Comments: Netgear sucks

Just wanted Paul to know that he's not the only one with a problem with the piece of sh!t Netgear.
I just spent 4 hours of my own time on a Saturday screwing around trying to do a simple router hook up - normally a 5 minute job. After changing everything else out and checking it out, I have determined that the d@mn Netgear router is defective right out of the box! Naturally, this would be with a customer who lives 30 miles out in the country! I tried calling their tech support - spent 20 minutes playing with their menus and still didn't get to talk to a human!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRggggg!!!!

Taking the SOB back and buying Dlink or Linksys like I should have!

Screw Netgear, it will be a cold day in hell before I buy another of their products.

DW

Posted by Dave Wethington at October 3, 2004 03:23

NETGEAR FU*KIN SUCKS!!!!! I'm useing a MR814v2 wireless router and when i'm useing my laptop i can connect fine, with great connection.. no problems.. but my PC that is connected through a ethernet cable cant seam to go to any secrue sights IE: EBAY.COM, YAHOO MAIL, PAYPAL.COM or anyother sight that would requrire yo uto log in.. I've called tech support and they said it was my roughter config.. but i've tried everyting under the fuckin sun to get it to work.. and still it wont!!!!!!!!!!!

A very P!ssed off netgear buyer,, and the worst part is i'm suck w/ the damn thing!

Posted by Dave at October 24, 2004 07:02

Can I also say that Netgear sucks donkey ass? Mine synched up OK, but after that, it was about a 50/50 shot if any website I tried to call up would load at all. So I called Netgear, and they wouldn't help me because I wasn't registered on their site. Guess what one of the sites that wouldn't load is?

I'm going to start boycotting any company that outsources tech support to India too. That might mean I can't buy from anyone, but oh well.

And I second how frustrating and convoluted their phone system is.

Posted by James at November 19, 2004 01:09

netgear really does suck. It would seem they have farmed their tech support out to INDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the people I've talked to are rude.

I've never had to use tech support before, but when i switched from dsl to cable, my netgear router would NOT WORK WITH CABLE. After getting stonewalled by the cable company, and stonewalled by Netgear, I got frustrated, and bought a Linksys router...

Pluged it in, turned everything on, and it MAGICALLY WORKD WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS! I didn't even have to install the software that they said was required to make it work!

I am so happy with linksys and will NEVER use netgear ever again, especially since they are paying slave labor wages to people to handle their tech support.

Plus, when using my laptop, the netgear router would alwayws loose connection, and it also interfered with my cordless phone!

CYA netgear!!!!


Posted by djrobsd at February 12, 2005 09:11

oh yeah, i almost forgot.. i had my netgear WGR614G v2 for a year, and just recently bought the same one for my sister for christmas.

WHAT A HUGE MISTAKE. It took me 4 hours to get it working on her DSL at her house. It turns out, by factory default, the netgear router uses the SAME EXACT IP as the DSL Modem did, and they did not play nice together.

In fact, I couldn't even get into the configuration page unless I unhooked the DSL modem!

WHat a piece of junk!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by djrobsd at February 12, 2005 09:13

Yep,

I had bought a mr314 router and ma311 PCI card (and a USB adapter) over a year ago.

After working countless hours; researching viruses, working on the stack, working on different configuration permeatations...I came to one conclusion:

This is a problem with netgears card.

Niether the USB adapter nor an ethernet LAN cable exhibit the same connectivity issue. And, the only thing that seems to work is cycling the router.

I gave up on the PCI card and stuck it in a drawer over a year ago.

I hit this site after deciding to retry using the card. This time I emailed netgears tech-support to see what they say. Judging from the comments on this site; they are not going to be much help. But, i'll try to remain optimistic.

Brad Winter

Posted by Brad at February 21, 2005 03:01

NETGEAR SUPPORT RESPONDED WITH:

Dear Bradley,

Thank you for contacting Netgear Support. My name is Amit & I will be handling your enquiry.

I appreciate the opportunity to assist you. Regarding your issue, please reinstall the adapter once using the latest drivers .

Please visit the following link to download the drivers:

http://kbserver.netgear.com/support_details.asp?dnldID=173

Please try the following steps :
1. Uninstall the drivers from the device manager
2. Remove the adaptor physically from the Machine.
3. Reboot the machine twice without plugging the card in.
4. Plug the card back in but in the second slot(if available.)
5. Install the drivers again.

I believe this will resolve the issue. In case you have further issues then do get back to us.

Regards

Amit Mathur
Netgear Support
*******************************************

RESULT: I did what Hadji said...and I still have to periodically run to the basement and cycle power on my router to get the connection back. I'm a little annoyed because freeing up slot two meant moving my RAID card and re-installing its driver also.

I sent Hadji a response to see if they can come up with a way to waste more of my time.

Posted by Brad at February 22, 2005 21:24

Well netgear support found a very clever way to avoid addressing this issue...they are not responding at all. I sent several emails to netgear support and a couple more to their general customer care reps requesting some response to this problem....I guess Hadji was not as honored to work this issue as he indicated...



Posted by Bradley Winter at February 24, 2005 18:49

Netgear does suck heres my reasons...
1) Netgear is one of two brands, it and a "no ones heard of this brand" to not be able to connect to many gaming areas with more than one computer (like starcraft battle.net etc.)
2) Dont ever try to set up port forwarding after the memory in the router has established permanent ip addresses with your pc, it will crash 10% of the time leaving you with no access to your router and a headache that only more money can cure...
3) when they say 11mBs or 110... they really mean about 1/4 of it, even if you unlock it in windows, because thats all the router usually handles... it bites
4) I'm going to stop before i smash my 200 dollars worth of equitment in front of me...

Posted by Karsten at April 11, 2005 20:07

I was very persistent and worked for several days trying to get my mr814v2 to work with sbc dsl. FINALLY figured out that YOU CAN'T CONFIGURE THE MR814V2 OVER A WIRELESS CONNECTION! It will never correctly detect a dhcp lease or a PPPoE connection through the SpeedStream 5100b (even when the 5100b is configured correctly). Even after it is configured (through a cat5 connection), it periodically loses the ISP connection.

Posted by John Helms at April 17, 2005 14:57

Netgear Wireless products are the biggest heap of shit around.

Their driver revisions are shit, their software is shit, the brand- in my mind is now; wait for it- shit!

I wasted 3 hours working on a WG311v2 card when the original effed up driver wont even uninstall.

Dont waste your time, get another brand.

Posted by Adam at April 19, 2005 10:23

FUCK GUYZ... why didn't anybody tell me this brand new crap I got was this shitty? (I NEVER CUSS). But Netgear has expanded my vocabulary to include such words as NetCuntSucking Gearblowing ForeignFucknetting Piece of Defecating Crap....
specifically, I have the WGR614v5... lol.. v5? Like this 5th version is anybody than any other crap they sell. What is up with these guys.

Somebody help me!!! I'm cyberspace raging because I thought buying an "American" named product BRAMD MEW would at least provide me with a device that worked more than 50% of the time. I'm a frickin idiot to think that. I spend more time trying to get my laptop to link to this shit router located anywhere from 6 inches away to 8 feet away. It doesn't matter. OH YEAH, the Netgear troubleshooting solution for when this happens, it to just
(1) power down your computer, then
(2) power down your modem, then
(3) power down your router, then
(4) power up your moden...
(5) wait, wait, wait, then
(6) power up your router, then
(7) power up your computer....
(8) REPEAT EVERYTIME IT DROPS A LINK... is on its face frickin ridiculous. By the way... try doing it 5 times a day (like me). Well, 5 times a day until tonight... where even this alchemy hex lifting doesn't even hook the fuckin net to my laptop. I need a big frickin hammer to bash it, and luckily I still have the box becuz I'll pour the bits and pieces into the box and take it back to Compussy (aka CompUSA) who sells this crap KNOWING (not like us customers) that this is junk.

HELP save me from my NETGEAR! I'm actually typing hoping the curse of my router rectifies itself, exorcises itself, implodes itself before the rectum spasm that it is causing wreaks utter chaos in this virtual space and beyond.

Thanx for letting me vent. I'm ripping this thing out and taking it back to its maker... with a grin on my face, a Shit Netgear router in one hand, and a big fuckin hammer in the other.

(note of calm, I'm not going postal, I just hate dishonorable businesses producing fraudulent products knowing most passive Americans won't do anything about it and they'll become rich on that apathy. Well, somebody needs to drive this organization out of business and allow the honorable quality product producers to wreap the incredible profits they deserve. I shall apologize in advance if your grandmother, step daughter, second uncle all work for Netgear... they likely know that this product is junk, and should disavow any connection to them, just like this brand new router disavows any connection to the internet.)

Posted by Keahi at May 9, 2005 11:35

I have a netgear WP-111 rangemax USB wireless adapter, worked great for like 3 days and now it wont connect. Even though their little wizard gives me a strong signal the icon is red and wont connect. Totally blows.

Posted by John at May 18, 2005 03:48

I have a netgear WG111T USB wireless adapter, it never did work (despite seeing my wifi router and 80% signal strength) it wont connect. I have a DHCP scope allowing more than 5 connections on a 2 PC network. Im no master of computers but Ive set up a network or two in my life (its what I do ) but this is ridiculous. I'm using a simple WEP 64 Bit encryption and I can't grab an IP no matter what I have tried. Ive used the keys Ive used the pass phrase. No results. Ive used motorola products in WIFI and I find them to be the easiest and most reliable thus far...I should have stayed with what worked. Perhaps this device doesnt support any encryption........if thats the case they should mention it on the gawdhammedfuc*ing box.

Posted by Like John Said at May 22, 2005 15:50

Okay, so I just bought a new wireless router for my grandparents because their wireless network got fried. First, setting it up was a byotch, and then when it was set for 108 MB auto... I was constantly disconnected. So I decided to set it to 802.11b/g...54 MBps right, okay, so I get disconnected maybe once or twice a day...yesterday, my step-grandfather calls the NetGear company and gives the same shpeill they always give. Oh well you just need to shut it down...and then restart it, you also need to restart your machine blah blah blah...this is getting fucking annoying.

Also, when I installed the wireless network...I had to go through all these steps that I know Kyle, the person who installed our previous network, never ever had to go through. Such as...please connect your machine to an ethernet line, and then connect to the router as such...

Upon the fact that I utterly deplore NetGear now...D-Link has much better customer support...and they don't tell you as much garbage, they all tell you the same sh*t...just not as much. NetGear is completely incompatible with my D-Link. If I wasn't raised solely by my mother and wasn't a compulsive shopper, I'd be literally f*cked.

But as it stands, I am...and I bought a Linksys Wireless G Notebook Adapter with SpeedBooster...above the fact that the guy said that it was 108 MBps...which it isn't by the way...And guess where I bought it? Compussy...I can't really talk that much sh*t about Compussy they said that if something happened to my iPod that all I would have to do is bring it in and they would give me a free replacement.

Is there an alternative to Compussy, though? When I used the D-Link GWL -G630 I think is the model...I know that it's DWL and that it's 630...the wireless network will not even be detected. Yet, with my Linksys Wireless G-Notebook Adapter, it does. I have to take it out and reconnect every so often though.

This is getting totally ridiculous. I really am getting frustrated at Netgear. And of course, the guy advertising the wireless router said something along the lines of: "This router right here, the Netgear 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router is the best out on the market!"

Best out on the market would be any linksys router. Sh*t, with my ole' crappy D-Link DWL -G630 I could pick up the wireless network from across the f*cking street!

These cuntasses...Netgear and CompUSA are both cuntasses!!!!!! And the following is a long growl UGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Okay, I feel better...CompUSA better stay away...I'm loaded up on way to much caffeine, by eyes are feeling weird, I have blood sugar spikes for no apparent reason...

I don't know what kind of Linksys wireless router it was...but I would pretty much count on a G seeing as I accessed, downloaded, etc. Perfectly fine without any disruptions.

Netgear can kiss my ass. I'd use Belkin and Linksys before I'd ever use Netgear again.

Posted by Benjamin at May 29, 2005 03:09

Okay, so I just bought a new wireless router for my grandparents because their wireless network got fried. First, setting it up was a byotch, and then when it was set for 108 MB auto... I was constantly disconnected. So I decided to set it to 802.11b/g...54 MBps right, okay, so I get disconnected maybe once or twice a day...yesterday, my step-grandfather calls the NetGear company and gives the same shpeill they always give. Oh well you just need to shut it down...and then restart it, you also need to restart your machine blah blah blah...this is getting fucking annoying.

Also, when I installed the wireless network...I had to go through all these steps that I know Kyle, the person who installed our previous network, never ever had to go through. Such as...please connect your machine to an ethernet line, and then connect to the router as such...

Upon the fact that I utterly deplore NetGear now...D-Link has much better customer support...and they don't tell you as much garbage, they all tell you the same sh*t...just not as much. NetGear is completely incompatible with my D-Link. If I wasn't raised solely by my mother and wasn't a compulsive shopper, I'd be literally f*cked.

But as it stands, I am...and I bought a Linksys Wireless G Notebook Adapter with SpeedBooster...above the fact that the guy said that it was 108 MBps...which it isn't by the way...And guess where I bought it? Compussy...I can't really talk that much sh*t about Compussy they said that if something happened to my iPod that all I would have to do is bring it in and they would give me a free replacement.

Is there an alternative to Compussy, though? When I used the D-Link GWL -G630 I think is the model...I know that it's DWL and that it's 630...the wireless network will not even be detected. Yet, with my Linksys Wireless G-Notebook Adapter, it does. I have to take it out and reconnect every so often though.

This is getting totally ridiculous. I really am getting frustrated at Netgear. And of course, the guy advertising the wireless router said something along the lines of: "This router right here, the Netgear 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router is the best out on the market!"

Best out on the market would be any linksys router. Sh*t, with my ole' crappy D-Link DWL -G630 I could pick up the wireless network from across the f*cking street!

