Netgear RP614 works very well with my iMac and Tivo Box. Easy and simple to set up. The manual doesn't even mention that with Mac OS Leopard systems, all the set up work is done automatically by Netgear's on-line software.

After reading numerous router reviews I decided to get this model. I got off to a rocky start but perserverance paid off. The first router was declared defective by Netgear tech support in India which I found helpful and efficient. I returned it for a replacement and installed it on my Comcast cable system with a fair amount of difficulty. I remembered some of tech support's advise from a few weeks earlier so was able to figure it myself. I suspect it may have been difficult to set up due to the complications I ran into with the first router or my lack of expertise. At any rate, it has been up and running for well over a month without one glitch. It runs efficiently with no maintenance issues or dropped connections. I run it on Comcast with 3 computers. I notice no speed issues or slow downs. I very pleased with this Netgear router and this has been my first Netgear device so I rate them highly in spite of first item that turned out to be defective.

NETGEAR RP614 Web Safe Router with 4-Port 10/100 Mbps Switch
Greetings from Australia ... I'm not sure I understand the full issues of these little routers ... but mine worked out of the box ... I did have to dink with it a little bit ... but after trying to break it for 2 hours ... I do have to say ... this little item worked very well with my BigPond Cable connection. I would have loved to purchase a Sonicwall ... but ... alas ... things in this neck of the woods are just so stupidly expensive that all I could afford was this little NetGear Unit.
Thanks folks ... oh ... the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that the power adapter is only rated for 240/50 hz but it's made in china ... one would think someone would have approved the extra 5 cent spend sothat you can get it with a 120/240 60/50hz one ...

This is the most disappointing piece of Netgear equipment I have ever purhcased. I bought this to replace it's aging predecessor that required replacement. Over 2 hours of fooling around with it and I could not get it to work. I am very experienced and highly technical and thought I could figure it out but alas no. A quick google indicated that inability to obtain an IP address is not uncommon and often unresolvable. I gave up and picked up the equivalent Dlink product. The Dlink router was up and running in less than 15 minutes.

Ever since I bought this product, I've had nothing but problems. I have inconsistent connections with this Netgear router. I called Netgear Tech support many times, but there was no improvement. I would get connected for a few days and then poor connections. My DSL connection is excellent, so I know that the router is the issue. I sent the router into Netgear to be repaired but still poor connections after the repair. So the router is in the garbage and I'm in the process of looking for another router. Not to mention, some of the tech support reps are very rude and difficult to understand (thick accents). So save your money, time and energy and do not buy this product !!!

I bought this product to work with my Virgin media Broadband in the U.K. I know that VM uses Dynamic IP Addresses but the Router kep on stating that it had a Static IP Address to deal with. So I could not get it two work after 6 hours of frustration. I put in all the details for a Static IP Address and that did not work either. So I am using the Router as a door stop.

In the end I bought a Router from Sweex whih I had working ten minutes flat and I will stick with it. Never heard of Sweex before but their products do exactly what they say they do.

I have seen on the internet many others who have not managed to get the RP614 working and then I have seen just as many who are happy with it. That is quite bizarre and looks to me like poor quality control at manufacture....

Some 15-20 h over a 2-month period was spent trying to program this device and get it to connect to the internet through a separate modem. It never worked, even with downloaded instruction materials from Netgear website and a couple of phone calls and emails from tech staff who sincerely tried to help. Finally boxed the unit and sent back to Netgear. No response from Netgear since sending.

My experience with this router was not good. Previously, I had a Linksys Wireless-B broadband router with my Motorola Surfboard cable modem. My wife's desktop is the only other computer that regularly taps into the network, besides my own which is co-located with the router and modem. The connectivity was very reliable, but I wanted a wired option. I decided to go with a Netgear powerline adapter and, primarily because others had recommended a Netgear router to ensure the best performance with the Netgear powerline adapter, I opted for this. However, the connectivity was extremely unreliable. After thorough troubleshooting of the entire setup with my cable company, it was clear that the router was the problem. I might get 1 or 2 days of uninterrupted activity before the router drops, and no amount of troubleshooting (powering off the devices in certain orders and disconnecting the coaxial from the cable modem, letting it time out, and reconnecting) seemed to work consistently. I've gone back to my wireless Linksys because I don't want the hassle -- I travel too much and my wife is taking online classes, so we can't afford the intermittent connectivity. I was also troubled that Netgear only offers free customer support for 3 months after purchase of the item. Not exactly consumer-oriented.

