NETGEAR WNDR3700 Reviewed

[tipstir]

Line 4 you have posted for the TEW-673GRU handles the naming very well. My Wii shows up as the Wii along with the IP and MAC address. ESR-9850 nope it's just IP and the Mac address.
TEW-673GRU can handle all your request. It's routing speed is very quick on LAN to LAN to WAN to LAN.

These wireless N/gig routers all going to get worked hard, I think it's time to bring back a cooling FAN into these units! Have vents on the front and not in the back where you mount the unit to the wall and build them around a metal casing with better heatsink on the WNPU, Gig Controller.

 

[BlackObs]

Tim, would it be fair to say that you don't see a particular need for a 5GHz radio? I'm not having any actual problems on the 2.4GHz band with my WRT54GL, I was just hoping to avoid any future ones by making the transition to 5GHz now. But if (as it sounds) there's no particular advantage of doing this, I'd be glad to abandon the dual-radio requirement, which probably opens up my options substantially.

I don't intend to push the router all that hard, certainly not wirelessly. I'd like to be able to saturate my 10Mbit WAN link, and I do occasionally transfer files from my desktop to the WHS box, for which gigabit speed is nice, but I'm not pushing the device hard 24/7 or anything. In fact, the 2,500 BT connections I threw out there is a full order of magnitude more than what I'm working with now; I could limit that to even 500 if need be.

I get the impression from your response that you have a WNDR3700, Tim: have you been happy with it, by and large?

Tipstir: I'll definitely look into that Trendnet router. Thanks for the tip!

 

[thiggins]

5 GHz is helpful only if you have a lot of strong neighboring networks in the 2.4 GHz band and you are noticing problems like frequent disconnects and very slow speeds and can live with the reduced throughput vs. distance characteristic.

I have never had problems with any router I've used. But I don't push them very hard. Light wireless use, and only occasional Torrenting. Most of my heavy traffic goes through separate Gigabit switches (NAS to NAS backup and client to NAS backup).

I used a D-Link DGL-4300 for years and recently switched to a WNDR3700, mainly to be able to answer frequent questions about it. It does everything I need an has good coverage.

 

[tipstir]

5 GHz is helpful only if you have a lot of strong neighboring networks in the 2.4 GHz band and you are noticing problems like frequent disconnects and very slow speeds and can live with the reduced throughput vs. distance characteristic.

I have never had problems with any router I've used. But I don't push them very hard. Light wireless use, and only occasional Torrenting. Most of my heavy traffic goes through separate Gigabit switches (NAS to NAS backup and client to NAS backup).

I used a D-Link DGL-4300 for years and recently switched to a WNDR3700, mainly to be able to answer frequent questions about it. It does everything I need an has good coverage.

Wow you picked up the WNDR3700 and ditched the 5 year old dlink with 5dbi ANT. How's the wireless holding up on the netgear? Routing to LAN to LAN?

 

[thiggins]

Wow you picked up the WNDR3700 and ditched the 5 year old dlink with 5dbi ANT. How's the wireless holding up on the netgear? Routing to LAN to LAN?

As I said, I have never had a problem with any router I have used, the WNDR3700 included.

Consumer routers don't route LAN to LAN. LAN traffic goes through the switch and never hits the CPU. Most of my LAN traffic goes through NETGEAR GS108 or GS108T switches.

 

[tipstir]

As I said, I have never had a problem with any router I have used, the WNDR3700 included.

Consumer routers don't route LAN to LAN. LAN traffic goes through the switch and never hits the CPU. Most of my LAN traffic goes through NETGEAR GS108 or GS108T switches.

Well true they never hit the router unless they're the only device connected to the router switch where you are not using any external switches. That's the all purpose of using external switches let them do the work not bog down the router to do it the manged there. Then for one switch connected to the router on 1000mbps switch then needs to communicate over the LAN with 100mbps device then it would have to relay the packet to the router then back to the other switch then back again to the 1000mpbs. If you just got the one switch then all nodes will communicate via that switch LAN to LAN.

LAN to LAN speeds in mb/s what are you seeing on your PCI-E or do you have PCI-X?

 

[thiggins]

Well true they never hit the router unless they're the only device connected to the router switch where you are not using any external switches. That's the all purpose of using external switches let them do the work not bog down the router to do it the manged there. Then for one switch connected to the router on 1000mbps switch then needs to communicate over the LAN with 100mbps device then it would have to relay the packet to the router then back to the other switch then back again to the 1000mpbs. If you just got the one switch then all nodes will communicate via that switch LAN to LAN.

That is not correct. Even on the internal switch, LAN to LAN wired traffic passes port-to-port directly through the switch chip, with no need for the router processor to get involved.

LAN to LAN speeds in mb/s what are you seeing on your PCI-E or do you have PCI-X?

Frankly, I've never measured them, except indirectly when running tests on product with IxChariot. The two machines I use most use PCI-e and get 600 - 700 Mbps using the IxChariot script.

