this Netgear WNR2000 wireless N router is rubbish!!

[Argy1]

Got the free Netgear WNR2000 wireless N router delivered today,had 50mb installed on friday, am having same probs as others on here that the speed can suddenly dip from 40+mb down to 300-500kbs for sometimes 10 mins up to 2 hrs before it spring back to life (tried removing router, computer directly wired to modem,same problems)

unplugged my trusty WRT54GS, has been working fine over network since 50mb upgrade

installed Netgear WNR2000 wireless N router rebooted everything,only had it hard wired via ethernet cable to main computer...did a firmware update

opened up newsleecher tried downloading 8Gb...was getting nice constant speed of 300kbs

setup all security setttings for wireless WPA2-PSK [AES] etc tested all laptops after changing their security settings to match router, test laptops, surfing speed much slower than when on my old Linksys WRT54GS tried different channels same slowness

unplugged Netgear WNR2000 wireless N route, reinstalled my old Linksys WRT54GS, security settings changed, test laptops surfing fine again

restarted newsleecher tried downloading 8Gb...was getting nice constant speed of 5.4MB

now if i had bought this Netgear WNR2000 wireless N it would have been sent straight back to the shop

2 questions

1, is it worth me phoning Netgear and seeing if they can talk me through setting up this router to work properly, or would i be wasting my time?

2, is there a decent Wireless N router I can buy that people have had good experience with/ any recomendations??

[slowcoach]

The Netgear WNR2000 firmware is absolute rubbish, VM should do a recall on this garbage and give a full refund so that their customers can go out and put the money towards something that works.
Netgear are being slammed on the Net by disgruntled customers over their latest range of routers, one bloke bought three and they all soon died, which is probably the best thing which could happen to them.
Regarding a replacement, one review gave the D-Link 655 Extreme top place, better and further wireless coverage than a top end Netgear model and firmware to drool about. Link

If the Linksys works and the wireless covers the range you need it to why change it at all?

[popper]

perhaps because the WRT54GS is the old and far slower 11g only speced device, and on binary or other compressed files they are going to get around 15Mbit at best over the wireless link , and never more than the 22MBit/s limits 11g can reach, even with data spikes, and perfect conditions, even when useing the lightest WAP security turned on,.

perhaps the old 11g average 15MBit/s is an acceptable wireless speed for most people on the 20Mbit/s or lower package , but if your paying for 50Mbit/s theres no real wish to artificially restrict your max data throughput i assume.


heres the old detailed WNR2000 wireless N router review
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30615/96/

[Argy1]

Originally Posted by slowcoach

The Netgear WNR2000 firmware is absolute rubbish, VM should do a recall on this garbage and give a full refund so that their customers can go out and put the money towards something that works.
Netgear are being slammed on the Net by disgruntled customers over their latest range of routers, one bloke bought three and they all soon died, which is probably the best thing which could happen to them.
Regarding a replacement, one review gave the D-Link 655 Extreme top place, better and further wireless coverage than a top end Netgear model and firmware to drool about. Link

Thanks for that slowcoach, will check out the D-link 655 Extreme,will keep the netgear as a spare,you never know a firmware upgrade might sort the problems out but I'm not holding my breathe

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

If the Linksys works and the wireless covers the range you need it to why change it at all?

cheers zinglebarb am using Linksys till i can find something newer/faster

Originally Posted by popper

perhaps because the WRT54GS is the old and far slower 11g only speced device, and on binary or other compressed files they are going to get around 15Mbit at best over the wireless link , and never more than the 22MBit/s limits 11g can reach, even with data spikes, and perfect conditions, even when useing the lightest WAP security turned on,.

perhaps the old 11g average 15MBit/s is an acceptable wireless speed for most people on the 20Mbit/s or lower package , but if your paying for 50Mbit/s theres no real wish to artificially restrict your max data throughput i assume.

ed WNR2000 wireless N router review
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30615/96/

thanks popper, You summed it up perfectly

can't see how to do anything about being sent a "Free" Netgear router that is crap....if we complain to VM they will send us to Netgear, netgear will talk you through the setup,when nothing improves i guess they may swap the router but the router isnt actually broken it just doesn't work very well, complain again to VM who will (again) re-direct you to Netgear who will talk you through setup, round and round we go in a circle...and because we didn't pay directly for the product we have no redress

[xtopher]

I have posted this ad nauseum but offer no apologies - D-Link 365 n draft been rock solid for months. Been running at 54 Mpbs since installation.

xtopher

[slowcoach]

Bit the bullet yesterday and went and bought the Dlink DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router from MicroDirect, now hosting 2 websites, on different ports, on my machine and although stated to the contrary on the D-Link site FAQ, Loopback DOES actually work.
I should have taken this route sooner, the Netgear has cost me more in wasted time than I care to think about.