These cuntasses...Netgear and CompUSA are both cuntasses!!!!!! And the following is a long growl UGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Okay, I feel better...CompUSA better stay away...I'm loaded up on way to much caffeine, by eyes are feeling weird, I have blood sugar spikes for no apparent reason...

I don't know what kind of Linksys wireless router it was...but I would pretty much count on a G seeing as I accessed, downloaded, etc. Perfectly fine without any disruptions.

Netgear can kiss my ass. I'd use Belkin and Linksys before I'd ever use Netgear again.

Posted by Benjamin at May 29, 2005 03:09

Okay, so I just bought a new wireless router for my grandparents because their wireless network got fried. First, setting it up was a byotch, and then when it was set for 108 MB auto... I was constantly disconnected. So I decided to set it to 802.11b/g...54 MBps right, okay, so I get disconnected maybe once or twice a day...yesterday, my step-grandfather calls the NetGear company and gives the same shpeill they always give. Oh well you just need to shut it down...and then restart it, you also need to restart your machine blah blah blah...this is getting fucking annoying.

Also, when I installed the wireless network...I had to go through all these steps that I know Kyle, the person who installed our previous network, never ever had to go through. Such as...please connect your machine to an ethernet line, and then connect to the router as such...

Upon the fact that I utterly deplore NetGear now...D-Link has much better customer support...and they don't tell you as much garbage, they all tell you the same sh*t...just not as much. NetGear is completely incompatible with my D-Link. If I wasn't raised solely by my mother and wasn't a compulsive shopper, I'd be literally f*cked.

But as it stands, I am...and I bought a Linksys Wireless G Notebook Adapter with SpeedBooster...above the fact that the guy said that it was 108 MBps...which it isn't by the way...And guess where I bought it? Compussy...I can't really talk that much sh*t about Compussy they said that if something happened to my iPod that all I would have to do is bring it in and they would give me a free replacement.

Is there an alternative to Compussy, though? When I used the D-Link GWL -G630 I think is the model...I know that it's DWL and that it's 630...the wireless network will not even be detected. Yet, with my Linksys Wireless G-Notebook Adapter, it does. I have to take it out and reconnect every so often though.

This is getting totally ridiculous. I really am getting frustrated at Netgear. And of course, the guy advertising the wireless router said something along the lines of: "This router right here, the Netgear 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router is the best out on the market!"

Best out on the market would be any linksys router. Sh*t, with my ole' crappy D-Link DWL -G630 I could pick up the wireless network from across the f*cking street!

These cuntasses...Netgear and CompUSA are both cuntasses!!!!!! And the following is a long growl UGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Okay, I feel better...CompUSA better stay away...I'm loaded up on way to much caffeine, by eyes are feeling weird, I have blood sugar spikes for no apparent reason...

I don't know what kind of Linksys wireless router it was...but I would pretty much count on a G seeing as I accessed, downloaded, etc. Perfectly fine without any disruptions.

Netgear can kiss my ass. I'd use Belkin and Linksys before I'd ever use Netgear again.

Posted by Benjamin at May 29, 2005 03:09

After a week of Netgear's hellish customer service and their slip-shod, half-assed, worthless, semi-functional products, all I can say is: DOWN WITH FUCKING NETGEAR, I HOPE YOU ALL CHOKE!
*ahem*
Now that that's out of the way this is my story:
It took me two days and 2 tech support calls to get it working. Finally one of the morons happened to mention that my DSL modem was "faulty" in that it had the same IP range as my router. You stupid fuckwads. I've been using ethernet routers, hubs, and switches for years, the model is always 192.168.1.1. Always. The router, is always, well, we least in reality, where people don't try to eat out my anus, 192.168.X.1 where is a number larger than "1." So after that, the router won't connect with my uname and password in there. Whatever. Then 2 days later, it goes off again, I cycle the power (which I do about 3-10X a day) and nothing. So I enter the password and now it will take it and functions. I got this router so I could game in my bedroom at my mom's house since I live with her. No I'm not some desperate loser, it's just cheaper to live with her while I pay my way through college and she likes the company.
I bought my shit through Best Buy. I was going to get a Linksys since they are a sept of Cisco systems and Belkin didn't have any super G routers there. Best Buy is the only tech store besides overpriced circuit city within 5 hours. The guy stops me and swears up and down that linksys, d-link, and Belkin are shit, and that Netgear is the only way to fly. And if I want to be able to play counterstrike, well, then I suren as fuck better get a netgear. So, going against my better judgement Ig et the way fucking more expensive Netgear and go through all this woe. The WN824 is supposed to cover 500,000 sq. ft. So why is it that behind 2 walls, 50 ft. from the source, I get 802.11B speeds? Yeah, I payed for 108 but I get 11, sometimes if I'm lucky, 36 and one time I saw 72 but that was for about 2 seconds.
The PCI WiFi NIC interferes with my soundcard, I can hear the fucking 2.4Ghz frequency if it's up any louder than a mouse's cough. And whenever I try to play any online game, even Warcraft 2.BNE it lags *horribly* and after about a minute the 2.4 Ghz frequency owns my fucking PC, locks it up and that's all I can hear until I do a hard shutdown to restart it. For the love of god, Netgear is the worst networking company I've ever had the displeasure to use. Fuck them and their mothers in the ass. And don't get me started on those rude Indian fucks, they're meaner than shit that you even called. Their phone system constantly hung up on me, and since the WN824 isn't listed in their menu when I hit the button for "All other routers and hubs." I just get disconnected with a "I'm sorry, I can't help you. Have a nice day and thanks for using Netgear." Screw that.
I'm going to buy that Linksys, and if that fails, that D-link and if that fails, that Belkin and if that fails, a really long ethernet cable.
The first router I ever set up, a really old Belkin, took less time then this and I was a compelete noob back then, you know, eh? But after that initial setup besides maybe cycling the power 2-3X a year when the ISP would drop my IP Address lease, I haven't had any problems in the last 3 years. Now, being a CS major, having served in the military and being a Communications Computer-Systems Controller apprentice int he USAF... Fucking orbital communications relay satellites are easier to setup and more reliable than this junk and there is *alot* more than can go wrong with a Cold War era satellite than there is with a brand new WiFi router.
Linskys for life, yo.
-Greg

Posted by Greg at June 3, 2005 23:56

There is a lot of anger here, and rightly so. I had the same experiences, only worse. I estimate I've spent at least 10 hours, initializing, unplugging, replugging, etc. my piece of dung (WGRsomething14v5). After 4 days of trying to get a route to the internet using the internal pages, and unsuccessfully trying to install a firmware upgrade, I simply gave up and bought a Belkin Broadband router that happened to be on sale at Frys for $29 as opposed to $79 for the NetGear at Circuit City.
Guess what? On the web in 5 minutes and I really didn't have to push the setup, It just kinda popped in. Then only three more minutes to initialize AirPort in my other untethered Mac. Its like burning in hell for three days and then plunging into a pool of cool water-really a beautiful thing. I'm chalking this one up to experience and just taking the loss. We all get screwed sometimes, but I will spread the word about avoiding NetGear at all costs. In the end, NetGear will loose bigtime. Things like this don't stay hidden for long.

Posted by Barrisimo at July 26, 2005 03:39

Hey I have been using a MR814v2 and MA111 for about two years now solid as a rock. Basically I think that you guys suck. The problem is that you don't understand wireless or networking and your set up is probably all messed up along with computers that are most likely infected with a million viruses/spy ware.

Posted by lu at July 29, 2005 00:34

i Have Great Experience With Netgears Products And I Have Never Had Any Problems With Any Of THe Damn StufF.The Problem Is U,U Assholes U Guys Dont Even Know How To Configure The Damn Stuff Minus The Guy Above Me

Posted by Network Boss at August 15, 2005 23:33

"Network Boss": right, so when the only way of solving a product's problem is to turn it on and off, that's a configuration issue is it?

Okkkk....

PS Caps only go at the beginning of sentences.

Posted by Paul Makepeace at August 15, 2005 23:35

d-link is shit

Posted by trwywrywtr at August 18, 2005 18:09

Over the last few years we have had several NICs pile up in the spare parts bin for one reason or another. Mostly due to age or no modern driver - or issues that were too ambiguous to just toss the card in the garbage. Well, it turns out that the vast majority are Netgear FA-311/312s.

I found this after strongly suspecting a new FA311 card of causing problems based on a trail of evidence - so I went to the NIC pile to see what we had to swap. There I found a pile of Netgear cards and a couple of ancient cards. This made me think twice - I realized that there just might be an issue with some Netgear products. So we swapped in a new Linksys EG1032 and that fixed things nicely.

I realize that this is a complicated matter to determine fault and have not "flipped" totally on Netgear quite yet - but it's not looking good from my POV - and frankly I don't think a customer should have to take sniffs or try to debug firmware/drivers and spend hours researching issues to be "smart enough" to use said product - only to swap in a competitor's and have it all work without a problem!

Anyway, I did a few google searches - and "FA 311 Sucks" brought me here. So I just wanted to "pile on"...

Also, to those who claim Netgear is great and say those having issues are at fault. This is a valid point - but on a bigger level it is a weak argument that can be made of any product with flaws.

Suppose Netgear got into Nuclear reactors and assumed only "technically savy" folks would run them (during Netgear's product design stage). I would think that you DO want the most savy using your products in this case; but it's just a dumb idea to count on it considering the spectrum of IQs out there... Probably end up in a "IQ discrimination" lawsuit at a minimum anyway (ignoring lawsuits re. the meltdown)...

Think about it - it's a tremendous challenge to create products that are reliable and also work well/are safe for "noobs" too. So a company that meets that challenge in my opinion is far superior - they went the extra mile and obviously have the customer's bigger interests in mind.

So, while you are smug and happy that you are technically superior in "your mind" because you can exert all the extra effort needed to support the products - Grandmothers are using Linksys or other products with little effort/time/money as well.

Posted by Dan at August 23, 2005 06:52

EVERYONE, STAY AWAY FROM NETGEAR.

My saga begins after dealing with Comcast, and since they don't sell routers, fine, off to Best-Buy. Well I think I'm getting a good deal on a NetGear product with a 50% off store in rebate. Take it home and for two days try to connect through the router. I'm no genius, but I'm no novice when it comes to computers. Well after awhile I concluded that it was a defective router and sure enough it was, so back to Best Buy whose Customer Service Department leaves alot to be desired, and they let me exchange the CRAP for a new router. Again, I use netgear. (Give them the benefit of the doubt) I take the new one home and Wala, it works. And then after 2 days of using the product my 5x faster connection is the equiavlent of a 33.6k dial up modem. This thing sucks and I will probably have to take it back, and of course NetGear doesn't believe in talking with you so you have to send e-mails and then wait for them to get back to you, but for those of you trying, the response is turn off the computer, the modem, and then RESTART! There I saved you all alot of Time. So STAY AWAY FROM NETGEAR. It will save you from financial and psychological trouble, as I know want to shoot or blow-up the router. I HATE Netgear.

Posted by Steven at September 8, 2005 22:09

Same deal with Netgear FA311. like others i found a drawer at work with NICs in. Tried the FA311, and every now and then the driver needs to be reinstalled (this is on win2k). This is on top of other issues.

It aint malware, I have 2 locked down firewalls, use firefox, virus check every day (it does it itself) and have the wireless tight.

At the end of the day I have realised why the NICs were in the bin. They were taken out of Linux boxes that we use because the FA311 sucks big time.

the thing is, netgear stuff looks real purty and the HW is nice, but their SW is poor; bad drivers and bad firmware.

Posted by Rowly at September 10, 2005 03:59

I know it doesn't need to be said but here goes.
Netgear Support is the worst I have ever encountered. The people can't speak English, they can't read and really don't give a shi! about the job they are doing nor the problems that you have. Netgear is a company run by fools for fools like me that purchased the lousy products that they turn out.

Go anywhere on the net and look for a way to hack a Netgear firewall and you will find answers on how to do it - for any model. Now, Go to the Netgear website and ask a question on how to setup a firewall and YOU WILL NOT find the answer you are looking for and support will direct you to some B.S. faq that still doesn't answer the question.

Netgear is a bad product made by people that are in it for your money. Don't buy their products unless you are into abuse. When the Internet was a kinder more gentle place, Netgear had a place but now that there are a LOT of a**holes on the net, Netgear products will NOT protect you against anything.

Purchase one from Fry's Electronics (with a label on the box that states that it has been repackaged) means that you have just purchased someone else's problem and as soon as you get it home and TRY to put it in service, it will NOT work.

Netgear is dumping all of the bad product on e-bay, justdeals, and other surplus dealers just to get rid of the crap.

BOTTOM LINE: All you have to do is "do not buy Netgear" anything.

Posted by Carl at September 30, 2005 21:19

Netgear sucks plain and simple. If you're going to go wireless with netgear, might as well go wired because you'll end up getting fucked over with loss of connectivitiy. Neatgear products sucks, stay away. Don't go overspending money on netgear crap. You'll have headache after headach after so many loss of connectivity issues. I pray each each time I log on to the net for my connection to stay up long enough for me to check email. Evidentally, just as you're accessing your email, the fucken shit loses your connectivity. Never buy netgear products. They suck. Spend money on a linksys or something... well worth your money. Besides its cheaper and get better quality product. Enough said. Netgear sucks.

Posted by Umnipotent at October 2, 2005 09:10

netgear sucks ass. this router and wireless card are biggest peices of shit i have ever used in my life. after a FUCKING WEEK to get this thing set up, a week of being constantly on the phone with the tech support people IN GODDAMN INDIA, i was about ready to go insane. one tech guys acutally told me "i dont konw what to do". what the hell, my router is a few rooms away, and it has taken me about 30 minutes of fiddling with the goddamn router and wireless card to get enough connection to post this. a few rooms away, and i can never get stable connection. if someone closes a door near the router, it dies, if someone walks near it, it dies, if someone even picks up a GODDAMN TELEPHONE it dies. what the hell netgear, what the fucking hell. dont even think about buying this if you intend to play any online game made within the past five years, in my opinion, its better with 56k......fuck netgear, fuck their tech support, fuck their shitty products, fuck their bugs, shitty drivers and heres to them wasting hours of my life trying to configure the goddamn piece of shit they sold me. o and fuck compusa for selling it and sayin it was good.