It worked great. Plugged it in and the operating system recognized it and it work perfect. No problems.

This router was incredibly easy to set up and it's very small and flat, no unusual corners or feet that make some routers clunky and hard to find a place for. I could put this one on its side between my speaker and monitor without wasting space. I haven't had any problems with connections because of the router and I've had it up and running for almost a year. You really can't beat it for the price.

I bought a Linksys router when I had hi-speed internet installed. It didn't work. I guess it was the one in a million lemon. I read about this router so I did an exchange and got the Netgear. I fired it up and it worked fast and simple. I use Apple computers, not windows based, Cox hi-speed, and have the house wired for ethernet. I went thru the online set up wizard and screwed things up within the hour. I called them and talked to a service rep. That was Plus#1- he walked my through everything I needed to do with "easy- fix my mistake" instructions. I was back on line in 20 minutes and had my network up and everything running smooth, and it has stayed that way. The Plus#2 is the size. It is unbelievable small and fits in the small desktop area I have the modem in. I am happy with the product and the technical support-both via phone and on-line.

I started out years ago with a Linksys which died about a week later. A D-LINK later on constantly reset itself even under little load. Found out that was due to it having an older, slower ARM processor (even thought it was a newer model). Then I got a Netgear router (first one was the DG834). It worked much better than routers from other companies. My only issue is that I had to reset it every week or so. Since it was getting older (4+ years), I decided to upgrade to a newer model. I got the RP614v4 and have been very satisfied with it. It works as good as the DG834 did, only this one seems to reset itself when it hits a terminal snag. I have never had to manually power-cycle this router! I have kept the firmware up-to-date and any smaller issues just fade away with each firmware upgrade. I am very pleased with this router and hope that it's successor model is as good as it is and it's predecessor was (with minimum gigabit connections, of course).

I dreaded the idea of setting up my network again after the hassle with Linksys years ago, but I had to try something new. Someone recommended Netgear and it was so easy. Plug and play, that's it. My internet download speed immediately went from 5mb to 17mb across my whole network! Mac, PC, and TiVo. Amazing! Thank you Netgear. I wish I knew about you years ago.

I've owned this product for about a year now and felt compelled to write a review because of how frustrated I am with this product. I have AT&T DSL, and apparently, the AT&T DSL router has the same IP address as the Netgear router. It took several phone calls between Netgear and AT&T, but finally, this problem was resolved by designating specific DNS addresses to use (4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.1). Setup otherwise was relatively easy, and the router worked though it would intermittently not work, and I would have to reset the router (unplug it and plug it back in). At first, it would work for a few days, but now the router has to be reset at least once a day, and it's getting really annoying because the router is in the basement and my office is upstairs. I've already updated the firmware on this router and confirmed that the problem seems to be with the router rather than my DSL modem. Anyway, Netgear support was fairly responsive over email but they wanted me to adjust MTU's or packet sizes or something until the problem went away (at this point, what they were telling me to do was beyond my understanding, and the support people were only interested in telling me what to do rather than explaining what they thought was the problem). At this point, I've had it with the router, and I'm looking for a new one that just plain works.

The rounter works very well; and worth the cost.
But, to be able to use it be prepared to spend lots of time on the phone to India getting it working. The customer service people were very helpful, but I was on the phone two times over an hour each time.

So here's the thing, when I lived in Phoenix, and I had this certain cable internet provider, and it worked. Granted I had a bit of trouble getting it to work right off the bat. But, then it worked, and that was that.

Then I move to Albuquerque, and this other cable internet provider, and I could not get it to work. I even called Netgear, and even though the guy on the line was very nice, and very helpful, it still wouldn't work!

I finally went down to the store, and got myself a new router by a different manufacturer, and that one worked.

