| NETGEAR WPN824 RangeMax Wireless Router |
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Model: WPN824
Brand: Netgear
Manufacturer: Netgear
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 208
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, 802.11 Super G
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| Features: |
RangeMax router offers an easy way to set up a network with wired and high-speed wireless connections with extended range
Delivers up to 108 Mbps of wireless throughput with enhanced range
Four 10/100 RJ-45 Ethernet ports with auto-sensing technology
Enhanced security includes a double firewall, WPA and 128-bit WEP encryption, and parental control over website access
Device measures 8.8 x 1.2 x 6.0 inches (WxHxD) |
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| Description: |
| The WPN824 RangeMax MIMO-G Wireless Broadband Router gives wireless network users better connectivity. As computers become a more integral part of life, you want the best possible home computing environment. When you set up a wireless network you'll find that Internet connections will fade in and out in spots -- or even drops off completely. The RangeMax Router puts an end to that, giving your the freedom to work and play online, anywhere in the house. Time-based usage controls, Web logging, remote management and URL content filtering Auto-sensing RJ-45 10/100 4 port Ethernet switch with half & full duplex support |
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| User Reviews (208 total): |
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good, August 13, 2008
By C. Rodriguez (Bronx, NY)
Easy to setup will take a few minutes and works great. I have it set up to be wired to my desktop and transmit wireless for my laptop. There is a button on the rear that turns off the neat but bright blue lights of the system in case the lights get too annoying. On two occasions my wireless signal was not being accepted by my laptop. I think it was my cordless phone (2.4ghz) which is close to the router and might interfere with wireless connection.
Overall a great product setup took a few minutes and the secure wireless set up was straight forward and not too complicated like other routers.
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excellent router, August 9, 2008
By David Mallo
This is an excellent router, easy set up and works wonderfully. No problems what so ever. I purchased the extended warranty from netgear cheap. I just put in the disk answered a few questions and it was ready to go. It has excellent range and power. For the price it is a wonderful way to wireless network your home. I live in an all metal trailer without any interference.
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Technical Support Stinks!, August 6, 2008
By Tracy K. Olson
I just bought this product. I could NOT get it to install on my computer...I finally broke down and called customer support. Ugh.
I had a very hard time understanding the person on the other end of the phone. The accent is very thick. It was a test of my patience! The call took longer than it should have because of me constantly having to ask, "pardon me? Excuse me? Could you repeat that?"
The product itself? Not sure yet. I finally (!!) got it installed.
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It works, and fine, August 4, 2008
By Highly Opinionated Man (San Carlos, CA -- USA)
I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'm no idiot. At the same time, I'm simply uninterested in home networking...no intellectual curiosity whatsoever. Therefore, even after I purchased this puppy, I let it fester in the box for a year or so because I just didn't want to deal with upgrading from a 1st generation Netgear Wireless Router. Mistake! Easy to install, and never ever ever ever a drop off. I guess it was after I had AT&T to my house for a third time that I figured that (duh!!!) maybe they weren't to blame. This has been on the market for awhile and may not be the latest technology, but it's your basic workhouse router. One point deducted cuz I can't get no signal in me garage. But I'm quite happy with this product.
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Disappointing, August 4, 2008
By Blobcat (El Segundo, CA)
This router seemed like a good idea originally but it turned out to be pretty worthless! The range on this thing can hardly be called MAX. I could not get a decent signal from this thing unless I was in the same room as it. If you are not in the same room as it (which is usually the case with wireless devices) you will get a weakened signal that is constantly dropped. Despite all this, I stuck with this garbage for a couple years, thinking that it was just my walls or interference. But over time it all got worse and worse until a couple weeks ago it was NOT EVEN CAPABLE OF FORWARDING PORTS IF AIM WAS RUNNING.
This miserable disaster of a router was not helped at all by Netgear support either. On their recommendation I downloaded and installed the latest firmware, which did not solve anything. In fact, over the years I updated the firmware several times in hopes that it would improve and it usually had a negative impact. In one case, the latest firmware even rendered the router totally non-functional and I had to roll it back. This is shameful, Netgear! I am only giving this 2 stars as it didn't explode or anything and it did provide a passable wireless signal for me for a couple years. Definitely not worth the money they charge for this thing though. Please do not punish yourselves like I did and steer clear of this router. It will only cause you pain. I now have a Linksys WRT610N and it is about 1000x better in range, stability, compatibility, and ease of use. Goodbye forever Netgear!
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Works wonderfully... when it works, July 19, 2008
By Toetag (The great ole USA)
My Netgear is 3 weeks old. I purchased it for two main reasons. The SPI (stateful packet inspection) feature and the logging feature... where it automatically logs all web sites visited by the computers on the network (my kids) . It also sends logs to a designated email address. This allows me to review what website they went to. I could have easily used the site blocking feature on the router, but chose not to.