Posted by ................. at October 4, 2005 16:35

Netgear are a bunch of cunts. trying to get thier shit products to work I thought hey I know I'll read the help. Clicked on the help and all it said was 'Help text should go here' what a load of shit how the fuck can a company as big as netgear not be bothered to write the help.

cunts. i hope they all die!

Posted by AK at October 5, 2005 23:17

Got the Netgear DG834GT and you can not allow ports to more than one pc at a time in firewall rules.

Looking for a new one now, what a waste of £89.99

Posted by Marcus at October 11, 2005 18:34

I've had to fight netgear for months to get them to issue an RMA. Worthless Tech Support. There's nothing technical about telling somebody to RESTART THEIR ROUTER.

I have two Netgear Wireless Routers both 802.11g the WGR614v2 and the FWG114Pv1 -- they both have the exact same problem. A quick search of the web shows that there are LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of other people that have the same issue... Router/Access Point drops all wireless connections (wired connections still work fine) and the only way to get wireless back is to power cycle the device. I can CONSERVATIVELY SAY this happens 2-3 times a day... sometimes 6-12 (once an hour) if I use it all day.

Yes, Raj, tech support guy, I AM ON THE LATEST FIRMWARE... v2.0_18 -- I don't care what you say -- either change your website to reflect your opinion of current firmware -- or accept that my answer matches your website's available firmware downloads.

No, setting the MTU to 1300 DOESN'T fix the problem... remember the last time I called in and you had me do that? Yeah, that didn't work.

Oh, you want me to soft-reboot it and reconfigure the router? Yeah, we did that on call #1 and call #3. Don't have any more solutions on your sheet of paper? Yeah, give me an RMA. That's all I wanted when I first called in 8 months ago.

Finally ...

Bought the FWG114P last November... Started having issues around late December/early January... Blamed it on my parents (I bought the router for them) for 4 months until April... opened my first support call... "Sorry your 90 days are up... please use email to request tech support."

Called them again in May... "you can pay for premium service, sir, or you can reset your router."

Spent TWO DAYS trouble shooting this in June...

Spent another TWO DAYS trouble shooting this in August...

Called the RMA line in September... "sorry sir, you must open a ticket with technical support to get an RMA number."

Called in September... "sat on hold for 40 minutes... no answer."

Called today...
tech: "sir, it's a software problem."
me: "no it's not... did you see my call from this Spring? we already troubleshot the software problem."
tech: "sir, please change the MTU."
me: "ok... now the router has locked up and won't respond."
tech: "please reconnect to the router."
me: "I can't... it doesn't show up anymore... I applied the MTU change and it disappeared... my wireless printer has gone off-line and so has my laptop."
tech: "please reconnect to the router."
me: "do you want me to power cycle the router?"
tech: "please reconnect to the router."
me: "do you want me to restart the router so I can connect to it?"
tech: "sir, yes."
me: "ok it's restarted now. I can connect."
tech: "ok, sir, I believe that your problem is now fixed and you should try and use it for a few days."
me: "no, it's not fixed. look -- this is EXACTLY what the guy on the last call said to do. I looked in the help notes on the right side of the configuration interface. It suggested changing the MTU, I've already tried this. It isn't it."
tech: "well sir..."
me: "this is a hardware issue... I've spent 6 months fiddling with this and I'd like it replaced. Let me talk to your supervisor."
tech: "please hold."
me: "ok"
tech : "ok sir, let us try a soft restart. I want you to hold in the button on the back and we'll reprogram all your settings. Your access key and ssid will change."
me: "I've already done this. MANY MANY MANY times. I'm troubleshooting somebody else's router at my house because we wanted to elimate anything in their enviroment that might cause this. My wireless router, which is currently off, worked fine here."
tech: "sir, what we need to do is restart your router."
me: "let me talk to your supervisor."
tech: "ok, sir, please hold."

tech : "ok sir, let us restart your router."
me: "listen. either you give me an RMA or I throw this thing away and I make sure to tell EVERYONE I know NEVER to buy your product again. This is honestly one of the worst technical support experiences I've ever had... FOUR phone calls to get a $150 piece of equipment replaced. I have the current firmware. I know what I'm doing. I setup wireless networks for people for a living. I know a messed up wireless router when I see one. I have surfed the internet and find LOTS of articles and webpages from people complaining about EXACTLY my problem... the router drops wireless connections at random... 3 times one day... then nothing for a day then 5 times the next day... and you keep telling me this is a software issue. Well it's either your software or your hardware and your latest firmware and your last two revisions v2.0_17 and v2.0_10 have NOT resolved it. I've been beyond patient. I would like to talk to your supervisor."
tech: "sir, please hold."

tech: "sir, we've found that this is a hardware issue and will be issuing you an RMA."


Sweet Jebus!

Posted by Ryan Sinn at October 18, 2005 00:55

I got a WG111 USB connector and used it on a new machine. There was Blue Screen of deaths errors, restarts for no reason, drop out rates, Stuck screen at Boot up. I just thought my PC was shit, spent days pullin my hair out getting mad, thinking I just bought a crap pc.

Then I find out that the pc is great the USB Netgear card is shit. Its so annoying, wasted so many hours, prob nakerd up my pc as well..

But I give them sum credit there Laptop cards work great, just the desktop stuff sucks balls!

Posted by Dan at October 19, 2005 03:41

Netgear works right out the box just fine. You losers on dumb@$$ dsl need to bridge your fuck1ng modems. And no, just resetting a modem will NOT bridge it by default.

Dorks

Posted by formetopoopon at October 20, 2005 08:43

netgear, i would comment but my netgear device wouldn't allow me to connect to the interweb :P

Posted by duder at October 22, 2005 08:39

I have a Netgear DG834GT, and I have to say I'm quite disappointed. I bought it for my parents and have found it to be very temperamental. Random lock ups that require it to be turned off/on, loss of wireless connection, and after running diagnostics, I find there's a 5% packet loss. I've upgraded to the latest firmware, and will continue to play around with it, but am not impressed.

I also own a Draytek Vigor 2600 and KCorp KLG575 both of which are excellent. The KCorp especially due to it's price/performance. I've hooked them up in the same environment and don't have a single problem.

I have to say the Netgear tech support is very poor too. From my experience it seems like a group of phone support staff with limited technical knowledge, who are just clicking through on screen instructions not really aware of real world problems.

Posted by Rob at October 26, 2005 11:02

Yes, i now have the very same router, and found this site. I must agree, netgear sucks the ass. Upstairs, I can't connect to AOL, because windows can't find the router, but the adapter can!!

peice of junk...

Posted by Jon Jones at January 9, 2006 17:50

I hate my Netgear WGT624v2. In order to play a simple game like Starcraft, I have to DISABLE the SPI firewall and enable remote internet pinging, and make my home network as obvious for hackers as it could ever get.

Posted by Gordon at January 19, 2006 02:49

I am not going to get into the whole Netgear sucks deal, even though they do, all I want to say is that I spent 43 minutes (was on cell phone and I checked the call length) on hold. After said 43 minutes I was abruptly transferred to an answering system advising me that all representatives were busy, leave my name and number and somebody would call me back. After 43 fucking minutes!!! As a former tech support rep, all I can say is that right there made me lose any remaining faith I might have had in their products. Netgear, your shite support was the reason you lost me as a customer...good riddance to bad rubbish. Oh yeah, I especially like the part where the tell you that you can only get tech support if your product is registered and the only way to register Netgear's shite is on-line!!! fucking dickwads, if I could get on-line I wouldn't need your shite support! fucking brilliant!!!

Posted by Charles at February 3, 2006 02:36

i bought a dell notepad with a wireless netgear router it sucks. no manuals and when you phone you get india with someone whose accent is so bad i cannot understand a word. i feel netgear as a company sucks and should be taken to court?
i hope to broadcast in uk to prevent anyone dealing with netgear

Posted by jim at February 4, 2006 21:27

NETFAKEERS CAN SUCK ALL DONKEY BALLSIN THE WORLD DONT BUY ANY THING THAT COMES FROM NETGEAR EVER!!!!!!!!

Posted by ToXeR at February 16, 2006 00:39

K guys I get the fact that netgear sux balls but will you please tell me how to disable the fukin SPI I have a feeling that is causing most of my problems.

Posted by Jason McCoy at February 16, 2006 00:55

Hey Guys I have a Netgear router and Im wondering how to Unblock sites that the admin computer has blocked. Ive already tried going to http://192.168.1.1 And found out that the admin has changed the password cause it isnt the default one Admin//Password. I have access to the Admin computer if that would help. Is there any way I can unblock the sites with having access to the Admin comp. Or resetting the password. Email Me at Kingy45@yahoo.com if you can find a way thanks guys.

Posted by Zack at February 22, 2006 14:52

I had a LinkSys wireless router for over a year, and it worked great! Then, one sad day - it died. I still don't know why or how.

To replace it, I got a netgear wireless router, and I thought it was great! ..but not for long. Soon after getting everything set up, any computers trying to connect wirelessly would tend to drop the connection, despite having "full bars". The only solution to this is to reboot the router. This becomes very inconvenient when you're doing it once every couple hours!!

I've tried updating drivers, firmware, etc., messing with settings, and nothing helps! Even if the computer is brought right next to the router it does things like this - things that the LinkSys router never did.

This thing belongs in the trash. Back to LinkSys I go..

Posted by Josh at February 22, 2006 22:20

Reasons why NOT to buy Netgear.

1. Products only work for about a week before they go wrong

2. Customer support is NOT supportive - the Customer is always WRONG.

3. Customer support does NOT know what they are doing - getting me to do the same procedure 5 times while on the phone is a joke, if it didn't work after the first 2 times why would you expect it to work after 5 attempts???

4. Customer support doesn't understand what you are saying, and it is difficult to understand what they are saying - there is a lot of "Can you say that again", and "I don't understand what you are saying, could you please say it again"

etc..

Posted by dozey_dude at February 23, 2006 12:42

i just made the mistake of buying a netger wpn824 router and just found out by the crappy indian tech support who didn't answered my question, by answering my question with the previous answer(damn tech support wont answer a question they don't like)that you cannot change the user name from admin which decreases my security by half, time to go to another router company other than linksys or netgear!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by dave at February 28, 2006 21:31

I'd just like to tell everyone about the FVX538, how it is a horrible product, and that you shouldn't waste your money on it.

I have used almost every version of firmware that has come out for this router and it just gets worse and worse. First off, the local loopback feature has NEVER worked. I have spent hours emailing back and forth with their firmware team and they cannot get it working.

The router gets locked up a lot, and you need to reboot it to get any traffic to pass through. Sometimes it decides it wants to stop forwarding ports for the hell of it.

The QoS doesn't work properly. I doubt it uses real QoS, it's probably just some crappy netgear implementation. In fact, when QoS is enabled, it seems to be worse. If I'm downloading something, and try to make a phone call, my voice is delayed for up to 10 seconds on the other end. Netgear says it's my VoIP adapter which is crap cause it works fine on a real router.

The router's "built in" SIP feature is useless. I have tried every single possible combination of enable/disable SIP algorithms, port forwarding, QoS, and still have constant VoIP problems. A piece of crap linksys router does this fine, why can't a $350 business router? Netgear support is no help whatsoever. They refuse to admit that their wonderful product could EVER have ANYTHING wrong with it. Actually, they don't even have a @#%@ clue what I'm talking about in the first place. What is local loopback? What is SIP? What is voip?

The VPN feature is equally as horrible. It's the same exact interface that was on the FVL328, which had it's share of problems.

So unfortunately, this router seems to be incapable of any real business use. I will never ever buy another netgear product again and I would advise everyone here to do the same. Yes, I could have spent a little more and gotten something decent, but I thought I would give them the benefit of the doubt that they could actually make a DECENT product. Anyway.. thanks for listening, and if anyone else has had these problems or more with their FVX538, please let me know.

Posted by Jason at March 2, 2006 16:39

I would like to agree, netgear blows. I have a NetGear wireless router(WGR614 v5) and I can't even play starcraft without lagging to the point where I have to alt+tab out. It's rediculous... And whats even more pathetic is im hooked directly to the router.. If you guys have any suggestions, my email is WhySoSuk@hotmail.com, I probly wont be able to find this site again :-X

Posted by Ryan at March 10, 2006 10:27

I AGREE NETGEAR IS A PAIN ITS GIVING ME A HEADACHE I BEEN TRYIN TO HOOK UP THIS NETGEAR WIRELESS ROUTER FOR 2 DAYS NOW UN PLUG PLUG BACK IN UNPLUG PLUG BACK IN AND NOTHIN WORKS
I READ SOME NETGEAR SITES AND EVERYBODIES ALL HAPPY WITH THE SETUP LIKE IT TOOK THEM 10 MINUTES TO SETUP THATS BS WELL THEM ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THIS NETGEAR SITUATION


WHY THEY GOT TO MAKE IT SO HARD TO SETUP A DAMN ROUTER

Posted by RYAN at March 22, 2006 09:40

You are all noobs who dont understand anything about computers, so fuck off.

And its not hard to setup a router, if you cant do it, you are a noob. Thats it.

Posted by me at March 23, 2006 23:17

^^ That guy is a douche bag and doesn't know anything about networks. Buy Linksys. It's that F-ing simple. The giveaway is the name "Cisco" - it just so happens to be the greatest networking equipment known to man, (and large corporations). But if you notice Linksys is a sub of Cisco. Just put 2 and 2 together, chances are they make good shit.