I bought this to replace another maker's wired router that simply didn't work. I have a mixed Mac / Win network. The size of the unit was much smaller, and the design much cleaner than the other router; I was very pleased with this. The trouble came when I tried to do a manual installation from the main Mac computer. It simply didn't work. So I used the Windows-only installation CD on a desktop running Win 2K, but the process would not complete. Finally, I used a laptop running Win XP and installation finally completed. The process took an entire morning. But there aren't really any other wired DSL routers for a Mac/Windows network, so I didn't have much choice but to endure the process. Now that it's up and running, it was worth the trouble. The claim that several computers can use the router without throughput being negatively affected seems to be true.

I ordered this product used a few weeks ago. It literally took me seconds to hook up my computers! It works great too... up until now the biggest problem we've had is that someone accidentally unplugged it and we couldn't figure out why we went offline all of a sudden! This product more than met my expectations and was a great buy for $20!

The latest version of this router, version 4, is quite an improvement over previous editions. The case is more heavy and solid, and less flimsy, while the design is a little more compact.

The web interface also added an easy-to-read progress bar when making big changes like firmware upgrades, as well as a nice tutorial for first-time users.

The earlier editions did the job well, but I think this latest version of the router is more polished and professional. Pick this router up if you're doing a small home or small office network. It's a good investment.

giving me great port secuity.Instructions were written for a wirerless router when I in fact had a hardwired unit which made it very confusing.Went to internet for instructions. instructions made it sound harder to install than it was.Satisfied sofar!

This product's quality and reliability are inconsistent. I liked the combination of price, features, and design when I ordered this product, plus it was supposed to work well on a Mac. It turned out the web-based configuration interface would only work on Explorer (if you still have 5.x version for Mac). You will be out of luck with Firefox or Safari. The alternative is to configure with a Windows-based machine running late version of Explorer.

The first router could not establish connectivity with my cable modem, and I was instructed by Netgear Support to either return the product or request a replacement from them directly for the tune of something like $15. Of course, I chose to request an exchange from Amazon. Upon receipt of replacement (which, thanks to Amazon, arrived very quickly), I was able to configure the router successfully. However, after a few days I realized that the router would lock up and require hard set and complete reconfiguration in order to get it going again. I have eventually given up and returned it and purchased a cheaper D-Link. It is not as feature-full as Netgear but has one big advantage - it works! I am happy with it after a few months of use, it worked right out of the box before I even tweaked some settings, and it works seamlessly on a Mac.

This router was a pain to install (definitely not plug and play) and the phone support was some of the surliest and ruddest I have experienced in a long while. I'm willing to overlook some bad service if the product is good (hello, can you tell I'm a Mac owner?) but this router sucks. It stalls all the time, and needs to be disconnected and reconnected at least twice a day. If I could give this no stars, I would.

Absolutely no problems in set-up or installation on my Mac (OS X) and a small home-office LAN with two ethernet printers. I have connected it to DSL modems with two different service providers recently. Works flawlessly and does exactly what it is supposed to do. Small, neat-looking device. Good buy.

This router was a real hassle to install. If you know all about networking and ISPs and all the numbers associated with all your equipment, then you can save 3 bucks and buy this box. I am no techie and found it impossible to install AND, when I was done hassling with the tech-support, it turned out that the Netgear router was not compatible with Xbox Live and the Xbox 360, which is what I bought it for in the first place. Instead, I now have a Linksys BEFSR41 EtherFast Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port 10/100 Switch. It was a breeze to install, virtually plug-and-play, and it works with the Xbox. The Linksys unit was well worth the extra 3 bucks.

Here are a few thoughts I had after wrestling with this junk for 90min:

Maybe the "smartwizard" should be called the "dumbwizard." "Updating settings" takes an insane amount of time, much more so than similar products from dlink and linksys. When I first found that no manual was in the box, I thought to myself "Oh, I see netgear is trying to save money by not printing the manual." I later found out that the manual is not even on the CD - you have to connect to the internet to get to it. In the setup wizard, I was first prompted to set up an internet connection before using the router. Well, isn't the point of this to get an internet connection?

Netgear put an obnoxious red label over the LAN ports telling me to "STOP" and use the installation CD. Now I have sticker residue all over the back. Using the CD probably made things even worse than if I would have manually set it up from the get go.