 

[BlackObs]

I have never had problems with any router I've used. But I don't push them very hard. Light wireless use, and only occasional Torrenting. Most of my heavy traffic goes through separate Gigabit switches (NAS to NAS backup and client to NAS backup).

I used a D-Link DGL-4300 for years and recently switched to a WNDR3700, mainly to be able to answer frequent questions about it. It does everything I need an has good coverage.

Presumably you've used these devices for their routing capabilities as well as their wireless though, right? My main concern with maximum simultaneous connections isn't wireless; my desktop is connected to a gigabit switch, then to my router (WRT54GL), and then to the DSL modem. But on a fairly regular basis, after I've done about 100GB of torrenting (which takes about a month, on my temporarily meager connection), I need to reboot the router, as it has managed to fall to perhaps 10% of the WAN link's actual throughput. After that reboot, things jump right back up to normal. My assumption was that the issue was caused by either an issue with the device's low maximum simultaneous connections (64), routing tables filling up, or both.

I have no idea where the routing tables are stored, although since the issue goes away on a reboot, I'm assuming that they're stored in RAM (since flash isn't volatile and wouldn't clear on a power loss). Would more RAM mean larger routing tables? If so, I assume that moving to the WNDR3700, with 4x the RAM of the WRT54GL, would at least alleviate, if not resolve, my issue.

 

[tipstir]

That is not correct. Even on the internal switch, LAN to LAN wired traffic passes port-to-port directly through the switch chip, with no need for the router processor to get involved.

Frankly, I've never measured them, except indirectly when running tests on product with IxChariot. The two machines I use most use PCI-e and get 600 - 700 Mbps using the IxChariot script.

Sounds like you think it's hops over and skips the router if you have two or more external switches.

router -port1---->port1> external switch #1 (100mbps)-->port2 (media players)
port2|---->port1>-external switch 2 (1000mbps)--->port 2 (HTPC)


So in the above example media stream of packets from external switch 2 feeds into the router then then sends the requested packets to external switch #1 from external switch #2. I think you think I have link together the switches. Then the way you described will work. I've made a video showing in a real-time simulation of what I mean. Even if I pull out the router out of the equation the two switches won't be able to commutate without the router in switch ports in place. Just not going to be able to do that unless I connect the two switches together in up-link mode then your suggestion will work. But as you know doing it that way reduces through-put.

EnGenius ESR-9850 Review Part 8 RT Simulation Network Diagram (Note: You'll see reference to Linksys WRT310n, only the model was used for ESR-9850.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_sgWbA62nM

 

[thiggins]

Your "simulation" proves nothing about whether the router CPU touches packets.

The only time data is handled by the router processor is when it travels between LAN and WAN. Any traffic between switch ports is handled by the switch chip only, which contains all the processing needed to handle packets from port to port. This is true whether the router switch is connected to single devices or other switches.

 

[thiggins]

I have no idea where the routing tables are stored, although since the issue goes away on a reboot, I'm assuming that they're stored in RAM (since flash isn't volatile and wouldn't clear on a power loss). Would more RAM mean larger routing tables? If so, I assume that moving to the WNDR3700, with 4x the RAM of the WRT54GL, would at least alleviate, if not resolve, my issue.

Routing tables use RAM. But a router's firmware controls how big the tables are. For the WNDR3700, 2K is the limit for simultaneous connections. Given that you are currently limited to 64, even 2K would be a big improvement. Just keep your number of peers and simultaneous downloads low and you should be fine.

 

[Hamilton]

Problems with WNDR3700

I recently got a 3700 to replace my old Linksys WRT54G that had died.

But with this new router I have two serious problems that's got me thinking about returning it and getting a DIR-655 instead.

1. I have one desktop PC that's connecting over WiFi with a D-link DWL-G510 PCI-card. On that PC I can rarely even find the 2.4GHz network from the WNDR3700. And in the few times it does find the network it will even more rarely connect to it. I've tried both WPA2-AES, WEP (64) and no encryption but it makes no difference. I've tried setting the mode to "Up to 54Mbps", 130 and 300. No difference. And in the extremely few times it has connected the speeds are only around 1-2Mbps both upload and download.
The distance from the router is about 5m through wooden walls. This is something that used to be rock solid on the old WRT54G...

2. One desktop PC that's connected with Cat 6 cable to the router is used for downloading torrents through a VPN.
First connecting to the VPN and then starting uTorrent works fine. It connects to peers and leachers ok. But within an hour it will drop the internet connection for all wired and wireless PCs. Only thing that gets the internet back is to restart the ADSL-modem and then the router.
Also something that worked flawlessly with the WRT54G...

Anyone got any suggestions for these problems?