Posted by Matt at March 30, 2006 04:21

Folks I just could not resist, why don't you get a clue.

Run a search for Linksys sucks, D link sucks, or the make/model of your choosing or if you dare customers suck or users suck.

Strangely everybody sucks!?

50% of all products returned to any retailer as defective are fine the end user did not, could not, would not read the directions (quick start/setup guide) and or the manual or for corn sakes Goggle it.

Frankly I would say it much higher then that.

Customers call in to any manufactures FREE tech support and think they are talking to the physic friends network.

The problem.
"it use to work and now it doesn't, the last thing I did two (insert the date or time of your chose here) was (insert non applicable activity or unsupported activity here).

"It's your router, adapter, widget and I want you to fix it!"

Now that I have heart you feelings, I will commiserate with you.

Yes I have have purchased things that have not worked and could not get then to work.

You know what I do? If I think the item is broken I exchange it. Yes that's right I try things before the return period runs out. Then if that does not fix it I buy something else.

Note: Buying something and sticking it in your closet for two years then taking it out to use it and finding it will not work with your PC/network or thats it's broken, sucks and is your fault not the maker of the product. So now YOU can not return it or in some cases are out of warranty, Sucks to be you.

And guess what?

There are some hard and software combinations that just will not work together and no amount of driver, utility or Service packs and BIOS updates will correct it.

Why? Will Gee, there are how many hardware makers, and how many software makers. Can any body test everything with everything else NO.

Thats what user groups and forums are for. Find out what works with your game, your software. Just don't buy something and expect it to work, look for compatibility.

A brand new router may have two year old technology or firmware. Also just because you bought yesterday does not mean it hasn't been sitting in a warehouse some where for a long, long time.

Oh by the way, IF IT'S NOT BROCK DON'T FIX IT!

DO NOT DO UPDATES JUST TO DO THEM.

If your widget works leave it alone and it may continue working for you.

"Remember information is your friend and never, never show fear for when they smell fear they will attack."

Excerpted from When PC's Attack.

Posted by Brad at April 7, 2006 22:20

Yeah. Netgear is such a heap of shit it makes me sick. It worked fine for for about a month then it started to fuck up so bad i now hav to sit hugging the router for my laptop to get any connection- which defeats the fucking object of having a laptop AND a bloody wireless network. Its doubly sickening when i have perfect signal but my page comes up with 'Cannot find server@ !!! wot in the name of blue shite is all that about!

I found that linksys was no better either. Lynksys and its bloody bum-chum belkin. I think theres a rival to Compussy for shitty computer products from Pissyworld. (aka PC world) as i type this i have infact been disconnected. how fucking ironic is that?! i think Netgear should be outlawed off the planet and one thing id love to do before i die is take a shit through the letter box at Netgear headquarters!

Posted by Ben at April 11, 2006 19:17

Well, my sister's had hers for a while now and it's been working fine :S

Posted by Emma at April 12, 2006 20:34

Well, my sister's had hers for a while now and it's been working fine :S

Posted by Emma at April 12, 2006 20:34

NETGEAR - hope you choke with your fuking service & products.

Worst customer service ever. After upgrading software from their web site my router (FM114)refused to work. When I’ve called their customer service they said there is nothing wrong with the router and offered me a pay per incident service or free email help. I told them they could stick it in their ass. My router worked before an update and did not after.
I’ve spend several hours to resolve the problem myself.
Another thing is that it takes a big effort to understand them. Their Indian-English is not understandable. After few minutes talking to service rep I’ve had had enough. I was so pissed off like never before.
Another their product to stay away is USB Wireless Adapter MA111. It will crash whole system down shortly after plugging it in. It is not worth spending hours to figure out what is wrong with it.
In conclusion:

-STAY AWAY FROM NETGEAR

Posted by Jerry at April 13, 2006 15:47

Oh yes netgear do indeed SUCK!!

I just bought a brand new netgear DG834PN 'Range Max' router & its by far the biggest sack of s*it I have ever used.

Firstly, the wireless randomly drops whenever it fancies... requiring you to disconnect & reconnect every few hours (USEFUL!)

Secondly, approximately every night my ADSL connection dies requiring me to reconnect manually (FANTASTIC!)

Prior to this I was using a perfectly good Draytek router but its wireless was slow hence the upgrade... but now I wish I never bothered!!!

Useless bunch of w*nkers!

Posted by Wilhelm at April 25, 2006 21:01

It would be nice to say something positive about Netgear but that is impossible. What could be simpler than XP plug and play and install a router? Netgear has taken a perfectly simple idea and turned it in to a colossal waste of time and money. If you are ever presented with the opportunity to purchase one of their fine products...RUN

Posted by Ric at April 28, 2006 01:17

BRO. IM WITH YOU. FUCK NETGEAR - THOSE FUCKING FAGGOT WANKERS. 150 DOLLARS ON THEIR NEW SPANKING NEW RANGEMAX 240 WPNT834.

WHAT DO I GET? SHIT THAT DISCONNECTS IF I EVEN THINK OF ONLINE GAMING. ITS GREAT FOR YOUR AVERAGE SHEEPLE THAT JUST BROWSE THE WEB OR DOWNLOAD. BUT MAN I CANT GET A DAMNED GAME OF WC3, STARCRAFT, COUNTER-STRIKE, OR ANYTHING TO WORK.

FUCK THEM AND HOPE THEY GO BANKRUPT THE FUCKING FAGGOTS.

BESIDES RECIEVING THAT LAME ASS RESPONSE FROM TECHSUPPORT ( IN NEW DELHI, INDIA ) HOW THEY HAVE NO PLANS TO UPDATE THEIR FIRMWARE TO RESOLVE ISSUES WITH ONLINE GAMING. THIS AIN'T JUST PC GAMING BUT XBOX LIVE. FUCK THEM FUCK THEM FUCK THEM.

PISSED 4 LIFE

Frank
-San Jose, California

Posted by Frank Young at May 4, 2006 10:41

OMFG!!!!

netgear is the fucking crappest load of shit u can buy. i bought a netgear dg834gt wireless 108mbps router, firstly, it only runs at half the speed its supposed to do, (its meant to do 108mbps)even with a laptop touching the fucking arial!but thats nothing, every month the whole load of shit crashes and everything as to be reset, but differnetly, i originaly had it completely wireless, and internet, file and printer sharing etc all worked. this time its fucked up so bad that nothing fucking works. i was hapily playing MORPG guildwars when it stopped, the router fucked up. i reset it and guildwars dont work and the interenet doesnt either. i tried port fowarding etc, didnt work, and i never had to do that before anyway.

-----SO LISTEN UP!!!!!- N E T G E A R is a FUCKING LOAD OF SHIT AND A WASTE OF YOUR TIME---I HOPE THEY GO FUCKING BANKRUPT AND THE BOSS HAS TO LIVE ON THE STREETS AND CLEAR UP COW SHIT FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE!!!!

Posted by rob millington at May 11, 2006 21:36

First of all, Brad, who puts Netqueer on a pedestal, learn how to spell.

Next, all of you that have no trouble with Netgear - you got lucky, so don't try to make us feel like idiots.

I hate Netgear - any site with username/password (i.e. gaming, adult) just hangs until "Page Cannot Be Displayed". The only problem is in my town the only place to buy routers, this ball sack is the only thing in my price range. I'll do something, though. This has got to go.

One more thing, the tech support - my fucking god!!! They don't know what they're doing, they can't speak English, and worst of all - how rude can you get. They should be glad they have a job that doesn't consist of standing behind a counter selling beer and smokes and saying "Thank you. Come again". Dot head mother fuckers.

Shitty companies eventually do themselves in.

Posted by welp2bad at May 25, 2006 08:11

'page cannot be displayed

The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The website may be experiencing technical difficulties or you may need to BEAT THE EVER LOVING SHIT OUT OF THAT HEAP OF SHIT FUCKING NETGAYER FUCKING ROUTSHITTER!!!!'

Posted by Ben at May 25, 2006 09:44

NETGEAR BLOWS HARD DICK. My linksys router died about 4 months ago so i tried netgear. Fuckin disgrace. it is hella hard to configure and drops links all the time then i constantly have to powercycle the piece of fuckin shit. Fuck them im goin back to linksys it netgear blocks every fuckin game out.. FUCK NETGEAR

Posted by Mike at May 29, 2006 22:22

the fact that i am posting this means this POS has cost me time money and anger. everyone should know they are in for a problem purchasing netgear.. thanks staples, bite me netgear... Save 10 bucks and lose 20 hours in dropped connections... I am off to buy a proper router... way to burn yourselves forever.

r

Posted by star at May 30, 2006 09:16

netgear WPNT834 is less secure than my last $20 iogear router. at least my cheap router stealthed ports!

why would netgear's own support site direct customers to grc.com for a port scan that they KNOW customers will fail?

Posted by devil at June 6, 2006 06:21

Actually.... am I one of the few that encountered no problems with some wireless Netgear equipment?

HA! Sweet mother Mary am I heck.

Just this week some virus decides to latch it's filthy little mitts onto my PC... after a long hard fight I managed to slew the beast. Of course, you'd say "Well, blah blah blah." Of course equipment isn't expected to work 100% after a viral protection.

But wait... I don't stop shitting completely after i've had diorrhea..?

Alas, after a good year or so of loyal service by the aforementioned Netgear apparatus, it's suddenly decided to rebel against it's master. The cute little Wireless USB "thing" now requires constant physical intervention to regain a connection. And I mean every 15 minutes at most. I've even got so infuriated i've ripped the USB cable out, swung it about my head like a mace slaying several orcs, then finally brought it crashing down onto my bed, knowing if I adjusted my aim I could well destroy it and be singing sweet blues minus an internet connection.

I shall preserve my rage.

Of course the router followed suit, and what were once soul chums, so close you'd assume they were in a gay relationship... are now schozophrenic zomfg nubcakez switching that "Connection established" light on and off so quickly you'd think they were epileptics in a hard-house rave party.

I cannot understand the sudden failure to co-operate with my PC. Even my PC gets confused when one minute it's on the internet.... then I do something and it's gone.


And Indian customer services.... don't get me started. Netgear, you can go get fawta'd for that.

That is all I have to say.

gg

Posted by Tim at June 15, 2006 20:45

I also bought the Netgear RangeMax a while back. Horrible for game play especially World of Warcraft, it won't even load the game online..Netgear support was worthless, they wanted me to pay for support via e-mail since I purchased the router over 90-days ago..

Screw Netgear..

Posted by Paul at June 19, 2006 06:05

i have a whole net gear setup in my house

the laptop has centrino, connects fine, never drops connection.

the gaming pc drops it al the fucking time, but only when you play games. you can surf for hours and its quick, but as soon as you play a game the card loses connection to the router.

ive updated the router now and when you try to remotley reboot it it cuts you off and crashes.

dont buy netgear.

Posted by porsche911r101 at June 24, 2006 03:43

Netgear are a bunch of C**ts
Had to install for a client who had was using Ar*eh*les On Line and of cousre they say you cant play with their wireless ball unless you buy crappy Netgear....bwooockkk (sorry)
whole setup failed so phoned helpline in some godforsaken sweatshop in sunny mumbai.
After he checked that my whole house and my neighbours houses all complied with the extended version of the national building regs, he went on to fail miserably to get the c*nting unborn son of a pig to work. After bidding my fond farwells to "geofrey" sahib, I tried the upgrade route, and after a 10 f*cking MB download on the backup dial-up modem, we eventually got it to work.
Hatefull pieces of c*nting crap netgear.
Another client had been persuaded by PC World to buy two Netgear wirless router/APs and asked me if they were ok and could I install said. Refused and told them to go back and exchange for DLink.
PCW refused.....the utter c*nts so I suggested they ask for the GManager...that got the netgear groupies on the run...what is it with netgear...have they purchased the souls of PCW and AOL?

Posted by Jon at July 2, 2006 18:52

I have recently bought a netgear wireless adsl router. On the box it says set up in "5 clicks" what bullshit. It me 12 hrs to get the damm thing working with the main p.c. & taking about crap I haven't got the damm USB Adapter working with the 2nd p.c. I went through all the instruction step by step with a fine comb & still I don't have the piece of crap working & were did I get the piece of crap from DIXON the home hi-tech shit.

Posted by tim at July 3, 2006 14:51

After a long exhausting saga with Netgear, my grandfather bought a Linksys back in January. I was....relieved to say the least. During the first few days, the router was acting crappy, but after another few days, it hasn't acted up since. Hasn't dropped the connection, hasn't just lost it's connection with the ISP, etc.

We have decided to stay with Linksys and Belkin. The only thing pissing me off about Belkin is the wireless range sucks when the phone rings (2.4GHz) and I lose all bandwidth, and there was some DHCP leasing issues (ironically, my new Mac connects flawlessly). My mom's computer connected flawlessly, and everyone's computer works just fine.

It's strange. Guess it's that damned Intel Pro/Wireless 2200b/g wireless card (which by the way, sucks).

Anyways, Linksys and Belkin, good, D-Link, I've heard it go both ways, Netgear (pretty much shitty, though I know someone who hasn't had any issues with theres).

Posted by Benjamin at July 4, 2006 15:34

I too am not at all happy with Netgear. I was a loyal Netgear customer before anyone had really heard of them. They used to be the best and now are the worst. I will not use language like most of you here but I concur with your anger. My WPNT834 is the last Netgear product I ever intend to buy. Their policy on warranty support stinks and their equipment is buggy. For those who believe it is all the users fault, I have been working with routers, hubs, and switches on a professional and personal level for over 18 years now, and I have experienced issues with my Netgear products where it is simply equipment related. I am not saying that I haven't issues with other manufactures but at least their technical support works with you and resolves the issue. What I believe aggravates most of these folks is when they have isolated the issue to the hardware, Netgear wants to charge for technical support. Oh well, at least there are still some good companies out there and we have the freedom choose…goodbye Netgear.