The router is extremely easy to set up. Even mac address filtering was very simple. The wireless signal was very strong, allowing my laptop to work from my neighbor's patio. The router worked for about 6 days straight without incident. Then, every day when I would arrive home from work, the router had crashed, and my family would not have internet access while I was at work. Every time, a simply unplug of power, wait 30 seconds and plug power back in and router was fine for the evening. This happened for about 10 days straight.
To insure it was the router and not my cable modem, I removed the Netgear and installed my old Belkin router, and it work flawlessly for the next four days. The Belkin did not offer the logging and site blocking features the Netgear offered. I re-installed the Netgear and again, every day it crashed and everyday I had to reboot it when arriving home.
Emails to their overseas tech support brought solution suggestions that did not address the issues I had enetered on their support website. They finally said to call their tech support. I called. Three straight evenings of try this and that, then try downloading new firmware then reset default values.. Hours of my time, but nothing would work. They finally said to RMA it... but at my shipping expense and a total delay of over two weeks without the product.. or, I could pay 16.95 for expedited service for a product that did not work. I refused to pay expedited shipping when their product was at fault. Had they paid I would have used the RMA. Instead, back to the big box store it goes.
I have had other Netgear routers twice before many years ago. Their products, I felt, used to be superior. Now their product quality and overseas tech support is abysmal. I assure you...its replacement will no longer bear the Netgear name.
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Do Not Buy this router if you want to do port forwarding!, July 11, 2008
By Shaobo Zeng
I have this router for less than one week, and found trouble with the port forwarding, then I searched the internet, found several forums have lots of complains about the same issue, there is no fix firmware available from netgear site. the problem is, after you set up the port forwarding, the records would be saved, then after a few hours, or even mintutes, you will find the forwarding suddenly disappear, you go check the setting, found the saved forwarding records' gone. then you try to re-create again, you receive conflicts of the service... at this point, you have no choice, you have to re-set the router and do it over again, but the chance is, it will happen again. If you don't do the port forwarding, you will be fine, this router has better signal strenght, and better range, I compared with D-Link, Linksys and Airlink routers, this WPN624 wins the game!
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Great wifi router, July 4, 2008
By JKH (Nashville, TN)
Works great. My connection speed is much faster. Definitely worth buying as an upgrade.
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Worked for 18 months, then firmware problems, June 13, 2008
By Paul Kimelman (Alamo, CA USA)
Update: 1 day after I wrote this, Netgear sent me a firmware fix that corrected the problems and it all works fine now. Although I did not appreciate being blown off like that the 1st time, I am pleased they fixed it. Not sure if coincidence or they read these (last contact from them blowing me off was March 18). So, I am tentatively a fan of Netgear again.
I bought this about 2 years ago. It worked perfectly until about 6 months ago. I use MAC filtering. I added one more address and it crashed. It crashed each time I tried to boot it. I was forced to reset to manu settings. Now, I cannot add MAC filtering and other Firmware features are broken. I made sure I have the latest firmware and all. The Netgear support people (India) were pretty hopeless (ignoring what I was telling them and repeating instructions on what I said I did already). I finally got a 2nd tier support person, who 1st chastised me for being off warranty and then said there was nothing they could do and to buy another one. Sigh.
I have had good luck with D-link until about a year ago. I had two D-Link USB Wireless sticks die in under a year. I see so many other people have similar issues that I am moving to Belkin.
I note that Linksys was like this - they were great and then they grew and the products turned to garbage. Since Cisco bought them, they seem even worse.
If you buy this, consider that it may be only about a 1 to 2 year life.
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Here's Blinking at You, June 8, 2008
By John Davis (Philadelphia, USA)
Four stars for now. I only just got the WPN824 version 2 from a flea market for $10.00, so I can't complain about it. I didn't have the CD so worked through the router's log-in web page and made my settings there. Firmware, software, and manuals are available from the Netgear site.
So far, so good. I run three wired computers (1 PC and two Mac's) and one wireless laptop. Setting up the router via its Web page was straightforward and there are explanatory notes alongside each option.
I agree with other reviewers that the flashing dome lights are unnecessary and idiotic. However, a button on the back of the unit, deceptively crafted like a power on/off switch, will turn off that particular irritating function.
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Exactly what we needed!, May 20, 2008
By Stuart Campbell (Dallas, TX)
I live in a 1500 sq foot apartment, and since the Internet setup there is setup very poorly, I was forced to put the router in the master closet. I am still able to get it in every corner of the place, outside the front door and even the balcony. It is an attractive router with nice optional blue LED display. It was incredibly easy to setup and I am sure anyone that is at all tech savvy will feel the same. I would reccomend this to anyone! The range max technology is exactly what a lived in house or apartment needs.