 

[tipstir]

Interesting observation. I would suggest one thing before you return this router for DIR-655, is to take it away from it's present location and move near your wireless clients. You can test the WLAN to WLAN without WWAN. See how the range and signal is. Download the program called inSSIDer see what you get in RSSi -dBm. TEW-673GRU and WNDR-3700 are almost clones except for ANT, LED/LCD panel, and features. Hardware about the same since AR and Realtek chipsets are used. TEW-673GRU under VUZE classic not the bloated crap GUI keeps the connection steady eddy does not drop on a dime (over wired connection) nor does the rest of network even with VPN is in use to wife company domain network. I got that going P2P downloading, FaceBook CafeWorld going on, Live TV (IPTV) going on to sets where Coax cable is not present. All of this plus wireless network printer servers and wired ones too. One thing I really like about the TEW-673GRU is the routing of packets on my VT Exchange Server to clients systems. Load time is quicker than on ESR-9850.

 

[FateMortis]

Hi people, I've been reading this thread right from page 1 up till the last current page and I'll like to ask something.

I'm currently on a Starhub provided Home line of 100Mbps. Subscribed to it not long ago.
I understand that the ISP will not give a full throughput from the subscribed plan and I'm getting 80Mbps+/- if I plug the Modem straight to my PC.

However, the problems come in here. After connecting the Modem, which has a Gigabit port, to the DIR-655 A3 which also runs on Gigabit ports.

Modem -> DIR-655 -> PC

My PC receives throughput of less than 40Mbps. I realized just yesterday that my PC is on the older NIC card that is not Gigabit supported, only 10/100 FastEthernet.
My question is, how can I get the same throughput as I got from having my PC directly connected to the Modem?
The loss of 50% or even greater at times is quite unbearable. Is it the Router's issue or is it that my PC needs to get a NIC that is on Gigabit?

If it's the Router's issue, I'll be considering getting the WNDR3700 to replace this old one.

 

[jam3ohio]

WNDR3700 Firmware

Also make sure that you are running the latest firmware. Recently-made units had a manufacturing deviation that caused many issues, and Netgear has recently posted a version 68 of the firmware to address these issues.

 

[thiggins]

@Hamilton.

Try upgrading drivers on the D-Link adapter, try setting the router to G only mode.

For the Torrent issue, try limiting the # of torrent connections and simultaneous downloads.

 

[thiggins]

Hi people, I've been reading this thread right from page 1 up till the last current page and I'll like to ask something.

I'm currently on a Starhub provided Home line of 100Mbps. Subscribed to it not long ago.
I understand that the ISP will not give a full throughput from the subscribed plan and I'm getting 80Mbps+/- if I plug the Modem straight to my PC.

However, the problems come in here. After connecting the Modem, which has a Gigabit port, to the DIR-655 A3 which also runs on Gigabit ports.

Modem -> DIR-655 -> PC

This really belongs in a different thread.

But, try disabling the QoS features in the DIR-655.

 

[Hamilton]

@Hamilton.

Try upgrading drivers on the D-Link adapter, try setting the router to G only mode.

Drivers are the latest. By setting the router in G only mode do you mean "up to 54Mbps" ? It had no effect.

For the Torrent issue, try limiting the # of torrent connections and simultaneous downloads.

I've set torrent connections to 100 and downloads to 20. But some further testing seems to indicate that it's only when I download through the VPN that my connection dies. Downloading without VPN worked for about 1.5h when I tested it just now...

 

[thiggins]

Drivers are the latest. By setting the router in G only mode do you mean "up to 54Mbps" ? It had no effect.

Yes.
Make sure WMM is enabled in the QoS page. On the adapter itself, disable any power save and throughput enhancing features.
Also try selecting a channel on the router instead of using Auto channel mode.

I've set torrent connections to 100 and downloads to 20. But some further testing seems to indicate that it's only when I download through the VPN that my connection dies. Downloading without VPN worked for about 1.5h when I tested it just now...

I'd reduce the # of downloads. I set connections to 200 and downloads to four on my WNDR3700 and it works fine. But I'm not using VPN.

 

[Zero]

WNDR3700 Firmware Version 1.0.4.68

Tim,

Netgear has recently released their .68 firmware and listed the fixes and changes, however this one change has me and others concerned:

•The record time interval of statistics data in traffic meter is changed to one second.

Prior to this new version, Netgear stated the following about the record time interval as a known issue:

•The record time interval of storing statistics data in traffic meter is extended to 60 mins instead of 5 mins to extend flash sector life time. If you power off router in between, you may see the statistics data to be slightly inconsistent. We’ll solve this problem soon and shorten the record time interval less than 5 mins.
Workaround: Don’t power off router if you want most accurate measure of traffic statistics data. This will be fixed in upcoming firmware.

With this new change in the interval to writing every single second, won't this drastically reduce the lifespan of the NVRAM? I'm holding off on updating to the .68 firmware until I get an answer on this if there's the possibility of it causing damage and reducing the router's lifespan. Would it be possible to ask your contact at Netgear and get an official response on this to clear up any misconceptions?