Posted by Jim at July 8, 2006 20:01

We have sold loads of Netgear routers and get a fair few back because they have failed. Try talking to Netgear to get an RMA and you can't even get someone who can speak English. They keep you hanging on the 'phone for ages, don't listen or understand. We have stopped selling their stuff because it was damaging our business. What a bunch of ***********

Angie UK

Posted by angie at July 11, 2006 14:30

ya well I am very disapointed in the fact that netgear causes excruciating ping on Counter Strike Source. Without the router the ping is very low. With the router the ping becomse so great that Counter Strike won't even let me join.

Posted by Daniel at July 17, 2006 06:10

"I have recently bought a netgear wireless adsl router. On the box it says set up in "5 clicks" what bullshit. It me 12 hrs to get the damm thing working with the main p.c. & taking about crap I haven't got the damm USB Adapter working with the 2nd p.c. I went through all the instruction step by step with a fine comb & still I don't have the piece of crap working & were did I get the piece of crap from DIXON the home hi-tech shit"

dude it shows who is the fucking dumbass, if it took you 12hrs to setup a router.

redneck hillbilly fuck

Posted by beavis at July 26, 2006 13:23

fucking just thought i'd frigging join in on your wonderful, cunting swearing comment page.. it's been a bastard of a while since i fucking read so much shit in one bollocking place. oh & netgear btw.

;)

Posted by buck fackward at August 1, 2006 15:34

Why do Americans get so angry? Too much coke and war films/games?

If it doesn't work, take it back and swap it for another brand.., but you'll have just as many problems whatever you choose, unless you set it up properly.

Wireless suffers from interference, it's the laws of physics that "suck" not Netgear.


Posted by god at August 1, 2006 16:18

Have had a Netgear DG834PN since January. Seems I've been having the same problem as alot of others with random disconnects of both internet and wireless. Powering the router off then on sorts out the problem. I have finally managed to get them to send me a replacement (after numerous calls to Netgear tech support on the phone) and the replacement came today.
Lasted 5 mins before the same problem occurred. I mentioned on more than one occasion that internet searches I had done had shown that others have been having the same problems (and who have told Netgear) but they claim to be unaware of this. What a pile of crap. Their latest ruse was to tell me to change the microfilter - when I asked how this would cause wireless connectivity to drop he did not have an answer and just told me to do it and then to phone back. They'll be asking me to change my hairstyle soon, just in case it helps....
I wish I'd seen this forum before I bought it...

Posted by Simon at August 1, 2006 16:55

Does anyone ever have the problem where the connection is still valid but the Receive Packet rate is 0? It sucks balls.

Posted by Toast. at August 3, 2006 20:07

Forget about wireless. My Netgear router is hard-wired. After a reset, it's ok - for a while. Then it just gets slower and s l o w e r then it goes nowhere. I could have farted a better one than this.

My old D-Link was fine for two years then it would come and go. Signal, then no signal. Then it died. I think I'll try Linksys next.

Oh yea, and any company that subcontracts their tech support to India should have their balls pounded flat with a wooden mallet - no, forget that - titanium. When you ask for a supervisor, there is dead silence, then they tell you to repeat the same worthless tech action. I went through this five times. He refused to get his super! Just dead silence. I work with some of these cock-maggots also. Same rude, self-rightous, holier-than-thou attitude. Next time we go to war......

Posted by welp2bad at August 6, 2006 23:40

I've had the same problems with NetGear WG111T as above. Piece of crap! I'm also semi-tech literate, but have to keep pulling it out and/or reinstalling but it won't stay connected for more than a few hours at best. Back to long cables for now.

Posted by Bob at August 6, 2006 23:41

well i just wanna say that netgear can suck my d!ck cuz everytime i try to connect to internet it doesn't work, and i tried calling support, its always these indian people who have really strong accents and i can't hear sh!t about what their saying

Posted by Mike Cao at August 8, 2006 21:20

After 6 months of use (mostly dropping the broadband connection) I've decided it's total crap and going in the bin whre it belongs.

I should never of sold my wired Draytek Vigor 2600+ and therefore I'm buying another Draytek (this time wireless tho) to replace this pile of junk very, very soon.

Shame really, as I have used many Netgear products in the past whihc were fine, but how this got past their QA dept. I have no idea?... Perhaps they just did'nt test in enough?. Overall a nice looking bit of kit albeit a bit plasticy but very poor performance and not even worth a $1 now really - total rubbish.

Draytek are the best by far and they will get my money next without doubt!

Posted by Age at August 26, 2006 12:44

Netgear and Linksys both suck.

I have had two defective Linksys routers of different makes/models from two completely different suppliers in the last 3 weeks. One drops connection randomly and the other has sub 56k throughput. Tech support India says they will gladly give me two more...pass.

I am using wireless Netgear routers as pass through devices and while they do in fact work, you can no longer access the control panel if you change the device IP from anything but the two default IP's they intended you to use. Support India has no real idea why this is but the plan seems to be to throw out random answers and hope that I either go away or call the pay per incident line....pass.

I am now charging customers a little extra and building barebones machines running Freesco with wired rackmount switches. I'm not sure what I am going to do for wireless clients yet but I can't afford to keep pissing off clients or making three and four visits to the same locations to replace defective hardware.

Posted by P.C.S. at August 27, 2006 10:57

NETGEAR--ugh...after a quick system restore this POS is going back to Radio Shack....they should spend less time and effort on flashy disco ball lights and more on honest tech support. Sat on hold for twenty minutes....probably to India...rang the pay for service line....they picked up in minute....product is simply crap, company sucks....come on business Darwinisn....let these douchebags die already

Posted by YeahMAN! at September 2, 2006 13:52

I agree that Netgear is shite. I bought one of their f*cked up routers only to find the wireless will only enable if a modem is connected to its port. Shite

Posted by Paul at September 5, 2006 08:33

i'm from india
i bought this fuckin peice of crap
i am fucking frustrated
plastic shit
tech support makes u wanna suicide
being in india i cannot access their :indian" call center
damn these guys
if a come across a netgear employee i'll wont hesitate to physically assault him/her .. no 2nd thoughts on that

all sympathies with all you sufferers

add me to the frustrated customes list
Ankit

Posted by ankit at September 5, 2006 18:53

Netgear tech support guys get paid to say,"Sorry, I can't help you but I can direct you to the email tech support." Ummm, I can't send an email cuz the router doesn't work. WTF?! I would recommend Netgear to anyone who likes terrible products and incompitent tech support

Posted by jon at September 8, 2006 20:38

Yup - Netgear is problematic. I had OK experience with my FA311 for about 6 months and then things started getting hinky. recieved packets would slow down and then die even though i still had a good connection. It would never stay connected for more than a few hours. My skype conversations would never last longer than 10 minutes. I can click on the "repair" function and that will get it working again for a while but eventually i have to disable and re-enable the connection to get it working again. and try re-installing the drivers if you have XP. They don't exist and if you use the 2k drivers you have to reboot in MS dos mode - what the hell is that? Time to switch to a different card!!!

Posted by bob at September 10, 2006 13:49

how about this one :)

bought 2 wpnt834's
rangemax 240

well they worked :O shock horror

bought a 3rd -> faulty
the new replacement -> faulty
the new replacement's replacement -> faulty

do u see a pattern emerging here?

i do....

get a refund -> buy a belkin

i think they should be branded RangeSUX

2/5 routers work = 60% failure
i bet there QC and R&D dept's work damn hard for those kinda figures

and yes i'm a techie and yes i'm qualified and yes i've been using routers before most muppets even knew what a megaybyte was and who think a Token Ring is something Golem is after....

Ordinarily i'd say that most people should be shot before they are allowed to setup a router, however, if you complain about it not working and it was a netgear...... i might just save my bullets

c4n

Posted by V at September 15, 2006 00:28

think most you guys sucks, if you can't manage to setup a network using netgear products, you are propably not worth doing naything with IT equipment, go back to your mummies and Macs....

Posted by thierry at September 20, 2006 18:50

8/24/2006 7:11:00 PM Provided log file. BT had already tested the line, I had changed the filter three times, changed my phone, I have 3 devices connected onto the network.

NO RELEVANT TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS PROVIDED!

9/21/2006 12:35:00 AM

Now I have to either be without a router for 4 days (RMA) OR pay them £18 for an in warranty swap (CIP).

I used to love Netgear from years of working with them but I agree the last three years have seen them in the fucking shithole.

Posted by Claire Blackshaw at September 21, 2006 08:09

We've always had dodgy wireless connectivity on our Netgear network, but now the router has inexplicably dropped all signal ROUGHLY ONCE A FREAKING HOUR FOR THE LAST TWO FUCKING DAYS!!! (and that's no goddamned exaggeration). The only way to get back any connection is to yank out the power cable and reboot the bloody thing.

Bastard. Wanker. Where's my box of ACME dynamite, I'm running out of cuss words.

Posted by CrashUK at October 19, 2006 01:44

Yes I am fully with the Netgear Sucks campaign
I have been trying to setup a VPN and saw some bad comments on a website about the Netgear VPN Prosafe software not working.

I thought I Would give them the opportunity before listening to comments from websites (BIG MISTAKE). I emailed the sales team with my concerns with attachments from the Website concerned.

I received an email back from them(Damian Trendell) who stated that if I ran into any problems that he would put me through to level 2 support.

I took this to be re-assurance thinking I would get backup if things went wrong and went ahead and purchased the prosafe software VPN05L.

Needless to say I ran into problems despite reading many articles. I phoned up Netgear who put me through to level 2 support and they said I must downgrade my firmware from V3.01.25 to V2.10.22 and told me to ring back if problems and giving me tech support number.

Downgrading the firmware didn't work and I phoned the number given that happened to be Level 1 support. Without going into the language difficulties I had getting through to them and getting past their lack of technical knowledge they told me I must upgrade the firmware from V2.10.22 to V3.01.25 (What I had previously)
He left with the parting phrase upgrade this firmware and all your problems will be solved.

I went through the motions and put the firmware back to V3.01.25 and it still didn't work.

I then phoned up the sales team and they put me through to level 2 support since I didn't have the time to wait 24 hours for them to get back to me.

Anyway once through the level 2 team asked a couple of questions and said that they don't deal with VPN that this is a premium support issue and that to get this fixed I must subscribe to this.

This premium support charge is extortionate, charged per incident and the maximum length of call is 30 minutes and they don't guarantee to fix the problem.

WHY SHOULD I EVEN HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO GET A SHIT PRODUCT TO WORK IN THE FIRST PLACE!

If there were oscar awards for shitness Netgears products would win it hands down. Oh no I forgot they would probably be beaten to that award by their technical support team.

Posted by derekorr at October 20, 2006 19:15

Yes I am fully with the Netgear Sucks campaign
I have been trying to setup a VPN and saw some bad comments on a website about the Netgear VPN Prosafe software not working.

I thought I Would give them the opportunity before listening to comments from websites (BIG MISTAKE). I emailed the sales team with my concerns with attachments from the Website concerned.

I received an email back from them(Damian Trendell) who stated that if I ran into any problems that he would put me through to level 2 support.

I took this to be re-assurance thinking I would get backup if things went wrong and went ahead and purchased the prosafe software VPN05L.

Needless to say I ran into problems despite reading many articles. I phoned up Netgear who put me through to level 2 support and they said I must downgrade my firmware from V3.01.25 to V2.10.22 and told me to ring back if problems and giving me tech support number.

Downgrading the firmware didn't work and I phoned the number given that happened to be Level 1 support. Without going into the language difficulties I had getting through to them and getting past their lack of technical knowledge they told me I must upgrade the firmware from V2.10.22 to V3.01.25 (What I had previously)
He left with the parting phrase upgrade this firmware and all your problems will be solved.

I went through the motions and put the firmware back to V3.01.25 and it still didn't work.

I then phoned up the sales team and they put me through to level 2 support since I didn't have the time to wait 24 hours for them to get back to me.

Anyway once through the level 2 team asked a couple of questions and said that they don't deal with VPN that this is a premium support issue and that to get this fixed I must subscribe to this.

This premium support charge is extortionate, charged per incident and the maximum length of call is 30 minutes and they don't guarantee to fix the problem.

WHY SHOULD I EVEN HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO GET A SHIT PRODUCT TO WORK IN THE FIRST PLACE!

If there were oscar awards for shitness Netgears products would win it hands down. Oh no I forgot they would probably be beaten to that award by their technical support team.

Posted by derekorr at October 20, 2006 19:15

I should have bought the linksys. I got this shitgear router for my aunt now im in such a bad mood I want to punch somebodies teeth into the back of their throat and cut their head off on video and send it to ogrish.com. I HATE NETGEAR WITH A PASSION. Wireless Netgear WPN824 aka instant pissed in a plastic case!!!!!

Posted by DreadLock at October 25, 2006 07:00

Lol, i love this page. At least I know I'm not alone. In my experience with my *new* WGR614v6, the only thing that works well is the wireless access point feature. Partial loss of connectivity with the internet is the main problem that Netgear seems to have. I don't have any complaints about wireless connectivity. My other two pcs use d-link and edimax usb adapters and they work fine. I can access other pcs fine and well, but the one thing I can't do consistently is to be connected to the internet 24/7 like how i used to do with my linksys befsr41 and my d-link di-624+. Everything breaks, but this is the first product that i bought that is broken out of the box. If network companies just work together and think together, then our lives may become easier.

My linksys router, while it still lived, did a great job handling the internet but it died too quickly. My d-link router, while it still turned on, did a great job communicating with my modem but did horribly in the transfer and or accessing of files. My netgear router cannot handle my modem properly, is the only brand that forces me to mess with MTU and has to restart after every setting change but it handles wifi transfers great.

