Write a review for the NetGear DG834G Wireless BT ADSL Modem/Router & Firewall 802.11g here!
Excellent web interface makes setup a breeze. Very stable and compatible using firmware V1.03.00. Works well with my IBM X31 Centrino with Cisco wireless chip.
However, does not do everything it claims to. Supposed to support VPN IPSec passthrough - but this does not work on firmware V1.03.00. VPN supposed to work on V1.04.01 and 1.05.00, but I, and many others, have found that the wireless access point randomly resets - often as frequently as every 5 minutes. Some claim that 1.05.00 fixes this but not in my experience.
Imminent release of DG834v2 suggests that after numerous attempts to fix the problems with firmware upgrades they have have changed the hardware to sort out the problems.
Personally quite happy as I do not use VPN.
Being an IT person I've found this piece of equipment great. It does what it should do, and I've got three wireless PC's connecting to it sharing printers, files etc. It was recommended to me by IT people at work and I have recommended it to neighbours and friends. There were problems with older firmware but I think the majority of issues are resolved.
Unfortunately, I didn't read all the reviews before buying this (on a recommendation).
The unit installed and worked very quickly. However, the problem arose when I downloaded the firmware upgrade and, as others described, it froze the router.
After waiting 30 mins -on a premium call! - for their customer support to answer the phone I was told that this is common and they would email me a fix utility.
2 hours later, I hadn't received the fix. Another call - and this time a 1 hour, 10 minute wait! - I spoke to someone who immediately emailed me the patch... which worked perfectly.
The only other issue seems to be the limited range, which I think someone else mentioned.
Overall, a great piece of equipment which installs very easily and has a terriific amount of options to select. However, let down by the firmware issue, their atrocious customer support and the seemingly limited range of the wireless facility.
Installed this last week connecting a desktop pc via ethernet cable to an apple g3 laptop with airport card. Found out that the wirelss connection is very good at going down, but quite weak at going up even only 1 floor, which caused dropped connections on the laptop.
However, a firmware upgrade to the latest (1.3) as a shot in the dark seems to have cured the problem. Be careful though when flashing to this firmware version as I've read so many reports of the router being corrupted afterwards and having to be returned. Fortunately it worked for me.
Bought DG834G and WG311v2 based on reviews here. People were quoting installation and set up times of 5-20 minutes. WELL...... after 4 hours I gave up and called a computer engineer in! He was here 2 hours and still was not working properly. Some additional advice from aol 'help' finally got it sorted........after a fashion. Now working OK but signal consistently reported as poor - the WG834G is on ground floor of small domestic property, the WG311v2 is one floor up and about 15' accross. Would have been cheaper to have BT relocate my master socket so I could have had cabled connection. Disappointed.
This is a neatly designed product, but I probably would not buy it again. Range is disappointing - struggles much over 10 feet and needs frequent rebooting.
Set up was easy and functioned fine with wired PC's - problem started with Laptop wireless connectivity. No signal, only after rebooting and at best random on power up of the laptop. Finally failed to get a signal at all. Then, broadband failed - only connected for exactly (timed by stopwatch) 84 seconds before losing connection. Several tries showed this to be the new 'feature'. Life's too short - back it goes.
These reviews seem to be very good or very bad. Being an optimistic soul, I read the good ones and bought one. Mine's a bad one! I expect to be treated as second class as a Mac user, and sure enough the information is almost all Windows-centred. However I got the thing up and running eventually, but the speed of connection was hopeless, far slower than dial-up, even with 2 meg ADSL. I spent over an hour talking to someone in India, he was clearly trying to be helpful but the language barrier and a phoneline with epic delay made it wearing for both of us. Went through every possible setting on the Router, network, computer and browser, and at the end it was still just crawling along. Google takes 10 seconds to start. I will be sending this back to Dabs. I will try another one if they care to send one, but I'm not optimistic.
Port forwarding refused to work at all. Maybe it was down to something in XP, who knows. Its going back to Dabs. I'm fed up playing with it.. Very dissapointed.. :(
I have an old house with stone partition walls. The modem is in the nearest available place (perched on a window-sill on a landing). I've tried the 3com version of this router, and now spent £70 or so, believing the hype on this product, all to no avail. Neither system will connect to my PC with any more than 1 bar of strength, and so I am now looking for othjer options. In truth the set up is fairly straightforward for both products (after you've got your head around WPA etc), and it takes about the same amount of time to set each one up. Delivery from DABS was v good, but the free USB reciever was broken (rattled when it was unpacked) and I could never easily find a way to get a replacement. So, in short, dabs delivery pretty good, price about the same as PCWorld, and the blurb on the product is misleading. (Manufacturers fault not really down to Dabs.) Best of luck.
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