NETGEAR WGT624NA Wireless G Firewall Router

I bought this router to replace a Netgear MR814 v1 that I outgrew.Right out of the box, this router worked without changing any settings at all! I turned off all pc's and my cable modem, connected the router, turned on my cable modem, then the router, then the pc's. Everything worked like a champ.Next I went into the web interface (which you can get to by opening Internet Explorer and typing 192.168.0.1 into the address bar, then type in the user and password) to setup the security settings. I was very impressed to see all of the latest security features included. Probably the one feature that I like the best was the auto firmware upgrade feature. The firmware of the router is what tells the router how to work. New versions of firmware can fix problems as well as give you new features. On many other routers the process of upgrading the firmware can be quite difficult for "normal" people that aren't techies. With this router, you just click "Firmware Upgrade" and it will go out to netgear, find new firmware if available, and install it all automatically for you. Great feature.Range was also a big deal for me as the house it was being installed in was a split 3 level house with the router being in the 2nd floor. I never used to be able to go outside at all with my old router and the signal in the bottom floor was always very weak. This router lets me have full coverage throughout the house and venture off into my backyard to the edge of my property! Amazing improvement. I am using the Netgear WGT511 card in one laptop, the 802.11b pci card in a desktop downstairs, and a wired card in a desktop upstairs, all with no problems at all.

This was my first attempt at using any wireless technology for the computers in my house, and I was pleasantly surprised. Here is my roll-up review:Pros -1. Easy Set-up - Took me about 15 minutes to setup up router using the Install Wizard.2. Great Price - Under $50 after rebate. Hard to beat that, especially if you buy the 108Mbps PCI or PCMCIA card. Otherwise price is comparable with other 54Mbps routers.3. Awesome Security features - The router comes with MAC Address control, WPA, and NAT+SPI Firewall features. These are all easy to setup and the screen displays definitions of each feature as you select it in the Router menu. So even without the manual, I was able to configure the security portion of the router settings easily.4. Range and Signal Strength - One of my computers is around 100 feet away with 5 walls between the router and computer, and I never lose signal and never go below 11Mbps. Now if I am under 50 feet I am getting 54Mbps 90% of the time with 2 walls. From what I have read, that is pretty good.5. System Stability - I have seen some other reviews about the router resetting or causing computer problems. I have had this router running for over 2 weeks straight without one reset or problem on my comp. I am running WinXP with SP2 now. I am even using a Linksys 54Mbps PCI card, so no problems noted with different brands of components either.------------------------------------------------------------Cons -1. Router Casing - Even though it is an attractive router, the casing is not solid. They could have made it with a thicker mold of plastic or with some stronger material. You will just have to be careful with where you put the router.---------------------------------------------------------------Overall - 5 StarsI highly recommend this router. If you are looking into getting a Wireless router, and you want security, stability, and performance, this router is for you. Just read the manual first, and use the Install Wizard.

This was a great item 20 years ago but now it's obsolete so I can't imagine anybody's ever going to be reading this review

I recently bought a laptop and had to go wireless with my network. I saw the 108Mbps and looked into the routers. I read some favorable reviews and bought it.It auto-detects if there is new firmware available and will install it. Just a tip though... don't do this. I ran into some troubles and Netgear Tech support said to disable this feature.The setup of the router is fairly straightforward. If you have your WAN settings readily available, you should be able to get it on-line without much trouble. It did take a bit to get the wireless up and running because I tried to use the highest encryption available without realizing that this is some sort of pay service. I set it to the basic WEP and my card connected fine.It seems to work fine everywhere in the house. I have yet to test it's limits for distance, but it seems to cover any area around the house where I'd use it.My speed seems fairly good, but it's no 108Mbps. My hardwired systems are quite faster. For my uses the wireless is fast enough, though I do plan to get some test software to see what my real throughput is. File transfers are somewhat slow, but since I don't do much of that from the laptop, it's no big deal.The big issue I ran into was with a firmware problem of some sort that screwed up my port forwarding. If I setup more than one port forward, anything in the list past the first setting was unreadable and unremoveable. If I went to modify the setting, the IPs came up wrong and the name was in gibberish as well as the port numbers. Tech support had me download and manually install an older firmware version. That solved the problem. On occasion, changing a setting brings me to a blank IE page instead of returning me to where I made the change. The changes I make do to take though, so this is not a major problem.Having the built-in four ports is nice because it allowed me to easily plug it into my current setup. It was also nice of them to include a decent sized CAT5 cable so I could mount the device away from my other computer equipment. (EMI is a common cause of connection problems with these devices.)Aside from some minor irritants, this router has performed well enough for me to recommend it. Novice users may have more trouble with it than others. Netgear's tech support is not that great by any means, but it was effective enough for me to get my troubles solved. Be sure to register on-line before you call or you will not be able to get support. This is my first wireless router so I don't have anything to rate it against, but based on my experiences, I had my office order one for their 802 network and so far we've had no troubles with it. (Granted, I knew about it's weak points by then.) I gave it 4 stars, but consider that as really 3.5, based on the tech support. There were a couple moments where I felt I knew more about their product than they did.