NETGEAR WNDR3700 Reviewed

[Unregistered_ac]

wireless 'modes'

I noticed in the review that for 2.4ghz there is a 20mhz and 40mhz mode - how can I switch between these on the WNDR3700? Is it the 'wireless modes' (up to xx Mbps)? I have a computer in a place similar to Location E, and would like to get the most available signal strength there. I read the review and the thread a few times but I couldn't find anything...

 

[thiggins]

I noticed in the review that for 2.4ghz there is a 20mhz and 40mhz mode - how can I switch between these on the WNDR3700? Is it the 'wireless modes' (up to xx Mbps)? I have a computer in a place similar to Location E, and would like to get the most available signal strength there. I read the review and the thread a few times but I couldn't find anything...

As noted in the review the mode selections are: "Up to 54 Mbps" = 802.11b/g, "Up to 130 Mbps" = 802.11n, 20 MHz mode and "Up to 300 Mbps" = 40 MHz mode.

 

[cc666]

Forget Dlink DIR-655 or DIR-825 Netgear WNDR 3700 is the router to get

I have been a Dlink supporter for years. I have a DIR 655 and DIR 825. Both routers are useless. The firmware is terrible. My wife is taking an online course and she was disconnected 2 times during a test that almost cost her a good grade for the course. That was the straw that broke the camels back. DNS relay is useless (had it off) and still constant disconnects and slow router performance.

Purchased the WNDR3700 a week ago based on Tims review (whom I respect very much). The router has performed flawlessly. Rock solid and extremely fast. I love it and all my problems have been solved in one clean sweep. Signal strength is supurb even on the 5 GHz. If you are having the Dlink problems that everyone else is having do not hesitate to pick up the WNDR3700.

Charlie C

 

[tipstir]

I have been a Dlink supporter for years. I have a DIR 655 and DIR 825. Both routers are useless. The firmware is terrible. My wife is taking an online course and she was disconnected 2 times during a test that almost cost her a good grade for the course. That was the straw that broke the camels back. DNS relay is useless (had it off) and still constant disconnects and slow router performance.

Purchased the WNDR3700 a week ago based on Tims review (whom I respect very much). The router has performed flawlessly. Rock solid and extremely fast. I love it and all my problems have been solved in one clean sweep. Signal strength is supurb even on the 5 GHz. If you are having the Dlink problems that everyone else is having do not hesitate to pick up the WNDR3700.

Charlie C

Good to know you're back-up and running now Charlie..

Otherwise 15% off dell sounds impressive though would be nice it can go a nad lower..

 

[Nivk]

I bought a wrt610n before I got me this one. The 610n I had was a bit of a disappointment, perhaps it was a rotten apple but it wasn't able to outperform my 2 year old Belkin Pre-N everywhere in the house. In a room on the top floor with the router on the ground floor (unfortunately it has to be there..) it wasn't able to reach even 5-7mbps transferring a file over the network. (I blame the metal enforced thick concrete walls)Where the Belkin was able to reach at least 10mbps connected with the same wifi link 5300AGN. The 610n's 5GHz band didn't even show up there.
Sold that 610n and got me this one, its performance is a lot better in every location then all previous routers I have owned. Its 5GHz band outperforms the 610n in the mentioned location, on the 2,4GHz I can even get 22-24mbps there. Its web interface is not that brilliant compared to the Cisco though. The only option I would still want is to only let it accept N wireless devices, since I have a separate G wlan for that now.

 

[claykin]

I have been a Dlink supporter for years. I have a DIR 655 and DIR 825. Both routers are useless. The firmware is terrible. My wife is taking an online course and she was disconnected 2 times during a test that almost cost her a good grade for the course. That was the straw that broke the camels back. DNS relay is useless (had it off) and still constant disconnects and slow router performance.

Purchased the WNDR3700 a week ago based on Tims review (whom I respect very much). The router has performed flawlessly. Rock solid and extremely fast. I love it and all my problems have been solved in one clean sweep. Signal strength is supurb even on the 5 GHz. If you are having the Dlink problems that everyone else is having do not hesitate to pick up the WNDR3700.

