When recently I upgraded my computer, a new modem was necessary for two main reasons - firstly the one I had was old and decrepit anyway, but also you need a driverless modem for Windows Vista or it won't work. So I was told by numerous people, anyway. Since I had an Ethernet port available unlike on my old computer, I thought it would be nice to get something relatively speedy.

(This review is not going to go into amazingly detailed technical details, so if that's what you want you're probably better off looking at someone else's review!!)

With my options reduced because of Vista, it came down to a choice of about 5 models at PC World. There didn't always seem a lot to choose between them, but the more expensive ones could be used for 10 PCs at a time, which was useless for me. The NetGear DG834G Wireless Router had a couple of things going for it in comparison to other models - it was slightly cheaper than another model that had no discernable advantage, and it came with Firewall and Fraud Monitoring. I thought those were very useful additions to have and with the price of £70 ($140), it was going to be more expensive than I'd planned, but worth it if it worked well.

Setting up and installing the router was as easy as pie. (Erm… just how easy is pie? I've never understood that expression…) Just plug it in, let Vista do its stuff, and voila! Twenty seconds later, one quick log in to set up a password and configure the ISP information, and you're surfing like a mad thing!

Well… not quite, actually. After a restart, a moment of grumbling loudly that the damn thing wasn't working, checking all the leads and restarting again, then we were zooming through the information superhighway. I still have no idea why it didn't want to work that first time, but never mind. It's never happened again.

You can in fact have up to 4 computers connected to this router though we only have one connected. It comes with both Ethernet and USB connectors. The unit is small and doesn't appear to mind what position it's in. There are 8 lights on the front panel in all - power, online statues, send, receive, and connection status for computers 1-4. It doesn't make any discernable noise and I have never been thrown offline, which is a pleasant change from my old BT Voyager USB modem!

The speed is not to be sniffed at either - it can run at up to 54Mbps, though my connection speed set by the ISP is somewhat less than that (4Mbps - though every year or so they tend to double it so it's good to have the extra capacity for when they do). Another advantage over my old modem is that I don't actually have to log in initially using the AOL Browser to get online - I can just open Internet Explorer, Firefox etc and go. (Having to have AOL open first was a bit of a pain and waiting to log in was also annoying.)

If you login to the router you are connected to a secure part of the NetGear site, and can play around with your settings and see what's what. Particularly helpful is that for each option on the left, there is an accompanying description on the right. To be honest I haven't messed about much with any of the settings as my router already works fine and I'm not about to mess things up by trying to improve them! (Previous experience has taught me that this frequently happens… !) Most things that can be changed have easy preset options so you don't have to manually change each particular characteristic of the feature you want to configure, but can still have a fairly high level of control of how it works. Again this is more something I've had a look at rather than fiddled with, but if I ever need to it's nice to know that it can be done easily.

In other reviews I have read that the router needed a firmware update before it was reliable. I haven't updated the firmware version yet as I have had absolutely no problems with it whatsoever. (I have Firmware Version V4.01.20) Presumably this is due to NetGear sorting out some bug before the release I got, as my model has obviously been bought a lot more recently than those owned by most of the other reviewers.

Overall, despite paying a but more than I was intending for this router, its ease of use, speed, reliability, and built-in features of firewall and fraud protection I'm very pleased with it. If it ever stops working so well I'll update this review, but for now it's very highly recommended.



This review is an entry to the Challenge Yourself 2007 Write Off, which is hosted by myself. I've never reviewed a router before - hell, I've never even owned a router before!!


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 150