Lesson: Live with it. Nothing is perfect.
More practical lesson: diversify brands used and properly utilize their strengths. in my case, the network worked the best when i used a linksys router to deal with my modem and my netgear to act as a WAP. sticking to one brand sucks and may be a scam from networking companies. in any case, these companies are sucking our wallets dry.

Posted by eschen at October 26, 2006 10:27

This is classic Netgear folks. They sell crap! Period. There support is horrible and they even make you pay for support when they can't guarantee a resolution. That is dishonest. They know they sell crap and just don't care. Hubs and switches can work fine, but when you get into managed and cofured devices they break ALWAYS. I manage networks for a living and because of there "features" and low price I am always getting this crap pushed down my throat. I fight the good fight, but managers are cheap and when they come to me a week later because the switch still isn't working I just sit back and laugh and say "told you so." DON'T BUY NETGEAR. Also tell them how you feel. I have filled out several support questionairs and sent multiple emails to them about how unhappy I was with a product. They won't change unless they start to see how many customoers are unhappy.

Posted by Sabadam at November 3, 2006 16:35

Well,

I've been using my MA111 adapter for about 4 months. I've had problems on and off with it dropping the connection, some days more than ever(today i found this site b/c its dropping it every 10 minutes or so). So ya, tomorrow i'll drop the $30 on a DLINK and end this headache. I got this one for free anyway!! Not so free from the effort I've put in to get it to work....fuckin' peice of shit.

Posted by Chris at November 13, 2006 07:24

Im using the WGR614v6 and can't ftp my files to my website hosting server.. the ftp application just hangs saying 'blocking call received'. Surprisingly I cant even access yahoo mail. Although other websites seem to work.

When I take out the netgear router from the loop and directly connect to the dsl modem everything works fine.

Are there some settings I need to do? Anybody here can help me with this. No support available on this from netgear.

Posted by rohit at November 14, 2006 07:33

Support and Netgear should not appear in the same sentence they have no clue what it means.

You basically have an issue where a supplier is selling a 'technology' to people, most of whom have no clue about the technology or its commercial equivalent or standards and bottom line will accept issues that simply would not be tolerated in a commercial network.

Netgear and a few other domestic network product suppliers rely on this for selling half engineered, poorly tested sh!te.

Netgear = Sh!te of the first order, poor firmware, poor support, unstable hardware.

D-Link = OK ish, depends on the product, support better than most.

Belkin = Flakey Flakey Flakey

3COM = Solid but support non existent if you have problems they are 100% your problem.

My Netgear psecific experience :-

USB WPN111 - Runs hot, interferes with USB hard drives.

DG834G v2- mind of its own, can't get a basic date right when sending SNMP messages, no upgraded FW for a year now despite 2 open calls for PROVEN problems, DHCP is USELESS, v3 firmware NOT compatible. Disconnections .. frequent, random, sometimes not seen by MS but seen by network analyser - NOT A CHANNEL ISSUE !!! nobody in range, DECT phones specially selected etc etc.

WPN824 - likes to be involved in other segments whether you ike it or not, won't configure properly without DSL modem connected, MIMO bleeds into every damn channel from 1 to 11 hence, channel is fixed on 6 if you use 108mbps and this cannot be changed, if your neighbours use 6 beware.

Bridging .. not with Netgears stupid SW you don't let Bill do it.

The nail in the coffin for me is the crap router firmware these guys produce.

DHCP .. configured with 2 reservations in the table, MAC address 02:50:8D:7E:44:D6 gets 192.168.1.1, MAC address 00:0D:3A:54:0F:32 gets 192.168.1.2 simple enough right ...

Not for frikkin Netgear it isn't. They get anything that the stupid WD834G feels like throwing its way, anything BUT the correct ones ... which is something of a problem when you are trying to use frikkin port forwarding for SQL servers and FTP servers etc... (I access the systems from wherever when away on business) ...

Before another Netgear smart alec says fix the IP's ... if Mr Gates software worked properly in this mode then I would but SMB and workgroups don't work properly with fixed IP addresses where routers are involved, I have no intention of starting VPN's and proxies just to make allowances for none functional sh!te.

So .. after encountering those rude Indian fookers (took half a day of trying to get through a phone system that uses the same routing tables I think), trying to explain to the stupid fookers that I am a CS graduate with 20 years in the business and that I configure networks a little more complex than a domestic plug in the wall box for a living, after being told to use the latest firmware, reset the box, stand on one leg rub head counter clockwise and stomach clockwise while reciting shakespear on Wednesday blah blah. I proved categorically using the actuall packets captured during the negotiation session that the correct MAC is presented but do Netgear accept it is their problem .. hell no.

Look you netgear f*ckwits that this is 100% a firmware issue, Look bit of simple logic follows >>

If MAC addresss = X offer IP addresss Y

... not difficult, except for netgear.

Sick of making allowances for ar5es who sell shit because 95% of those who are suckered into buying it wouldn't know any better so all my Netgear stuff has an appointment with a 5 series BMW.

Oh and for those who say your network is OK ... 1 PC to a box then to a socket in the wall does not equal network, and from what I read Netgear have problems with even that.

Posted by Egor at November 20, 2006 11:30

well would have to agree netgears blows chunks big time while trying to get a decent connection between wg111 dongle and netgear router tried connecting through 3 different configuration softwares, mainly netgear, microsofts and aol all 3 fucked upped continuously and the pc even started to crash while downloading files if they ever reached top speed. Best thing about the crashes were that i would loose the connection altogether and have to uninstall and re install man what a piece of shit.

Posted by jez at November 22, 2006 12:32

I agree, Netgear sucks AND blows. I have only used their Firewall products, which clearly do not work like they used to. I hadn't used them in years, because their old product always worked for me. Then I "rediscovered" them and bought the top-of-their-line FVX538 for a business client. After 5 days and two routers, I finally accepted the fact that this thing will NEVER work right. Tech support was the WORST, even in the 90-day free period. I actually did get someone in the US, around midnight (he said it was the change-over period). Perfect English, go figure. He was the only guy who actually solved ONE of the many problems, which had to do with Telnet dropouts after 5 minutes. He took me into the routers UNIX/LINUX operating system through telnet to do this, and showed me how to set up different timers for ports and such. He also made it quite clear that there is NO available documentation on this, and the India connection does not have access to that data (even though the source code was available at that time to anyone)! I could not waste any more time of the thing. My time is money, and I was in the red completely. I managed to talk the client into buying a Cisco 1721 K9/VPN (about 2200US)router to put in its place at the time. As you are probably aware, Cisco is not the easiest thing in the world to configure, but their tech support and documentation is way beyond belief. It took me all of 45 minutes to get the Cisco up and running with multiple tunnels. Since then, I have learned that if you by a higher-dollar D-Link (400/500US. I have a DFL-700 at another client), they put you straight through to level 3 tech support when you call - for the entire 3 year warranty period. I should have gone that route in the first place. Netgear Sucks, and I don't believe that they will ever be able to recoup their reputation....at least not with me. Thanks for the Rant Room.

Posted by zocalo at November 23, 2006 16:02

wtf netgear is such a rotton product. i got the wg111 usb wireless adapter. Holy gawd i didnt think such a fucked up pile of hardware could even make it into the consumer market. This thing crashes my PC when i play any game online, it cannot handle large data transfers without locking up. Its basicly a huge piece of shit for imbeciles who cannot install a pci card and only wanna browse the web on thier pc.
I took this back and installed a linksys pci wirless on my desktop
Netgear. You suck sour frog ass. I hope u assholes choke on a chicken bone and fall down a flight of stairs.
GG

Posted by Gabe at December 2, 2006 15:08

I have a Netgear FVS124G running and it looks like it has a major vulnerability hole.
A simple port-scan from an arbitrary site crashes the FVS124G so that I have to power-cycle the router. Never seen such a simple and effective DOS-attack.
Additionally, the FVS124G is advertized as VPN-Router, but exactly this functionality is not working. It cannot even tunnel a simple SSH-connection inbound - the crash from the port-scan also appears here.
I have a month of correspondence with Netgear support and the support seems to be as incompetent as the software development.
Pretty disappointing, I think, I'll return the router. Anybody out there who can really recommend a router from personal experience?

Posted by Jens at December 4, 2006 14:53

I'm a victim of the Netgear bullshit, too. My only question is "what the fuck were my parents thinking when they got that shit?"

Seriously, when you need it to work, it barely works at all. When you don't, it works just fine. I mean, what the fuck is that shit about? FUCK NETGEAR!!!

Posted by Joe at December 5, 2006 18:46

Maybe it could be user error? cos mine seems to be working fine..... but I am touching all the wood in the place and running outside in a second to touch the trees... hope its all sorted ......

Posted by qwerty30 at December 9, 2006 23:07

You guys are retards. Just because you don't know how to set something up properly it doesn't mean the hardware is shitty. It means you are thick. Sure there might be some bad apple routers from Netgear, if you expect every single one of their products to be perfect and work for 100 years without a glitch then you need to seek counciling. Netgear have some quality hardware and in my opinion make some of the best middle priced routers.

Posted by Netgear Rules at December 17, 2006 12:13

I bought a Netgear DG834PN router. The wireless connection drops every 5 minutes. My cousin bought the same router from a different store. He experiences exactly the same problem - frequent wireless signal drops. Netgear truly sucks!

Posted by Jamie at December 26, 2006 09:10

Fascinating comments. Netgear's products leave a lot to be desired. My task was simple. I have two new PCs with XP O/S's. This should not take an engineer to install the wireless device, right?

The first device installed on the first computer without a major problem. The problem arose when I attempted to install the 2.0 adapter device on the second computer to connect with the wireless device connected via SpeedStream modem, so I can have an Internet connection on both machines.

The second computer tells me that it cannot find the modem connection via computer one. Incidentally, the connection to the Internet on computer 1 is fine.

For the past few days, I have been attempting to reach one of Netgear's technical support people on its 24/7 phone service to help me install the device on machine #2, but I have generally only gotten dead air, although yesterday afternoon, I received 45 minutes of classical elevator music.

I check computer #2 for possible viruses, and there are none. However, this software has now decided to attack my new O/S, so that the Start menu has disappeared, so I have not been able to uninstall this device from machine #2.

I assume that I will have to reinstall the O/S and drivers in order to remove this piece of garbage.

Posted by Joel at December 29, 2006 13:12

i bought netgear router with wireless usb and bought a seperate wireless usb which cost around £125 (alot more than expected) but despite all of these comments mine is working fine. ive had it for about a month and is still working.

Posted by Andy at January 2, 2007 13:33

Instead of going on about NETGEAR SUCKS BIGTIME AND NETGEAR IS A CUNT ETC ETC>>> WHY DOESNT SOMEONE JUST TELL ME WHICH COMPANY HAS THE EASIEST, SIMPLEST WIFI AND MOST POWERFUL WIFI ROUTER GOING FOR A HOME THAT IS FULL OF WALLS??
THANK YOU NETGEAR HATERS.

Posted by Karl at January 5, 2007 19:25

Quite Honestly,I have a WPN 824 Range Max Netgear Router and a WPN511 Range Max pcmcia adaptor in my laptop and my house is 3000 sqft in size but the performance is just outstanding whereever you are in the house and the 24/7 tele support is truly a God send! Reading all these remarks about Netgear trully makes me wonder whether this is just the competition writing all these nasty things about Netgear!

Posted by Karl at January 6, 2007 12:56

I have to agree. I bought a WPNT834 based on a favorable review over at Tom's Hardware. For the network in my apartment, I have a couple of machines that connect to the router via wired Ethernet, and 3 laptops (my own and my roommates') that connect via standard 802.11g. I was willing to spend extra on a high-end router (even though we wouldn't be using the MIMO features) because the review indicated that the router coped well with interference (there are many, many wireless networks competing for frequencies in my building), and because it could supposedly maintain hundreds of independent connections without crapping out (since we all use bittorrent regularly, and I'm also an avid online gamer, this is another plus).

So, I got the router home, plugged it in, and set it up. Well, for a while it worked! Which is to say that with one machine plugged in to the wired ethernet port, I was able to complete the setup and start browsing the web. The wireless was another matter, however. For a while we could see the SSID broadcast, but not actually connect to the network. I thought it might be a security problem, so I temporarily disabled WPA, but there was no change.

Frustrated, as a stopgap measure I ran a length of ethernet cable from the router to each of my roommates' rooms. Sure the yellow cables are ugly, and a hazard for tripping, but at least they get us all Internet access. Sort of. The router sometimes crashes, and won't even let me get at the admin interface, so I have to unplug it and reboot for it to work again.

After a week or so of this torture, a miraculous thing happened: the wireless started working! Not only that, but it worked with WPA and all, and the crashes stopped. I don't know what we did to please the router Gods, but we were all happy and went on taking a solid connection for granted for the next few months.

Then, we all dispersed for winter break from our college. I unplugged all of our stuff and turned the heat down before we left. When I got back 2 weeks later, I plugged everything back in and it seemed to work. But, after not more than 24 hours, the wireless connection started dropping. Rebooting the router worked to fix it, at first, then stopped. Resetting to factory defaults and entering all the settings again worked, then stopped working. Trying 3 different firmware versions didn't help. And, in the meantime, the router resumed its irritating habit of totally crashing, even with just wired connections, requiring a reboot. Well, the ethernet cables are back, and I'm about to go to CompUSA to buy another wireless router, hopefully one that's not a total piece of shit (i.e. not a Netgear).

In conclusion, it's ironic that the company that used to make solid switches that I would gladly use for any networking project sold me (at a premium, mind you), an "advanced" wireless router that's dumber than a log.

Posted by Craig at January 7, 2007 21:57

I do agree with the rest of you. Netgear does suck. I am an avid XBox Live-er, and I play WoW religiously. I have one XP running computer physically connected to the router, 2 more XP Laptops (one shitty HP and a kickass Dell XPS) connected wirelessly, along with two XBox 360s.