Charlie C

DLink's forums will be sorry to see you go. You helped to motivate those wingnuts to "see the light" on stupid things that should have worked right the first go around. Anxiously awaiting new firmware promised by them. Hopefully this comes before Tim's B1 test or I may be eating crow (and buying a WNDR3700).

 

[thiggins]

I reset to defaults and was able to connect at 130 Mbps at 2.4 GHz and 300 Mbps at 5 GHz.

So then I went through all the settings I had used before, one-by-one, checking that I could still connect at 300 Mbps after making the change. Finally I found the culprit, under Advanced / QoS Setup:

Enable WMM (Wi-Fi multi-media) Settings (2.4GHz b/g/n)
Enable WMM (Wi-Fi multi-media) Settings (5GHz a/n)

I had disabled WMM for both bands during my original setup, since I don't need any QoS for my use. But factory default is to enable them. If they are disabled, the maximum connection rate is 54 Mbps. After I enable them again, I can connect at 300 Mbps. This looks like a bug in the WNDR3700 firmware, since I cannot think of any reasonable explanation for this behavior.

It took awhile to track this down. But this is not a bug. It turns out that WMM must be enabled in order to guarantee that 802.11n HT (High Throughput) rates (anything above 54 Mbps) are enabled.

I'll be writing up a short article to explain.

 

[thiggins]

The only option I would still want is to only let it accept N wireless devices, since I have a separate G wlan for that now.

This isn't really essential. All you need to do is use different SSIDs for the N and G networks. As long as clients are not associated with the N network and you are using different, non-overlapping channels (1, 6, or 11), there will not be any interaction between the networks.

 

[Unregistered]

Reboot needed to restore connection

I needed to power-cycle my WNDR3700 last night to restore my internet connection after 11 days up...the internet light was still blinking as it should, so it looked like the router was still seeing the internet, but the two systems hardwired to it were not able to connect to the internet, nor could I get to the router via http://192.168.1.1.

Anyway, something for me to keep an eye on. I'm still within the 30-day return period, so I could exchange it, but I don't know why this happened...could even be my ISP (Comcast), I suppose. I worry more if I have to do this in less than a week, but I'd be happier if this hadn't happened at all.

-Roger

 

[vasgyuszi]

Hi Folks,

I'm wondering to not get the B1 version of DIR-825, because I've buyed it one week ago in the Saturn store (Munich, Germany). After reading Tim's DIR-825 and WNDR3700 review I've looked on the papersuit of mine and saw: H/W Ver.: B1
I've buyed just blind, DIR-855 were to expensive and no other dual routers were in stock (wondering). I'm not disappointed with it in general until I readed the review Now I'm searching for a better solution (maybe this WNDR3700?) or simply wait for Tim's B1 review. Is there any schedule to publish it? We have only 14 days send back guarantee.

Best regrds,
vasgyuszi

 

[vasgyuszi]

Addition:
my goal is to connect my NAS to the choosen router and to serve two downlinks to my mediaadapters in the living room and in the bedroom.
For HD-1080p I need more bandwidth then with a single 2,4 GHz downlink could serve (with some reserve for variation) thus I thought to get a dual band dual radio router to be able dispatch simultanously. Am I right? Please refer me, thank You!

vasgyuszi

 

[jalyst]

Its web interface is not that brilliant compared to the Cisco though.

Hopefully we should see that improve now that it's been confirmed that the firmware for this device is based on openWRT.

This is not fully substantiated but chatter in the past has been that Cisco "borrowed" elements of various OSS project web-interfaces.

 

[Osamede]

Hi Folks,

I'm wondering to not get the B1 version of DIR-825, because I've buyed it one week ago ..... I'm not disappointed with it in general until I readed the review Now I'm searching for a better solution (maybe this WNDR3700?) or simply wait for Tim's B1 review. Is there any schedule to publish it? We have only 14 days send back guarantee.

