This should have been a lesson for all those impulsive computer shoppers out there. Unfortunately, this purchase will only make things worse. So I took a trip out to the Warwick Rhode Island CompUSA the other week to purchase a Netgear WG511U PCMCIA wireless ethernet card. It was only $10 after two mail in rebates. I also noticed that they had the wireless router that went with it for only $20 after rebate. Uh oh. So I decided to get that too. After all the wireless card boasted that this router would boost the signal of my wireless card by a factor of 3. I was always having trouble with the signal strength of my Linksys wireless router and would like to improve. So I got it. I spent almost $180, but in the end, it'll only cost me $30. Not bad even if I do say so myself.


Features

The Netgear WGU624 Wireless Router's main feature is dual 108Mbps channels. What this does is allow for better traffic manipulation on your network between multiple computers by allowing them to tunnel directly to the router. Once the signal is received, the router can then direct traffic based on the download need of one transfer over the other. In theory it sounds like a great algorithm to manipulate data flow. Unless I'm doing something like downloading or transferring an iso file (especially a DVD iso) I don't really need this technology so much because I seldom take up a lot of bandwidth, and when I do it's even more rare that my wife is doing so as well. However, should I need to run an ftp server for a 24 hour period to allow my folks to transfer photos and other files, this would allow me to do so in the future.

Another feature of the Netgear WGU624 Wireless Router is a dedicated DMZ port. The dedicated DMZ port allows one IP address inside your house to be exposed to the outside through its external IP address. Some computer and console games need this enabled so that certain ports are exposed. I need it should I want to expose one of my computers to the network if I want to run an server. Linksys routers do support DMZ hosting, however the interface is clunky and often doesn't work well without configuring other aspects of the router, which you'd normally never touch nor would you want to touch under most normal circumstances. This router makes this much easier to the point of hardly having to configure anything. All I had to do was plug my server into port 4. That's really sweet. Alternatively if your server has to be wireless, you can configure that much easier than any Linksys router I've used.

In addition to those two features, the router has 4 ports to plug into as well as a multitude of common security mechanisms to lock down your wireless network. After all, if this router is really going to increase my range up to 3x or 400 feet as they advertise, I don't want my neighbors piggybacking onto my network. I've already had trouble with that in the past where they hop on during the rare, but necessary times I need to turn off the security on my Linksys router to do something that should be simple or supported.

The signal from the router is 2.4GHz that operates on 16 switchable channels. Netgear advertises resistance from microwaves, phones, and other wireless networks. My biggest signal obstruction is two outside walls of my house, not anything electronic. But that didn't stop me from testing it, however I'll get into those details in the performance section.


Performance

Just a note that I'm using the same performance tests I did with my Netgear WG511U PCMCIA wireless ethernet card in addition to a few others.

The first test I performed would test the 108Mbps speed claim as well as the ability to speed up transfer of files for hardware that could take advantage of the dual signal feature. The connection did seem to speed up for large files compared to my other router when using my dual 108Mbps channel card, but it wasn't as dramatic as I thought it would have been. The speed standing right next to the router was picking up a speed of 150K/s. In the far reaches of the house it slowed down to about 45K/s before I started losing signal integrity. I tried it with my desktop which sits roughly one floor above the router itself and runs a Netgear 54 Mbps wireless card, the speed was roughly 110K/s with decent signal strength. I also have two laptops that have built-in wireless cards. They were able to average 75K/s all throughout the house with decent signal strength.

The second being that it uses 16 channels to minimize interference. So I put my microwave in between my computer and router and turned everything on. My computer is sitting in an area of the house that's prone to unstable connections. The connection stayed stable for the most part but the speed drastically decreased. When I started using a 2.4 GHz cordless phone, at the same time, it couldn't maintain a stable connection at all. Finally, I also turned on my other wireless router in the vicinity, but the performance remained the same. So overall it didn't exactly do what it claimed, but who puts their microwave in between their computer and router anyway?

The other claim it made was that it could increase your range by up to 3X or 400 feet. While I did see my signal integrity increase slightly in the outer reaches of the house. However, the range might have increased by maybe 1.5x, nowhere near the 3x they advertised. Keep in mind the signal was going out one window to the outside and back in through another, if not through the wall of the house entirely.