I too had recurring problem with my Netgear router dropping connection, with the only way to fix it being manually unpowering and reseting my entire network. After a long day of work, who the hell wants to do that.

I will say, mind you, that when the Netgear POS did function, it functioned well. I laglessly ran all 5 computers simultaneously, 2 computers with WoW, and of course, the XBoxes with XBox Live (usually Halo).

I finally got fed up with the little fucker, and baught a brand new Linksys WRT54GS (the one with speedbooster). It is even a bigger PIECE OF MONKEY SHIT than my Netgear was. Atleast when my Netgear worked correctly, it would run all 5 computers. With my Linksys, it won't even allow me to run one!!!! I die honorlessly with lag in WoW, and I lag out of Halo 100% of the time. God damn Linksys.

But it is all good. Tommorrow I'm going to return the POS Linksys and purchase either a D-Link or a Belkin.

Fuck you Netgear AND Linksys.

Posted by F U at January 8, 2007 04:55

To network the rest of my computers together, the only segment that has not yet come up is the computers on the othe side of the netgear router. The D-Link router I bought three years before is more capable than my WGR614v5 amalgamation.

Posted by Ant at January 13, 2007 05:04

I never had soooo much trouble with a product.. i hate Netgear soo much,i wouldn't recommend this product to my worst enemy, its that bad.. i have a WPNT834 & DG834GV, both products are so unreliable keeps dropping out, constantly having to unplugging the power cable and plugging it back in.. i am still kicking myself for wasting my money on another one of these products..NEVER BUY NETGEAR!!!

PS by the time i could even finish this .. i had to reboot my NETGEAR to send it!

boy do i HATE netgear!...

Western Australia
Geraldton

Posted by Marcos at January 14, 2007 12:02

did i mention that i hate NETGEAR?

Posted by Marcos at January 14, 2007 12:03

never had much problems with them "TOUCH WOOD" but why the fuck didnt they give u the option of QOS in the software the dumb fuks :/ , fun having a 800 ping while my room m8 throttles the fuk out of the line .
simple thing wish i new this b4 i bought the fuker (DG834G) any ideas ? except for pullin the plug out :)

Posted by brt at January 19, 2007 04:24

I just wanna add that I'm another person who blaim on the shitty dam @ss of NETGEAR PRODUCTS cant even play my game without being lagging in a really bad way.

Posted by Jonathan Salinas at January 20, 2007 06:41

my netgear RP614 (not wireless) is a real pain. every time i use skype and hang up i have to power cycle the thing (pull the power out of the thing). i've got the ports forwarded ok after learning how to do it, but theres no way to avoid The power cycling.... DO NOT BUY A NETGEAR PRODUCT!

Posted by jay at January 21, 2007 02:44

WPN 824 works just fine for my NINTENDO stuff and all these M$ W98 2K and XP not to mention that bad HP 1510 "network" spy printer.

Some of you guys are real loosers ... Peace ;-)

Posted by BOB at January 24, 2007 10:43

netgear and AOL are league together to promote and sell the worst products ever to do with computers and the internet,there customer services is non existant and totally crap,do yourselves a favour and stay away

Posted by mick at January 28, 2007 20:55

Netgear sucks. In fact, I have a court date with these bastards in March. Their wireless adapter corrupted my XP O/S, then for 3 days it was impossible to get through to their so-called customer service/technical support. I got dead air and elevator music that promptly cut me off. Finally, after I reach this beloved company through its online computer line, threatening to sue them, I reached technical support late on the 4th date. So much for 24/7 support!!!

Although this fellow did diagnosis that their product had corrupted my O/S, he offered no solution to fix the mess or get it off my system. Online canned responses only brought "sorry for your inconvenience". About 10 days into the mess, I found out how to remove the garbage product from my computer. Meanwhile, Netgear offered zippo, and when the company referred the matter over to its Fraud Division, I filed suit. So much for their 24/7 customer support.

Posted by Joel at February 17, 2007 04:11

OMG i freaking hate netgear so much so yay!!
but i only hate it because my mother freaking knows how to block sites.. do you know how to unblock them i dont know what site or settings or anything if you could help could you email me on chelseaa.bell@hotmail.com

thanks!!
chelsea xx

Posted by Chelsea at February 21, 2007 09:44

I've got 3 wireless machines on my WGR614v6 Netgear Router. 1 works fine, the other two only go when they feel like it besides having the correct WEP details etc ... I'm just about to put my hammer through the router and then set it alight. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THESE SHIT PRODUCTS ! I've spent hours on what should be a simple installation including swapping cards, a hundred reboots, reinstalling the IP stack etc ... nothing works !!!! AAAARRGRGGRHHHHH!

Posted by Vinnie at February 22, 2007 22:40

I have bough a WNR834B (cheap from eBay, I only use 54 Mbps but I wanted mimo for better throughput). Everything worked except for the stupid dhcp reservation bug, since the router never gave the correct address for known MAC addresses (and the MAC address filtering for wifi did not work either...).

That is, until yesterday night - I downloaded the latest firmware from netgear's site (V1.0.3.8WW), and the dhcp leasing seems to work correctly - finally ! So maybe there is some hope after all.

Posted by vincefn at February 25, 2007 11:46

Ok well i have neatgear... i was happy to get online after my parents had bought the router for me, i have installed the netgear driver and setup everything as i was supposed to do. After installing it i expected it to run and connect me... It didnt so i messed with it and didnt get it to work. my mom called support and they said to restard my computer so i did to find out i was going to have to do it about 5 more times the next half hour. This was a regular basis for me, restarting and connecting to talk with friends. I have searched multiply support reveiws i have tried many things said to do that would help on the reviews and still nothing im very disappionted with this piece of shit router and PCI card dont buy it dont consider looking at netgear! the router interferes with the phone microwave and disconnects when ever the fuck it feels like. i dont think anyone will read this after the 200 other comments down this list but if so here is another comment telling you not to buy the piece of crap! i have heard things about getting new PCI cards that will work because netgeear picked the wrong card for the router(apparently they dont work togeather as they should) so i am currently trying to find a card to go with the router if this doent work im willing to get myself grounded for a year by smashing the piece of shit and prank calling net gear multiply times to tell them how shitty there products are.

By the way i had to restart my computer five times to get this comment up... plz save yourself the hassle DONT BUY THE PIECE OF SHIT!

Posted by Billy at March 3, 2007 01:32

I never had a problem with Netgear. I always purchase their Products. I have the WPN824 and it works awesome..2.4ghz phones can be a problem...also other Wireless routers that offer 108+ speeds can interfere with other wireless routers and adapters. Also, if you have VOIP make sure you settings are correct.

Posted by Jack at March 10, 2007 06:11

NETGEAR are fuckin useless...why cant they employ some english speaking and technically minded people instead of useless indian know nothings!!!!
BOYCOTT NETGEAR NOW EVERYBODY!!!!!

Posted by Jon n Reggie at March 19, 2007 15:38

4 DAYS! 4 DAYS! I've spent, trying to configure the NetGear DG834PN which I bought a few weeks ago. And Im a software engineer.

Now it worked fine from setup, until I tried to do something bit more than basic, i.e configure a VPN client to connect through my NetGear router. 4 days later, I've come to the conclusion that the NETGEAR DG834PN DOES NOT SUPPORT PPTP PASSTHROUGH! THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT IT EVER DID. AND THE FIREWALL DOESNT WORK CORRECTLY (I couldnt shut it off completely , even with the DMZ etc, so it MUST still be blocking the GRE Protocol 47)

4 Days of my life I have wasted on this.

Posted by NetJack at March 25, 2007 20:02

i have a Netgear USB 108 Mbps wireless adapter bought like 2 years ago, I got bellsouth dsl(1 mb/s), now i was a noob at network and their help and support doesnt live up to its name. So I installed it about a year ago and then it works fine connection is at 90%, ok great now to test it out ... now if i remember you could download at least 150k on 1mb connect. Alas I am downloading at 26k/s? Then I search everywhere then read in small print down on the box, 108 mbps connection ON NETGEAR ROUTERS. If you still don't get it that means you gotta buy their shitty router which I did buy afterward but turns out that if you play around with their DNS settings you fry the whole damn thing altogether (WTF), so now I'm stuck with a paper weight (great target practice). I am still using the adapter for my old laptop, anyone know some hacks or something to unlock the 54 Mbps lock? Dont care if i screw the laptop up its running 98 so if it gets fried too cuz of this crappy adapter so be it! send me some info at demonhiei7@yahoo.com

Posted by LINKED ON LINKSYS at March 29, 2007 06:06

Bought a bull shit Netgear MR314 router a few years ago and replaced it 3 times. Just recently bought the Netgear WGX102 and XE102 Access point and wireless brige Range Extendter. Complete fucking nightmare. This peice of shit works for 1 solid day then stops working. I call up their tech support(which is pure shit) and get Johnny!?!?!. I end up knowing more about the product then this lame fool and ask for a replacement... fool wont give me a replacement. have to do more troubleshooting. more and more bull shit ocurred. I ended up smashing the shit out of this fucking peice of crap. I dont want a replacemnt I spent enought fucking time on their junk equipment then anyone should in a life time. FUCK NETGEAR FUCK THEIR TECH SUPPORT AND FUCK THEIR SHITTY PRODUCTS.. I WILL NEVER BUY NETGEAR AGAIN... I WOULDNT EVEN TAKE FREE SHIT FROM THAT FUCT UP COMPANY.. Im done

Posted by MM at April 1, 2007 17:26

I bought a router and wireless adapter with the hopes that my network would be faster and more secure. Well, after my network connection went down 15 times Tuesday and Wednesday, I've decided that my Netgear equipment will find it's way back to the place I bought it. Biggest piece of crap I've ever bought. And I've had a Microsoft network. Netgear can blow me. I wasted $110 bucks on useless hardware. Their phone option costs money too, so now I'm really pissed off! They can keep this piece of crap and I'm going with Linksys. Netgear is shit.

Posted by Fro19 at April 13, 2007 05:41

WTF!!! they just some how blocked of myspace is that possible what the fuck this is pissing me off!!!!!!!!!!!! ASSHOLES UNBLOCK IT!!! . kurwa ja pierdole

Posted by roxy at April 17, 2007 09:52

YESH I HELLA HATE NETGEAR!!!! MY DAD BLOCKED MYSPACE GODDAMNIT!!!!!! DAMN FUCKIN DAD IT WORKED YESTERDAY!! *OH NOBODY DID THEIR CHORES...* BOO FUCKIN HOO DAD DAM!

Posted by anne at April 21, 2007 16:00

you're a fucking whinging lot - nothing wrong with Netgear, more to the point you're the ones with the problems!!

Been using their products for a long time with no issues, perhaps researching a product before buying would help.

I dont suppose you lot whinge just about everything!!

Posted by thedoc at April 25, 2007 13:57

I had a 614 that worked fairly well for a couple of years and suddenly died. Replaced it with an 824 which works great as long as I don't do bittorrent over wifi; otherwise it freezes within an hour. Linksys was significantly worse in every respect (range, slowdowns, random freezes) with the three different firmwares I tried (Linksys, DD-WRT, HyperWRT). Ended up replacing it with an Apple Airport Extreme pre-N. They're expensive, but Apple's software quality and top-notch support makes it well worth the price difference.

Posted by LordJohnWhorfin at April 29, 2007 01:22

Wow, so people are mad at netgear because some networking devices, IN GENERAL, come with the same IP as a modem or two???

So, amateurs, run this by me....mine seems to work just fine...all three FVX538s as well as, yes I'm going to say it to all you Windows-bitches.... three Xserves (for those of you living on the moon for the past coupla years, that's an Apple... OH NO!)

Anyway, yes, on wireless in general, for the fucktard that said he had to renew his wireless after he woke his computer from sleep, it happens.

I do have to say, Hadji would be mighty disappointed in your attitudes :D. I too performed tech support in the US for a company that outsources all their L1 support.... it sucked. Now, I am running three freaking companies on these FVX538s without a hitch yet....guess it could be a PEBCAC error, eh? (for most of you that's probly what it is....)

The moral: quite being a whiny little bitch and try to figure something out on your own for once, and quit calling tech support for devices most of you should not even OWN!

The sad part is you people talk about Hadji and not being able to speak english....huh... why don't you read your own writing a bit more and check the grammer on that shit, bitch.

Wow, great day... now I'm out of words... that felt good.
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This message has been brought to you by:

Someone who hates whiny little n00bs.
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Posted by Stoopid Fucktards... The Net's NOT for kids. at April 30, 2007 17:42

Testify!

I just (yesterday) bought a WPN111 USB Wireless networking adapter - from Netgear. I figured that being USB, I'd save myself the hassle of actually installing a card into my system, and if something did go wrong, well, it would be a simple fix... it's just USB, so worst case scenario, unplug the thing. 8 hours later, it's going back to the store.

The damned thing overheats and completely locks up the system - when it's not inflicting random BSODs on my system, and from time to time completely trashing my drivers and TCP/IP settings from my wired NIC (integrated into my motherboard).

The times when it would "just" randomly freeze up my wireless connection and not totally freeze or reboot the system were a blessing compared everything else it was doing to my system. Most viruses don't do as much damage to a computer as those shitty netgear drivers.

And their tech support are fucking worthless. 70 minutes on the phone with some Indian fellow only to find out that their tech support will only help me install or uninstall their drivers, not ACTUALLY MAKE THE FUCKING DRIVERS WORK. Useful, real useful.

I should have stuck with my gut and bought a linksys product, and next time I will. I'd personally prefer free forcible sodomy to a free netgear product. At least the forcible sodomy might come with a reacharound.

