Here is my short review of the Netgear WNR3500.
I initially purchased a Netgear WNR3500 as a replacement for my aging Netgear WGT624. Unfortunately, I had two problems, one of them major, necessitating the return of the device:
1) poor installation process
2) wireless communication drops
The installation process took a lot longer than expected: about 1 1/2 hours. It failed twice: once from an older XP notebook PC and second, from a new Vista machine. I could understand from an older notebook, but the install simply failed on the new Vista box. After resetting my network a number of times, the install finall worked from Vista. Resetting the router to its default settings can be a major pain. I learned a few things from this page:
http://vpncasestudy.com/reset.html
Secondly, as I host a website from my wireless PC, the wireless communication drops were unacceptable. I tried three different versions of the firmware with the same result, wireless network drops. As my older Netgear WGT624 worked from the same location (upstairs about 20 feet away from my wirelessly connected MacBook), I have had to rollback to use the WGT624 and return the WRN 3500. Read more about the ongoing drops and DNS proxy errors here:
http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=27966&page=3
On a more positive note, wired connections seemed to work just fine. Also, the administrative interface to the router was 95% the same as my older WGT624, so Netgear did not make me learn new admin commands.
However, my two major issues left me with a sour taste in my mouth and disappointed me, given my positive experience with my older Netgear WGT624. Too bad. I was looking forward to blazing RangeMax, 802.11n wireless speeds. What I got was network drops. Blecch!
A Bummed Cacasodo
Showing posts with label netgear wgt624. Show all posts
Showing posts with label netgear wgt624. Show all posts
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Thursday, December 13, 2007
MacBook Pro: six month review
I've had my MacBook Pro 2.33Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo for over six months now and thought I'd give a quick review and impressions. Disclaimer: This review will be from the standpoint of a guy who uses the box mainly to connect to his corporate network, surf the web and do some occasional live video importing using iMovie HD.
Stability
It is pretty bulletproof and does not hang, until you start playing with HDV. Then things slow down or in some very rare situations, have hung the box. Thus, a restart is necessary.
Networking
Wi-Fi and hardwired ethernet setup are a breeze. At home, WiFi performance to my NetGear WGT624 is excellent and works from the first floor in my loft, through metal studded walls up to the router which is upstairs in the loft roughly twenty feet away. I have had no trouble connecting to WiFi networks in hotels or conference centers.
Connectivity
In order to logon to other boxes at my home and corp networks, I run Microshaft Terminal Services and Chicken of the VNC. This is our peak season at work, so when I am home, I will log in over Cisco VPN to my workstation at work via MS RDP and keep the connection up as long as possible. Cisco VPN has been connected for as long as fourteen days with no downtime. Microsoft RDP occasionally hangs and I will have to restart the box. Figures..the times I have had to restart a Mac is because of a Microsoft product. Finally, built in BSD Unix gives you all the Unix tools plus ssh/scp for other connectivity options.
OS Alternatives
I don't run Boot Camp; instead, I run VMware Fusion (VMware's answer to Parallels) and have XP and Fedora running in virtual machines on the MacBook. Parallels works for some people; however, I encountered problems with a kernel panic when I installed Fedora. Since we use VMware at work, I just opted to use VMware Fusion.
XP and Fedora performance in Fusion is good, but not great for things like editing video. However, at least you have the capability of running an alternate OS without fear of the virtual PC going down. VMware allows you to assign one or more processors to a VM, so that is an additional performance boost.
I know folks who do run Boot Camp without issue if you want to go down that route.
Applications
I haven't used the Mac apps other than Safari/TextEdit/Preview/IMovie HD/iTunes. But those programs seem really intuitive. Kudos to Jobs for enforcing ease of use. On certain websites. there is squirrely-ness with Safari and some form fields. I suspect this is due to those sites' coders not doing a good job of testing. For those websites, I run Firefox and that usually will get around these problems.
Battery Life
Multimedia will suck the juice out of this thing. I probably get only 1 1/2 to 2 hours of battery life if I am viewing YouTube or watching a DVD. However, if I use non-multimedia apps, I get quite a bit more usable batt time. For instance, I was able to use Microsoft Word on a plane for about 4.5 hours straight before the box died.
All in all, I am a man for all seasons: PC for noodling about or raw firepower and the Mac for "it just works"
sodo
Stability
It is pretty bulletproof and does not hang, until you start playing with HDV. Then things slow down or in some very rare situations, have hung the box. Thus, a restart is necessary.
