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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / June 2006Any experience with Belkin Pre-N or Netgear WPN824 routers?
My wireless router died this weekend and I need to replace it. This being the second SMC I've had that didn't last or perform particularly well (2 years and they seem to fry), I'm going for another brand. In addition, I hope to find something with great wireless range. I've narrowed the search down to the Belkin Pre-N and the Netgear WPN824. I'll be using them on a mixed Mac/PC network (PowerBook G4, Wintel notebook, iMac G5, and a hardwired dual G5). I've read tons of reviews today, and am still on the fence. I'm seeing reports that the Netgear drops connections and the Belkin is generally great. Problem is, nobody posts which version of firmware they're using (both have had firmware updates), and I've only seen one PB user for each router. Does anyone currently on this forum have an experience to share? My router's death was yesterday and I need to have something working by Monday. Both routers are in stock locally for fair prices, so I have that bit of flexibility. Thanks for any help, Abbott I can't speak to the wireless routers of these two devices. However, I have had Netgear firewall for over 3 years. A friend of mine has been using a different model, but still a Netgear firewall. His has lasted nearly 4 years. I like the Netgear equipment, they are made of metal, not plastic. I purchased a Belkin wireless router. It was light-weight and flimsy. It stopped working after six months. While it worked, the range was very good. Both my friend and I are using our Netgear boxes on mixed platform networks. Work flawlessly. I have XP, Mac, and Linux on mine; there are only XP and Mac on the other. Both of us have Apple wireless devices to give wireless to our networks. Upgrading the firmware on the Netgear was simple to do when the it was necessary. > My wireless router died this weekend and I need to replace it. This > being the second SMC I've had that didn't last or perform particularly [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups > ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---- I had a feeling that Netgear was better than some of the other brands, and I've read mixed things about Belkin (but almost all good about the Pre-N). BTW: the Netgear box I'm looking at is plastic. What I'm really trying to accomplish is, with my mostly 802.11g clients (I'll have nothing newer for several years, I suspect): - Get better reception throughout my house. My current SMC routers just don't give reliable reception if I'm more than about 20 feet from them with the PB G4). - Get reliable reception within about 20-30 feet outside my house. Right now, I can only count on the PB G4 if I sit right outside the room that has the router. I know that some of this is the PB (my PC and Pismo laptops fare far far better). But I need that PB to get reliable reception outside. I wonder if someone's got experience with MIMO routers and 802.11g clients...If I got even 25-50% better reception within 10% more range than I currently have, I'd be happy and feel the relatively small incremental investment was worthwhile. Abbott > I can't speak to the wireless routers of these two devices. However, I > have had Netgear firewall for over 3 years. A friend of mine has been [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > devices to give wireless to our networks. Upgrading the firmware on > the Netgear was simple to do when the it was necessary. In article <abbottNOSPAM-569EB3.08583711062006@fcorpsurge2.newsfeeds.com>, > I wonder if someone's got experience with MIMO routers and 802.11g > clients...If I got even 25-50% better reception within 10% more range > than I currently have, I'd be happy and feel the relatively small > incremental investment was worthwhile. I found that I got 50 to 100% more signal strength (range) than an AirPort Extreme -- at various distances up to 75 feet with a Belkin pre-n MIMO base station. And this was in a very very very RF noisy environment, particularly in the 2.4 GHz band where there are 2 to 5 base stations on EVERY channel. The client wasn't even pre-n, just a G4 Powerbook on g. Thanks, Nick. I took the plunge yesterday and installed the Netgear RangeMax and am finding about the same thing you did. Whereas my old SMC router would be barely detectable outside the house, I can now get usable signals at least 20 feet from the side of the house farthest from where the RangeMax is installed...and I get at least 3 bars everywhere in the house, even in places the old router only delivered 1-2 bars. Like you, this is with my PowerBook's AirPort Extreme. I put the Netgear in because it was on sale locally. Lacking substantial input from the various places I posted, and having read about the same fraction of good vs bad reports on the Belkin Pre-N and RangeMax products, I went with Netgear. So far it looks very good; I'm looking forward to seeing if this unit lasts better than the two SMCs I've had...both of which went flakey or downright failed after 1.5-2 years. > In article > <abbottNOSPAM-569EB3.08583711062006@fcorpsurge2.newsfeeds.com>, [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > base stations on EVERY channel. The client wasn't even pre-n, just a G4 > Powerbook on g. > My wireless router died this weekend and I need to replace it. This > being the second SMC I've had that didn't last or perform particularly [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > Thanks for any help, > Abbott I am not familiar with those models but I tried a Belkin 802.11G router and found it not suitable for my purposes (it did not allow me to do forwarding of multiple ports), although it worked fine as a basic router. I returned it and got a Netgear WGR614 and it has worked flawlessly for the 8 months it has been in service. I am using it with a G4 Mini and two i386 Linux boxes (one hard-wired). I didn't see any point in goi8ng to pre-n or any other higher-speed hardware as my DSL connection is the limiting factor. |
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