I bought this because I had terrible trouble with my previous router trying to get my NAT status from "strict" to "open" on xbox live. This router gave me an "open" status straight out of the box.
I was also impressed with how quick and easy I found it to set up.
Took about 10 minutes to set up connecting to bt yahoo broadband with 2 client PC's. Everything worked perfectly okay first time, including FTP.
I bought a router with much trepidation, having read quite a few negative reviews, particularly regarding support from NetGear.
I WAS connected and running in about 5 minutes. Big tick.
I spent the next few hours trying to get the Port Forwarding working. I need it for FTP and my web server. The more reviews I read, the more worried I was thatI had bought a turkey, as it just wouldn't work - or so I thought!
I DID email Netgear support, and they DID respond quite quickly - with the right answer. It WAS working, but that can only be seen from OUTSIDE of the router, by an independently connected external device.
Now I am very pleased with the DG834, and hope it can forget about it and get on with my life!
Very easy to setup for normal broadband use and worked first time, setup in 10 minutes but will not upload FTP. Netgear UK support accessed my router remotely and decided that port 21 would not open. They suggested various changes to the setup, none of which worked so left me to do a hard reset and setup again. This did not work either. Firmware upgrade 1.03 was not to be tried as netgear say they have problems with it. I am waiting now for netgear to produce a better upgrade.
Brought one of these, easy to set up, no probs at all on my BT enable ADSL line. FTP no problem, however when I went to chat to friends using VOIP software like Speak Freely I found this router does not support VOIP. I check this with Netgear support and they confirmed this. This to me is a major flaw and hope a new (If not already) firmware upgrade will be available to sort this problem. Especially as BT is about to introduce VOIP in a big way over thier Broadband network.
I have just replaced my old DG814 with this unit.
Very easy to setup, which I did about 5 hours ago, however I just tried to FTP out and massive probelms.
I checked the netgear webby, and found a firmware upgrade, applied it and hard reset all devices. No joy.
Emailed Netgear.uk stating that FTP is a primary function, and that it does not work.
This will be going back to Dabs unles Netgear reply VERY quickly.
How can a router that cannot FTP be released to the general public.
I have found other reviews speaking of this problem.
I really can't recommend this router as its performance is so aweful. I've had problems with synch when using p2p in 2 seperate houses. It seems that this problem runs through all DG834s (inc G,PN etc) but this particular router is exceptionally prone barely holding connection for 10 minutes at a time before dropping out. Its a shame as well as the interface is the best Ive used, the features are perfect and it looks good :P
Unfortunately this is probly the best router for its price - all of the £40 routers Ive tried (Belkin, LinkSys) have synch problems and this is the one I stuck with the longest so if youre on an air tight budget go for it and pray your line is good quality.
Warning!
The default Firewall Rule for inbound trafic is to block all ports. That's all fine except that it DOESN'T BLOCK ANYTHING if you have NAT disabled!!!
This is in firmware 1.0.5 but if you upgrade to the 2.10.17 (still in beta) it starts blocking them.
I cannot believe how bad this must be for Netgear publicity, it's a catastrophy!
Having built PCs the problems faced trying to get this product to even install let alone connect to the internet was surprising, particularly as the ADSL modem supplied by my ISP for free installed and was up and running in minutes. 2 days after purchase it remains unconnected. Whether this is due to the software supplied or some other problem I don't know, but it hasn't increased my chances of buying Netgear products in the future. Others don't seem to have faced the problems I have, so read the reviews and decide for yourself whether this is the option for you. There has to be better........
DO NOT buy this product!
I am using Bulldog 4 mbit ADSL and when the router works, there are no problems. Unfortunately it hangs about 4 or 5 times per day, in which case internet becomes unavailable and the router admin interface does not work either. After hard-resetting the router, it will work well for another 2-3 hours before hanging again. The latest firmware update, V1.05.00, did not change the bad behavior. When I was lucky, the router worked for a maximum of 3 weeks before hanging.
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