Networking
Wi-Fi and hardwired ethernet setup are a breeze. At home, WiFi performance to my NetGear WGT624 is excellent and works from the first floor in my loft, through metal studded walls up to the router which is upstairs in the loft roughly twenty feet away. I have had no trouble connecting to WiFi networks in hotels or conference centers.
Connectivity
In order to logon to other boxes at my home and corp networks, I run Microshaft Terminal Services and Chicken of the VNC. This is our peak season at work, so when I am home, I will log in over Cisco VPN to my workstation at work via MS RDP and keep the connection up as long as possible. Cisco VPN has been connected for as long as fourteen days with no downtime. Microsoft RDP occasionally hangs and I will have to restart the box. Figures..the times I have had to restart a Mac is because of a Microsoft product. Finally, built in BSD Unix gives you all the Unix tools plus ssh/scp for other connectivity options.
OS Alternatives
I don't run Boot Camp; instead, I run VMware Fusion (VMware's answer to Parallels) and have XP and Fedora running in virtual machines on the MacBook. Parallels works for some people; however, I encountered problems with a kernel panic when I installed Fedora. Since we use VMware at work, I just opted to use VMware Fusion.
XP and Fedora performance in Fusion is good, but not great for things like editing video. However, at least you have the capability of running an alternate OS without fear of the virtual PC going down. VMware allows you to assign one or more processors to a VM, so that is an additional performance boost.
I know folks who do run Boot Camp without issue if you want to go down that route.
Applications
I haven't used the Mac apps other than Safari/TextEdit/Preview/IMovie HD/iTunes. But those programs seem really intuitive. Kudos to Jobs for enforcing ease of use. On certain websites. there is squirrely-ness with Safari and some form fields. I suspect this is due to those sites' coders not doing a good job of testing. For those websites, I run Firefox and that usually will get around these problems.
Battery Life
Multimedia will suck the juice out of this thing. I probably get only 1 1/2 to 2 hours of battery life if I am viewing YouTube or watching a DVD. However, if I use non-multimedia apps, I get quite a bit more usable batt time. For instance, I was able to use Microsoft Word on a plane for about 4.5 hours straight before the box died.
All in all, I am a man for all seasons: PC for noodling about or raw firepower and the Mac for "it just works"
sodo
Friday, April 20, 2007
macbook pro airport seems to need SSID broadcast
After spending an hour of troubleshooting, I found that my new MacBook Pro 2.33Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo needs SSID broadcast enabled for it to connect to my NetGear WGT624. I have not confirmed that with the Apple documentation yet, but an hour of troubleshooting and experimentation shows that the MacBook will not connect to my wireless router without the router broadcasting the SSID.
Speaking of which, here is a short list of things with which to verify your wireless connection. Hope they are helpful:
On the Router:
1) make sure SSID Broadcast is enabled :)
2) verify the wireless mode (g&b, g only, b only, 108Mbps only, Auto 108Mbps)
3) verify what security you are using (none, WEP or WiFi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key (WPA-PSK))
4) verify any advanced 108Mbps or extended range features are enabled or disabled
On the attaching computer:
1) verify that the wireless network name you are connecting to is the same as your router is broadcasting
2) verify that the type of wireless security (none, WEP, WPA, LEAP, 802.1X WEP) matches what is being used by your wireless router
3) verify that your WPA passphrase or WEP key is correctly entered as Hex or ASCII
- Hex will allow a longer, more difficult to remember password
- ASCII will give you the english language translation of the Hex password, usually shorter
4) for WEP, verify the Authentication Type (auto, open system, shared key) and the encryption strength
good luck!
Speaking of which, here is a short list of things with which to verify your wireless connection. Hope they are helpful:
On the Router:
1) make sure SSID Broadcast is enabled :)
2) verify the wireless mode (g&b, g only, b only, 108Mbps only, Auto 108Mbps)
3) verify what security you are using (none, WEP or WiFi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key (WPA-PSK))
4) verify any advanced 108Mbps or extended range features are enabled or disabled
On the attaching computer:
1) verify that the wireless network name you are connecting to is the same as your router is broadcasting
2) verify that the type of wireless security (none, WEP, WPA, LEAP, 802.1X WEP) matches what is being used by your wireless router
3) verify that your WPA passphrase or WEP key is correctly entered as Hex or ASCII
- Hex will allow a longer, more difficult to remember password
- ASCII will give you the english language translation of the Hex password, usually shorter
4) for WEP, verify the Authentication Type (auto, open system, shared key) and the encryption strength
good luck!
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