( 21 reviews )
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Posted: 06-10-2008
The only stable firmware for this product is the 1.01 version. All subsequent firmware releases (1.06, 1.10) are unstable. The nat does not clean up unused tcp connections and will die under heavy loads (heavy being running something such as eMule for more than a day). The router software is extraordinarily inefficient; it cannot juggle streaming media and regular browsing. You must do one or the other, but not both at once. This could probably be an awesome product if there were aftermarket firmware available, but since it is a closed product you must rely on Netgear to fix the bugs, which they seem unwilling to do. Save yourself a headache and create your own firewall with a mini-pc (at least you can change the underlying software!) or get a different product.
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Posted: 05-13-2008
I have 4 of these, one has been running for several years. No problems at all. These front our Internet connection, and we do not use them as switches, just firewalls. That means we have the Internet connection plugged into one port, and a switch plugged into another port. The computers, printers, etc. are plugged into the the switches, not this unit. The router sits between these units and the Internet. (The reason we use so many of them is that we sublet our office space: each tenant gets their own firewall so that no one can bust into the other tenant's network.) I R ----Firewall1----Switch1---Computers/printers N O T U----Firewall2----Switch2---Computers/printers E-T R E----Firewall3----Switch3---Computers/printers N R E T We've never had any problems with them, and so, at least as firewalls, they do the job. Switches are cheap: just buy a netgear 16 port switch and put it behind these. They worked fine for us, without any firmware upgrades or anything. We just take them out of the box, set them up as DHCP servers and leave the firewall protection at the default and we've never had a single problem with any of the 4 of them we own. If people are having problems, I suspect the switch capabilities could be the issue.
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( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: 05-13-2008
I have 4 of these, one has been running for several years. No problems at all. These front our Internet connection, and we do not use them as switches, just firewalls. That means we have the Internet connection plugged into one port, and a switch plugged into another port. The computers, printers, etc. are plugged into the the switches, not this unit. The router sits between these units and the Internet. (The reason we use so many of them is that we sublet our office space: each tenant gets their own firewall so that no one can bust into the other tenant's network.) I R ----Firewall1----Switch1---Computers/printers N O T U----Firewall2----Switch2---Computers/printers E-T R E----Firewall3----Switch3---Computers/printers N R E T We've never had any problems with them, and so, at least as firewalls, they do the job. Switches are cheap: just buy a netgear 16 port switch and put it behind these. They worked fine for us, without any firmware upgrades or anything. We just take them out of the box, set them up as DHCP servers and leave the firewall protection at the default and we've never had a single problem with any of the 4 of them we own. If people are having problems, I suspect the switch capabilities could be the issue. UPDATE: 3/2009. The problem others are having is the firmware. We are using down level firmware, which works fine. The newer firmware is TERRIBLE and they lock up ALL THE TIME. My understanding is that they have even newer firmware that is better. I downgraded all of mine to release 1 and have had no problems.