>:/

Posted by Matt D at May 5, 2007 01:58

i was just browsing the net and am extremly frustraded with this netgear bs usB wireless adapter.. so frustrated i put in netgear sucks in th e ol google and sure enough there is a page dedicated to how much they suck. I have the wg111t wich is a piece. My internet constantly cuts out and i have to unplug and replug it in to have connection. At first i bought the adapter that goes into the computer(non usb) and that shit made my computer shut off. Yeah thats it, will never by netgear shit again.
Joe

Posted by joejoe at May 6, 2007 19:42

I have a NETGEAR FVS328 and I hate every minute I use it. I paid almost $200 back then and while I am able to write this message through it, I have to reboot it every two years.

Of course I contacted NETGEAR's tech support. But they were clueless and useless.

I have no intention of ever buty NETGEAR products again.

Posted by Yoshi at May 22, 2007 19:10

Bought a WNR854T and it was a joke, it kept rebooting on its own accord. Technical support was from abroad and had absolutely no idea or concept about the product.

Usual excuses, no supervisor, all supervisors at lunch, we'll call you back (yeah that never happened), our tech support next level is unavailable.

Went through ages and ages of tests before they issued an RMA. Bought myself a D-Link whihc has been faultfree and have thrown the Netgear POS away. Last time I ever look at netgear and would advise anyone else to do the same

Posted by John at June 8, 2007 03:12

I'm with with sky broadband and they give a free netQueer DG834GT when you join. It broke after 3 weeks so got replacement for free (i wonder if the first) and had a moment of joy when i unleashed the sledge hammer on the old one. I'm only getting 3Mb on speed tests (the router claims 4.5Mb) and i have an "up to 8Mb" connection and live 2km from the exchange. I've read in forums that people have been using different routers with sky and get the speed they pay for, But you have to use url injection to get your user name and password. Use a belkin wireless card if you have problems, and check for wireless points in the area and make sure your not using the same channel. Sky should sue netgear and buy linksys to replace the shitty netgears

DOWN WITH NETGEAR!

Posted by Tal at June 27, 2007 14:25

Just wanted to say that I agree with you a 100% I recently upgraded from 1.5mbps to 3mbps and instead of getting faster speeds it got even slower!

It didn't even cross my mind that with the speed upgrade I had put in a netgear WGRv5....

After 3 excruciating months of constantly bickering with my ISP and constantly making sure all settings on the router were correct I finally came to the conclusion that I have eliminated every other possibility except the router itself.

Switched back to my old router and guess what....my internet is blazing fast now.

Posted by router at July 9, 2007 23:53

I purchased a WGR614 v6 from my friend, and it didnt come with the start up wizard CD. I called their customer support line and they said that they couldnt help me on the phone because my warranty was out of date. I responded by saying "How could I be talking to you on the phone if I do not have phone support." Im totally going for linksys

Posted by Ernesto Perez at July 13, 2007 02:38

I know a thing or two about configuring routers and PCs -- have been doing it for twenty one years.

So I bought two Netgear FVS124G ProSafe Dual WAN VPN Gigabit Firewall devices. One for the office and one for home. At the office, WAN1 is connected to a BT 8mbps ADSL router, and WAN2 is connected to another 8mbps router also supplied by BT. On the LAN side there are three server machines.

At home WAN1 is connected to a 20mbps VirginMedia cable modem, and WAN2 is connected to a 16mbps Sky ADSL modem. On the LAN side there is one PC and a WiFi base station to which I connect up to three laptop computers at a time.

When I'm at home, I want to access the servers at the office, and when I'm at work, I want to be able to access the PC at home. Preferably such access must be encrypted to discourage prying eyes.

This router has a number of advertised features that don't work.

1) High Throughput

Download speed tests (using FreeDownloadManager to download a 1GB file using eight simultaneous connections to the remote server) reveal that my VirginMedia cable modem can (at 2AM in the morning) deliver sustained throughput of 16.3 mbps when the PC is connected directly to the modem.

If the FVS124G is inserted (factory defaults) in-between the PC and cable modem, the sustained throughput is 12.6 mbps. Resetting the cable modem and the PC makes no difference. The netgear is simply under-powered with a slow CPU which can't handle modern internet speeds.

2) Load balancing

With the PC directly connected to the Sky ADSL modem, at 2AM in the morning, I can achieve around 4.3 mbps which is a result of being too far from the telephone exchange, I guess, otherwise I should be able to get up to 16bmps.

With the netgear connected to both the cable modem and ADSL modem, and switched to Load Balance mode, the combined throughput (again using the same FreeDownloadManager) I can only achieve 9.1 mbps. So it goes slower over two WAN ports than over just WAN1 !

Conclusion: This feature does not work, probably because the CPU inside the netgear is too slow.

3) VPN

Does not work when the device on the other side is exactly the same. Only works if the other remote device is a laptop. Conclusion: Can't use the built-in encryption to safeguard my home to office communications. Open up port 3389 for remote desktop on both routers.

4) Reliability

Having opened up port 3389 (Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol) on both sides... Works for about 6 hours then stops accepting incoming connections on this port. Outgoing traffic to other sites is still okay. If I'm lucky I can phone someone on the other side and ask them to log into the router's web page and tell it to reboot. Then it will work again for anywhere between 1 and 8 hours. Both home and office devices have the same problem. Conclusion: Not reliable.

4)... 5).... yawn. The list goes on and on and on.

I have upgraded both routers to the latest firmware, with no improvement.

Why did netgear think this product was ready for the market? None of the unique selling points actually work well. If I'm a product manager over there, some engineers will be fired come Monday morning. And if I'm a senior executive, some product managers will be fired on Tuesday morning if the engineers are still there then...

Posted by Fred at July 15, 2007 01:34

Crap.............I Porked me self.........Got hooked into a WGT624scV3 and a 511t card, and there about as useless as tits on a Bull. IM shit canning this nightmare. No calls to support.
Screw India/Pakastain. Probably Bin Frickin Laden plot! I'll just run the wires. Thanks a bunch NetGear, but PISS OFF!

Posted by Michael at July 20, 2007 03:11

Netgear sucks. I have the wgr614v6 and it constantly disconnects my internet. changed to a dynalink rta1025W recently, best purchase i've ever made.

Posted by Peter at October 27, 2007 16:27

netgear router(wgr614) is a BIG HEADACHE to me...
dont be like me.after 3 months of using that router, the internet connection always drop..always.grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Posted by ghaye at October 28, 2007 14:51

I am hoping someone can help me. We have Netgear router WPN824. Up until Oct. 27th I was able to go to www.fubar.com which is a site I frequent regularly.

I was on the site and all of a sudden on my screen appears website blocked by Netgear Firewall. I have no idea how to take it off.

We have four pc's in the house. Two are desktop and two are laptop. My brother's pc is the main one and he is he one that controls everything.

To make a long story short, we got into a huge fight a month ago and I think he blocked this site on purpose.

Is there a way I can access it and unblock this site?

If anyone knows how to do this, please send me an email.

Thank you,
Mindy

Posted by Mindy at October 29, 2007 15:51

I bought the WPN111 USB Wifi adaptor the other day, and ive regretted it ever since.

After installing the sofware and rebooting, my PC constatnly black screens during windows startup. The black screen will persist untill I physicly unplug my PC! Either way, I havnt been able to get into windows since I installed the software.

I have XP SP2 and ive heard that the WPN111 has some issues with this configuration. I only wished ide known this sooner. This product should be called the WPN of Mass Destruction....

Posted by Kevin at December 13, 2007 11:54

Yup it sucks wg111t usb say no more!

Posted by Tenga at March 22, 2008 11:17

Fuck, I fucking LOVE this fucking page because fucking NETGEAR FUCKING SUCKS BIG FUCKING NIGGER BALLS! FUCK!

Posted by ME at August 17, 2009 21:30

Hi Guys!

I've read a lot of your comments because yesterday I've tried to install a WPN111 on WinXP and I couldn't because the configuration utility which came with it just started up and then disappeared after a short while.

I appreciate the comments which say that some of us are not that tech savvy (I'm an electrical engineer myself, but I don't think you need a diploma to install a simple USB WiFi adapter) and we suck but when Netgear is aware of this problem and their solution is to kill the running configuration process from Task Manager by hand and restart it then I think there's a problem here. (Just for the record here's the link for their support page where I read this:

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/48

Solution, point 2, and let me tell you that this doesn't work either: the configuration utility just keeps disappearing still.)

I also have some experience with other Netgear routers used by our customers and they always struggle to get our VoIP product work with them because most of these routers have SIP (VoIP) Application Layer Gateways installed on them which modify SIP messages and therefore screw up SIP communication.

So bottom line is try to stay away from these routers if you want to preserve your sanity and precious time. :)

Posted by buffetboy at September 14, 2009 08:24

I've spent many exasperating hours recently trying to install the Netgear DG834 modem/router. I have now effectively given up. It will be returned to the retailer this week and it's the second one I have had, the first one proved impossible and Netgear support recommended its replacement. I have decided that persevering with this would be an act of supreme folly, I have better things to do with my life. The only reason for buying it was so that my son's Xbox could go "live", that will simply have to wait. I know that there is an easy solution somewhere out there, the thing is that the solution does not contain the word "Netgear". On the one hand there is their helpline and on the other there's AOL's. Caught between a rock and a hard place! In this era of plug 'n play why oh why does this business have to be such a pain? I'm not a techie and never will be but there must be a few sadists out there designing hardware/software to satisfy the masochists who venture into their computer shops to purchase this stuff. No wonder people are drinking more, this bit of kit from Netgear has almost driven me to drink. The CD start up guide is pretty useless because as soon as you hit a snag it simply states that one should check all physical connections and swith on and off. Enough said. Waste of money and time and I cannot wait to receive my refund. If you're thinking of buying Netgear my advice is simple. I won't spell it out, just work it out for yourself.

Posted by Rikki Tikki-Tavi at January 24, 2010 10:25

netgear sucks dick
whoever made it sucks dick

Posted by netgear is a bastard at February 1, 2010 21:50

i work for bestbuy and im never fucking recomending netgear no more, fucking shit dosent work for windows 7 64 bit.. FUCK NETGEAR FUCH THEM HARD

Posted by JOE at April 15, 2010 06:33

SUCK A MASSIVE BLACK DICK NETGEAR

Posted by Damn you netgear at May 6, 2010 03:32

yes they do suck i just bought new equip from them and they want to charge me for info on how to use it

Posted by jeff craig at December 23, 2010 23:32

talk about being screwed by netgear. i had the worst screwing of my life by them i was playing in a $250.000 grt turny on stars poker and made it all the way to the final table 9th place and was 2nd in chips looking at 90 grand for first and whould have at least made 3 place. when my fkn netgear lost signal.and whould not reconect.after 20 min that felt like forever and loosing half of what little hair i had left on my head i tried to reinstall the softwear but still had no signal. after 45min the signal finaly came back when i logged back in to stars ther were 6 players left i was one of them but i had only $7000 in chips left and went out 2 hands lat. thanks netgear u fkn rock. i prob lost a min of $50 grand for using your shitty products.so if u play poker online for fun or for a living like me stay away from netgear. i did find out what made me loose singnal. my neighbor was defrosting something in her microwave and it fucked up my signal. hows that for a shitty day

Posted by gary at February 9, 2011 04:54

Just had to find a site that would let me post how much net gear sucks, brand new POS that has to be restarted twice a day, I will never buy anything related to netgear again

Posted by Matt at February 12, 2011 06:33

Hi guys did you ever think that there are line issues with the DSLAM or filters?
Maybe one router is handling this issues a bid better than others. The noise margins are often involved.
Also routers of the neighbors could interfer the connections. Because of similar channels and interfering the connection which the particular router just can´t handle. The situation is absolutly individual but often results often in line problems and connection drops within your network or the DSLAM connection of the providers.
The solution is just change and try and there are a lot of tricks in forums which can help sometimes. Check the routerstats within the routers webinterface and may be use the routerstats freeware to observe and adress the problem better. Inssider soft could easily inform about other routers which may be interfer.
It helped me.
Regards

Posted by Star at April 24, 2011 05:10

yes net gear sucks iam not a computer nut but i have a wireless router less than a year old i wanted to use a new laptop and it sad i needed a wep key so i called net gear to get help they said they no prolbem just pay 69 dollars. no thanks all buy sumthing else thank for the support netgear sucks

Posted by scott at July 7, 2011 17:14

netgear does suck my password for my router no longer works and when i called support my 3 mth softwear warranty had run out and refused to fix the problem or at the very least take the password off unless i paid them 40 bucks isnt that extortion

Posted by danny at September 18, 2011 21:17

Fucking NetGear router. I called for service, everytime it seems like they are trying to avoid me. I had a problem and they kept on saying, give me your number and we call you back immediately because there is a phone problem. I waited, they never call back. Then until my warrentee expires they are willing to talk to me for a longer time. They offer me one time tech support 40 bucks and 6 months 100 bucks. I said screw this. The tech guy got pissed and shit around saying why not? "It's stupid to not to. Last time's customer support is not as good as this paid one (Does this means during warrentee support they purposely not fix the entire problem?). Like i said 90 dollars for this good router, it is stupid to not pay for the tech support because you will only make the problem worse." WTF kind of support is that? I thought they're suppose to calm the customer not the other way around? Does these indian guys get a profit per ripoff of Customer or what? Why's he intimidating me? WTF?

Posted by James at May 17, 2012 03:38

I bought a new Netgear WNDR4500 in March 2012. Uploaded the firmware upon installation. on June 2, 2012, the GREEN Power Light was flashing. According to their web site, it had a 'corrupt' firmware. Attempted to update, and the update would NOT install! Called customer support (they were either in India or off planet) 4 times! They could NOT hear me and i could not hear them. This piece of crap was 1, yes, one day out of the mega warranty period of 90 whole days and they wanted to CHARGE me to fix their piece of crap!!! Needless to say, i broke it into many pieces and will NEVER buy another WiFi router from them or any other manufacture. I have Cisco routers and switches and everything is wired, to hell with Wifi.

Posted by David Wayne at June 4, 2012 02:25
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