfield, PA USA)
First the security issue. If you have an early wireless router, you have an open invitation for anyone to ride down the street with their laptop, and tap into your network. With the Rangemax, those days are long gone. With a double firewall, and encryption for users within the network, wireless becomes a "secure" environment. (Not that there is any such thing as a secure environment on the internet, and even with the more advanced WPA protocol, it can be compromised. It depends on how advanced the hacker is and how important it is to obtain your data. It can take hours of their time to use a dictionary based pass phrase interpreter. If practical, a wired based network of course is safer.)
The range issue is solved by using the new N standard which is multiple times as strong as G, and with multiple times the range. Many have mentioned the weakness this unit puts out for the older G network devices, and having installed more than one Linksys G standard wireless routers and devices at workstations and laptops, I must say that G leaves a lot to be desired. The Linksys unit gave me a 54 Meg signal strength when in a room directly above the router on the next floor, in a room alongside of that I only got 34 Megs. As the other reviewer stated, the G gave him a 100% signal from this RangeMax in the next room, but only a 15% signal on the other end of the house, and would not even connect. I got the no connect results at the other end of the house and on a different floor with the RangeMax. We are nit picking hairs here. Let's talk about the beauty of the RangeMax, and what you should be doing in order to obtain the max.
First off the N is so much more powerful; it is worth upgrading your wireless components to the N standard. That is easily done with the Rangemax WNDA3100 Dual Band Wireless-N Router which is a small USB receiver that snaps into a laptops or desktops USB port, or the NETGEAR WN311B Rangemax Next Wireless-N PCI Adapter for desktops. Then you can go wherever you want, out in the yard, sit on the patio with your cell phone, and surf the web.
Let me tell you about my setup, which will shed some light on what I prefer. Coming off of the web, I am now using this Rangemax. The fact that it is going to wirelessly transmit 100 Megs of data, as compared to 54 on a G router is immaterial, because my DSL connection is only 1.5megs. Even with Verizon fiber optic being installed in my neighborhood as we speak, I will only be getting 5 Megs. So any size will do for internet level speeds. On the other hand, inside of my network, I am using a NETGEAR GS108 ProSafe 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Switch (It comes in a 5 port version which is 20 dollars cheaper) so for transferring information, or for backing up the different computers in the network, I am running Gigabit speeds. This Netgear Rangemax does not come with gig hard wire router connections, and even though the Linksys does, I am shying away from my old favorite due to the reviews on it. The Netgear, other than the G strength issue, which technically is an issue with the G standard period, this Netgear wins out. It is so new it is not even on the shelves of the Radio Shack, and other stores that carry Netgear products.
The setup is a breeze with the included Wizard. Just drop in the included CD, and follow the yellow brick road. The really have created a well thought out and engineered setup wizard here. Even if you do something wrong, they go back and explain what the problem is, giving you illustrated diagrams as the how the wiring should be hooked up for example. They even detect the type of network connection you have to the internet automatically. If you have any problems with knowing what your connection information is, your ISP will be glad to provide that. I.e. user name and password, or static IP for those who are connecting you that way.
What I did was exactly follow the directions with the wizard, first putting the CD in my PC, which has a hard wire hookup to the internet, and let the CD run. Then I went down and disconnected my old router, and plugged the new one in, and only hooked up the PC I was connected to the web with. I was up and running in under 20 minutes. Then I simply plugged my Gigabit switch into one of the single router ports, and everything worked beautifully.
So in conclusion, using this RangeMax with the N adapters will not only give you greater speeds for your wireless devices, it will also enable you to take advantage of the new security standards, something not available with the old adapters.
If you have a G device that you do not want to update, then run your Ethernet from the modem into the room, or the room next to your G device, and hook this new router up there, then use the separate band with N for your new devices, and better yet, take advantage of the Gigabit connection by adding on the Gigabit switch I mentioned above, and Gigabit adapter cards for your hard wired devices. Then you will have the best of both worlds.
So with all of that in mind, if you are looking to add that laptop to your network, this Rangemax is a nice way to go if you are planning on getting the N adapter as well, or already have G built in your new one.
I would give the Rangemax 5 stars. Notwithstanding, if you are looking to join existing multiple G devices, and don't want to upgrade, you will get a "little" more G strength out of the Linksys, but not much, at least not enough for practical purposes.
|
Good Router For N Band, Not G, May 20, 2008
By user (Tewksbury, MA USA)
The 'RangeMax WNDR3300 Dual Band Wireless-N Router' is a good router for those that have newer computers and are focussed on using the N frequency band. For those that have G you are better off focusing on a cheaper G based solution or upgrading to N completely as the backwards compatibility isn't the greatest.
The upgrades going to N are substantial, with a higher # of channels, dual band, and easy setup. I have had NETGEAR products in the past and have been fairly happy with their performance. When they are working things are great but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I did have some hardware issues with items in the past after the warranty expired and that is what is keeping this from being a 5 star review.
If you need an N-based wireless router I can confidently recommend this product, just don't buy it unless you are going N only as it's not worth the extra $$$.
**** RECOMMENDED
|
No good for G band, May 12, 2008
By user (San Francisco, CA USA)
Great on N band but G band has no range. Screwed up my Tivo badly.
|
Page 1 of Total 1 Pages
|
|
| Copyright 2001-2008 WiFiReview.com |
|