Have been running a D-Link DGL-4300 for several years with good results. Needed a replacement with more speed and processing power to handle multi-media, large LAN file transfers and N wireless services.
Tried the D-Link DIR-825, but undocumented MAC address restrictions killed the deal. The router would not accept a non-zero value for the first two characters of the WAN MAC address.
Looked at the Linksys WRT-610N, but was concerned with past Linksys product performance.
Purchased the Netgear WNDR3700 which was getting very good reviews and selling out quickly after release.
Configuration was a breeze with typical Netgear menus. LAN and WiFI speed are excellent.
The DLNA USB device option works great, streaming pictures to our LAN connected Samsung TV.
Guest WiFi access with LAN restrictions makes sharing with guests or visiting family easy.
There have been no issues using Vonage VoIP and transferring large amounts of data at the same time. QOS settings are available in the WNDR3700, but I'm not currently using it. Even with QOS and rules active, the DGL-4300 would sometimes cause the VoIP to stutter during large transfers.
Port Address Translation (PAT) is not available. This makes it difficult to access multiple Port 80 LAN devices from the WAN side.
I rate the unit 4.5+ stars. PAT would have made it a five. Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR3700
I purchased this product because I have a long history with Netgear, their features, and their reliability. The basic features of this router work very well and are easy to set up. One of the key new features, support for a guest SSID, DOES NOT WORK. And this has not worked on any of the Netgear WNDR routers they have sold since February. And they have known this, since their own forum is the source. (See [...])
I am appalled that Netgear would knowingly sell a defective product, one where one of the key selling features did not work, to their customers. And then make them figure this out, call their customer support line, and either have to live without this feature or return the router.
DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT TILL THEY FIX THIS ISSUE.
When it works, this router is fine. The 2.4ghz range and throughput is everything one could want. As written about other routers, 5ghz range is quite limited. The usb hard drive functiality is very very slow. Nowhere near a replacement for a NAS.
I've been experiencing lockups about once a week. After multiple calls, tech said probably a hardware problem. That's when I find out that it is Netgear's policy to charge for swapping the router. If I want to send it in and wait for a replacement,its free. If I want them to send me working router first, and then send back the defective unit, they charge $16.00! This is a first in my experience. In addition,their own community shows lots of postings about this weekly lock up problem (see : [...])
All in all, not very happy to have to throw more money at a one month old router that is supposed to be Netgear's top of the line.
Update: received replacement RMA router. It still has the same problem, and now my 90 day support window is closed. There is no email for netgear support to even inform them of a bug. Looks like I'll be spending more money on a Linksys soon. Netgear = buggy router, and infuriating support and support policies.
As you have no doubt read in other reviews, the firmware on this model is buggy but is progressively getting better. I am currently able to use the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands without problems. I am also able to use the network file server feature without problems.
My main gripe is that the media server feature does not work currently, and will cause the issue where the router suddenly stops working (but will still respond to ping and appear on the local network). The only fix when the router freezes like this is to turn it off and on.
If you want to read more, type 'NETGEAR WNDR3700 freeze' into your favorite search engine (no quotes) and navigate to the Netgear forums link that is returned.
My opinion is that Netgear pushed this router out too fast, and figured the early adopter's testing would be enough for them to work out all the issues. If that is the case, they were wrong this time.
This is an amazing router, if the one you have actually works. I got one in April and it worked wonderfully. It's jam packed with features like guest network, USB disk mount, N router on different channels, etc etc. I loved it. I've used Linksys, Belkin, and Dlink, and they all work ok but this is one of the best routers I've ever used. The menus are a bit awkward, but that's normal for a router that is jam packed with great features that I need.
In fact, I loved my first WNDR3700 so much I got two more for my workplace. I got one from Amazon and another one from Fry's Electronics. I configured both to be identical configurations (except for SSID names, etc). Both had the same problem-- the b/g network SSID fail to pop up when I'm on AUTO channel mode. When I set it to channel 11, it would show up except trying to connect to it via WPA2 would not connect at all! To make matters worse, every time I try to change a wireless configuration, the router would halt 2 minutes, then shut off the wireless automatically for no particular reason! I would then have to turn the wireless back on manually. On my good WNDR3700, it would only wait 5 seconds and voila, it simply worked. Here's my question for you techies at Netgear-- why is it that the wireless for these two router turn off automatically after I configure anything on it? Why is it that WPA doesn't connect? Why does the g network disappear if I set to AUTO? Why does it take 2 minutes for each configuration change to occur? I don't have any of these problems on my first WNDR3700.
I returned both of these junk and now I'm considering DLINK. FYI, at Fry's MOST of the WNDR3700 routers were returned routers, which says a lot about the quality of these routers. It's great that Netgear comes out with great products but if they don't have any quality control, their superb products are just junk. I wasted an entire day trying to figure out why the two routers didn't work like my first one. What a waste of time.
JUNK. - Wndr3700 - Dual Band - Netgear - Wireless N Router'
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