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Get's the job done, May 17, 2008
By Amz Shopper (West Coast, USA)
So in typical networking fashion the router isn't any easier to setup than any other router out there. However, once its up and running, the range and speed for the price cannot be beat. Its the mid-size sedan category of wireless routers. Rarely reboots and looks pretty cool on your desk...check out all the postings on Youtube. If you don't like the lights, you can turn them off.
Port pass-thru options are available if you're a more advanced user and I don't believe there are any major incompatibilities with any interet based software. Using a passphrase for encryption is much nicer than using a hexidecimal code for WEP...and you can move up to WPA if desired. Overall, a faithful, reliable router.
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5/5 for Xbox 360, May 8, 2008
By AnImE fan (Lakeville, MN USA)
I originally bought a Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router which worked great with my Xbox 360 when then the router and 360 were a mere 20 feet from each other with only one wall in between. Then I moved my 360 down to the basement and the WRT54G only got one bar and was dropping connection which is bad when trying to win online. So I upgraded to the Netgear WPN824 router and have three out of four bars when the Linksys could only get one. I have had the Netgear WPN824 router for over five months and not one dropped connection while playing online. I do turn off the router occasionally at night because it seems if you leave it on for weeks you have to reboot it. The setup cd does not work so don't even try using it. I didn't listen to the other reviews about the cd and struggled and gave up and was about to return this but then turned to others advice and used the advanced setup it took a couple of minutes.
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Great router, quick set up, May 1, 2008
By Lori (Oklahoma City, OK)
I have had trouble with WPA2 on mixed networks before and have had to previously use MAC address filtering to secure my old network satisfactorily. This device actually works in WPA2 with Apple computers connected wirelessly, wired, and with a VoIP device. I always use the advanced set up route, and it worked like a charm the first time. Excellent range and reliability. I get an download speed up about 3700 mbps and a upload speed of 357 mbps connected to a cable serice and running my laptop wirelessly.
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great range but odd problems, April 24, 2008
By Technoid (Sierra Madre, CA United States)
My download rates are phenomenal with this router. No complaints for the first few months. Then the wireless signal would just drop for no reason. First it seems like the cable modem would die and I had the cable modem replaced. The problems continued. I had installed a "windows home server" which uses UPnP plug and play feature on the router to manage routes from the web to the home server. I switched off UPnP on the router and it appears my trouble with dropped signals went away. I manually set up a few static routes for the home servers remote access.
I am thinking the home server and the router are not too compatible and the UPnP was probably getting reset far too often resulting in the router hanging.
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the best wireless-G router out there, April 16, 2008
By review_monster (Toronto)
you would be crazy not to buy this router. i have had this for over 2 years and it has been working non-stop and never failed me once. If you have a good ISP why not do yourself a favor and get a good router? This is the most reliable wireless G router out there. The range on this router is satisfactory for a three floor house at around 2000sq ft.
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wpn 824, April 11, 2008
By Weirdo (FL, USA)
I have had my router for almost a year and a half now. I am thankful that with my version 2 of the router, that they included the button to turn off the flashing lights. I want a router, not a disco ball. That notwithstanding, I have had no trouble out of it. It is simple to use. My recommendations to anyone is to constantly check the netgear site for the router and update the router's software. You find your router, go to support, and then download it to your desktop. Then through any webbrowser (i use firefox) type in the address bar 192.166.1.1 . That will access the router, and help you name your network, set a password, etc. Go to upgrade, and click browse and then find the file that is on your desktop. and then click update. A couple of things extra, change the password from admin password as soon as possible, and please change the network name from something other than the generic netgear.
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nothing but trouble, April 6, 2008
By CarolAnn (Middlefield, OH)
I just bought a brand new Dell laptop and decided the way to go was wireless..bought the computer and Netgear at Best Buy. the box said easy to install and from the reviews it seems that way too....so how come I put in the CD and followed the instructions...thought it was working and then lost my roadrunner email and internet connection. And when i went back to "connect" I had Netgear and Netgear 2...I would connect and it would tell me I was connected but there was no connection...so don't tell me how easy this is to use. I've ended up hiring someone to come over to install it correctly...I'm back to just using my cable connection. It's going to cost me a sweet 100 bucks to have it set up and secure. and then I sure hope it works.
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Very good, April 4, 2008
By Vijaiganesh Nagarajan (Chicago, IL, USA)
I bought this router 2 months back. Very light weight. No antennas. Good coverage. Easy settings. So highly recommended
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Great, except for the lights, April 4, 2008
By Nicolas Soria (Grand Ledge, Michigan United States)
This is my first Wi-Fi Router, and I'm pleased with the performance so far (I've only used it with my DS and my Wii) It was easy to set up too. The thing I don't like are the rave lights on top. They flash randomly and brightly and it's rather annoying!
I read that it can be undone internally, which I'm thinking about doing.
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