Best regrds,
vasgyuszi

Why sit around waiting for somebody elses review when you have the box in your own hands. I mean would you buy a car based on a newspaper review that said something different than what you experienced in your own test drive?

No matter what Tim says, that isnt going to change the real facts of what performance you get in your own usage - with the peculiarities of your own house, your own equipment, your network.

So you have the router- play with it. Stress test it - put on 20 torrents at once, connect it to 10 clients at once or whatever. Check how fast it seems from different locations in YOUR house.

At the end of the day, that is worth more than someone else's review.

 

[vasgyuszi]

@Osamede:
You've right, but I don't have neither the time nor the experience to manage such deep tests. I'm waiting for Tim's test review because his results are comparable with his former tests on another routers. I've tested (tried, better to say) only my equipment and I haven't overview on the router market.
Because of missing hardware I cannot tasted the 5 GHz capability of the DIR-825. That's being still unknown factor.

Best regrds,
vasgyuszi

 

[thiggins]

I've buyed just blind, DIR-855 were to expensive and no other dual routers were in stock (wondering). I'm not disappointed with it in general until I readed the review Now I'm searching for a better solution (maybe this WNDR3700?) or simply wait for Tim's B1 review. Is there any schedule to publish it? We have only 14 days send back guarantee.

I haven't even received the product yet. There is no firm schedule for the review.

 

[vasgyuszi]

Well Tim, thanks to responding me.

About the B1 version I can tell, that I'm satisfied with it. Precisely to form, with the 2,4 GHz performance. My flat isn't big 76 m2 but rentals in Munich are expensive enough
So the router has to radiate through two walls (concrete and lime sand brick) and in the living room as well as in the bedroom I can enjoy HD streamed video without any rebuffering interrupt. Even as my wife saw the movie in the bedroom and I was putting data to the NAS from my PC at the same time (I used a G-stick, the mediaplayer has an N) hasn't affected the movie streaming.

I know, it sounds not very technical and my testing equipment/method is very limited.
I feel that the B1 should be better than the tested A1 by You. I'm very interested which throughputs will You measure during the tests compared to the WNDR3700.

The sticks, I will use in the future, are bounded to the mediaplayer(s) because I have to take sticks which are accepted by them. Free choice I have only on my PC, there is possible to take a stick which really paired to my future router.

Best regards,
vasgyuszi

 

[Unregistered]

Note that 3700 has problems with its USB storage connection

Just a note on this excellent router. There are a large number of posts on the Netgear website Forums that indicate that the USB NAS storage feature is currently broken on the 3700. Many many people report that when you connect a disk to the USB the router will soon lock and have to be rebooted. I suppose Netgear will address this, but until they do, be aware that you will probably not be able to use it as a NAS.

 

[worker]

[Q] Netgear 3700 stops working when self powered USB is connected

I just got the new router

updated all the firmware to 1.0.4.35

and have the following problem:

As soon as I connect my Antec USB 2.0 enclosure
hard driver, the router stops working.

lights are on (it shows that USB was detected)
but no internet access, no router web UI access.

I disconnect the USB, the light still stays on
and still nothing works.

After I reboot the router (with the usb disconnected)
the router starts working..


I tried to plugin a USB stick to the router and that
seemed to work (I could see the share).


The only difference I can think of is that the stick
is not a self powered usb device (it is also 2.0 interface though).


Anybody has any suggestions?

thank you in advance

 

[worker]

Resolved

Ok,
I disabled the 'media server' option under the USB in the Web UI. And now the USB drive works

I think what happened was that the Netgear
media server tried to scan my hard drive for media files....


that attempt essentially brought down the router.
the reason why USB stick worked was because it
did not have that many total files to go through

 

[thiggins]

Just a note on this excellent router. There are a large number of posts on the Netgear website Forums that indicate that the USB NAS storage feature is currently broken on the 3700. Many many people report that when you connect a disk to the USB the router will soon lock and have to be rebooted. I suppose Netgear will address this, but until they do, be aware that you will probably not be able to use it as a NAS.

I had no problems with this feature during testing.