Netgear WNR3500: disappointing

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

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!