NETGEAR WGT624 108 Mbps Wireless Firewall Router - wireless router > Reviews > Super fast router- super poor reliability

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Very fast
Reliability	Very poor
Ease of Installation	Satisfactory
Ease of use	Satisfactory
Value For Money	Poor

Advantages:	108 Mbps, excellent coverage, In built firewall
Disadvantages:	Poor reliability

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

NETGEAR's 108 Mbps Wireless Router improves network performance by offering twice the speed and upto four times the coverage of standard 802.11g connections

The Netgear WGT624 offers the following technical features

Wireless Network Speeds

1, 2, 5.5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, & 54 Mbps (auto-rate capable), Dynamic 108 Mbps

Modulation Type

OFDM with BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, DBPSK, DQPSK, CCK

Frequency Band

2.4 GHz

Standards Capability

802.11g and 802.11b

Antenna

2 dBi attached

Routing Protocols

Static & Dynamic Routing with TCP/IP, multi-VPN pass-through (IPSec, L2TP), NAT, PPTP, PPPoE, DHCP (client & server) Functions
ISP Autodetection, DMZ, MAC address authentication WEP Encryption, Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-shared Key (WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK), remote management Interface
Internet/WAN: 10/100 Mbps (auto-sensing) Ethernet, RJ-45
LAN: 4 ports 10/100 Mbps (auto-sensing) Ethernet, RJ-45

Lighted Status LEDs

Power, test, Internet, Wireless, and LAN (connection, activity, and speed)

Firewall

Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI), Network Address Translation (NAT) Security
40-bit (also called 64-bit), 128-bit, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) Encryption, WiFi Protected Access Pre-shared Key (WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK)
Touchless WiFi Security simplifies the selection and activation of wireless security Power Adapter
12 VDC, 1 A; plug is localized to country of sale

Most people buy NETGEAR products because it's a well known company and you would believe they would offer a superior product, however I feel that this product lets down the company severely.

The first problem is when you set the router up, the instruction manual is very basic and this can hinder the setup process. I do think that the manual needs some work. Once the router was up and running I did have 4 months of trouble free running, however this was during the winter, when summer arrived the problems started. Firstly the router would start to freeze up or slow down and wireless connection stopped working. I approached the technical support and was transferred to India. This made things difficult and communication of the exact problem harder than it should be. I was given a few technical tips to solve this, point a fan at the router, move to a window away from the computer. These fixes did not work and it appeared that the router was overheating and this caused damage. I made some strong complaints and was asked to return the router. This took around 3 weeks to replace during this time I was left without a router to use.

Tech support finally sent back a router which had been upgraded to V2 and I was assured the problems had been fixed. I set the router up again and proceeded, to use the internet, this was when the next set of problems started. I firstly had problems opening ebay and similar sites. I contacted technical services again and was told to update the firmware which I did. I was then confronted with the problem that if you visited any phpbb forum it would crash the router, this also happens with BBC weather and a host of other sites. Technical support, have not provided a fix for this and the firmware has not been updated or will be.

I have spent time looking for fixes and found a mass of other people that have the same problems. It appears NETGEAR know about this but cannot be bothered to fix this, just bring out another product

Overall I feel I have been let down by NETGEAR and would not recommend this product to other people