The overall performance was pretty solid though. The connection integrity was pretty good overall and I was able to maintain some very good connection rates. The signal strength was definitely an improvement over the Linksys router I was running before and performance-wise I was glad that I upgraded. It definitely improved the range and quality of my household connection.


Compatibility

When I connect to the internet, the majority of the machines are running Windows, specifically XP Professional. I do have a Linux box and a dual boot machine as well. My desktop with a Netgear WG311 wireless card is running a dual book WinXP, SuSe10 Linux configuration. Both machines can detect the router just fine and the Windows partition easily allows me to configure my security settings with the Netgear wireless configuration management tool that my Netgear card installed. On my SuSe Machine, configuration was a little tougher, but the interface definitely allowed me to change some my settings, however in Linux some of the security terminology is different, though in some cases that's explaining in the tool. My work laptop is also running a dual boot WinXP/Novell Linux Desktop configuration. However, my laptop has a built-in Dell wireless card. Configuring the security settings on that box was a little more difficult in windows due to the lack of the Netgear configuration tool. Luckily I was able to use the CD that came with the router to configure those settings with my own hardware. The same went for my wife's laptop also running Windows XP with a built-in Dell wireless device. Finally, I had an older laptop running Ubuntu Breezy Badger with the Netgear PCMCIA card. Ubuntu has a nice interface for configuring wireless devices and connections due to its affiliation with Debian. Overall it was about as easy as the configuration on SuSe.

There were some other pieces of hardware that I wanted to test with the router. I have a WGA54G Linksys Wireless-G Game Adapter which I use to connect my Xbox in the room farthest from the router. That connected well with open permissions, but setting up the security settings was a little difficulty because I had to connect it to one of the laptops and dig out the adapter's CD and configuration tool. My wife's cousins also came over with their Nintendo DS and PSP. They had no problem connecting to the router, but I did have to turn off the security settings as a result. That was a little disappointing.


Interface and Software

The interface to the router is very similar to that of Linksys routers. You put in the 192.168.1.1 address into your web browser and log into the admin account and you're on. From there you can update the firmware. Open or close certain ports, set your DMZ settings, and configure your router's security. Also it seemed as if I could navigate the interface much quicker than with my other Linksys routers. This utility, while somewhat engaging and usable, is still not exactly for novices. When I was navigating through the router's configuration utility, I had to have the Netgear manual handy.

The software CD that comes with the router is very easy to install. Just a few clicks of the "Next" button and you're finished. The utilities that it installs allows you to connect your desktop to the router a little easier. It detects the settings of your wireless card and does all the necessary work to get you connected. It also helps you to set your security protocols for connecting to the router once you have your signal locked down. Overall, this was pretty easy as well, but again a novice might want to have a manual handy for some of the terminology.


Construction and Durability

The construction of the router wasn't all that impressive. The device is relatively small and flat without the antenna raised. However the antenna doesn't have as much flexibility as the Linksys wireless router I had. I didn't notice anywhere on the Netgear router where I could mount it on the wall. This isn't a big deal for me because I want it sitting on the sill of a specific window in the house, but others might want or need to mount the router somewhere. I also notices that the ethernet ports were a little too large and while the plugs snapped into place, they didn't seem to snug in the sockets. I'd expect to see a lot of loose connections in the future here. Overall it has an acceptable look and feel to it durability wise. I would think it could survive one fall, but not likely more than one.

As for support, I can only comment on so much since I only had to call in for tech support once with any router and that was 5 or 6 years ago. The router comes with a one year warranty, not terribly great for a product like this. While the Netgear site itself is pretty easy to use to help diagnose and solve some of the more common and slightly uncommon problems. The manual is pretty easy to find as well and after my son ripped the original that came with the router to shreds, I was able to simply print out the instructions from the web without missing a beat.


Conclusion

I've always bought Linksys routers simply because they were so easy to setup, save for one time when it failed to recognize the MAC address of my computer's ethernet card. Still, I can't find a reason why not to buy Netgear products. The short warranty and poor insight into the construction might dissuade some, but the performance and price relative to Linksys cannot be argued with. While I waited for a large rebate on the device before I bought it, the $100 price tag might be tough to swallow for some. But for those looking for increased performance, it's worth it. Besides, you might be able to find the same model for less elsewhere.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 100
Driver Availability: Other