There's no information in the box that tells me what the router's IP address is and the password. Reading the manual, it wants me to go to routerlogin.net to log in, a shameful cover up for 192.168.1.1 (which I found out is the IP addy.)

Grrrr.... I'm trying to configure the router right now, and I have to wait for the "updating settings" even more! This is extremely slooowwww....

The ultimate test of a router - if, fresh out of the box, I plug a DSL modem and another computer into it, do I get internet? This router FAILS the test.

Now I see the setup wizard. I wonder if that helps? "Detecting connection type on internet port" just runs over and over and over, but now it says I have a static IP?? Grrr it says to powercycle the modem if that's the case so I'll do that...

Happy happy happy I am connected to the internet but I'm still plugged directly into my DSL modem, now let's trying plugging everything into the router and go from there...

What is this madness??? The internet light is still amber!! And what? Only one computer can access the router at a time!!

Now I can't even access the router.

Well, after an hour of fiddling around with configuration settings, this router is going back to the store. It definitely takes the cake for being the absolute dumbest router I have ever worked with; everything is automated and wizard infested. There is little hope for manually controlling this router; it has assumed from the outset that I, user, am dumb, illiterate, and know absolutely nothing about computers.

(Mac X User) For some reason Safari is not compatible when configuring the router, I used Firefox and setup was super easy. Just to clarify once the router is configured Safari runs perfectly.

Other than that its almost plug and play.

If you've got a broadband cable modem and 4 or fewer computers to hook up to the main feed, this is the router you want. I had a Linksys router, and for 4 years thought, this is as fast as it gets?

On a hunch, I decided to try a new router, and chose this model. Hookup was EASY. There is a CD that comes with the unit, and the CD tells you what to do, step by step. Not only that, it performs tests each time you perform a step, to see if you did it right.

My broadband speed is now four times faster than what it was with the old Linksys unit. Incidentally, I also use VPN, and had zero issues getting a connection with this router.

A great product, highly recommended.

THE GOOD:

* Excellent security features - NAT / Access Lists / MAC address filtering
* Excellent keyword filtering system which stops all matching traffic at the router and prevents any unwanted traffic even hitting the PC - very useful for parents to protect their children. Router even logs attempts made to banned sites and can send an email directly to administrator. Very impressive.
* Good DHCP service with the ability to reserve static IP for particular machines.
* Good intuitive and simple configuration via a web browser.
* Remotely accessible over the internet for configuring
* Good sturdy design with informative LED's
* Works very fast - exactly as advertised - very little CPU overhead on the router even with keyword filtering on.


THE BAD:

* Randomly drops connection to my broadband CE termination about once a month - reboot fixes problem - reboot is very fast and up and running with 10 seconds but annoying.
* VPN to my office does not work - i have tried every possible configuration - port forwarding, DMZ, static routing, static IP, NAT, everything i can think of. the VPN client settings are correct as i can connect by plugging directly into my Broadband CE termination. ***CORRECTION*** new setup: Broadband CE Termination --> Netgear router --> Cisco AP350 Wireless Access Point --> multiple Laptops using Cisco VPN software connecting with WEP. VPN now works perfectly.


SUMMARY:

Bought this for home use with family. Overall very happy, recommended it to 4 others who bought it and are equally pleased. have been considering an upgrade to wireless but i have read and heard the quality of netgear has recently degraded and sincerely hope they get their act together.
***CORRECTION*** have added Wireless functionality with the use of Cisco AP350 Wireless AP. have transferred most of the load onto my Cisco AP and only using the router as the gateway. the only reason i am continuing to use the netgear router is because of the keyword filter, which is excellent.


Yusuf Aslam

I had a terrible time with my Netgear RP614v2 router. Matching it with a Motorola Surfboard cable modem and Adephia as the ISP, it would fail on an average of every few days to allow a connection. With help (of all things) D-Link's help papes I figured out what was happening: Adelphia wants to see my computer's MAC address, so I set the router to report the PC's MAC address, not the router's MAC address to Adelphia. This works so long as the router "remembers" the PC's MAC address. Trouble is that it loses the information, requiring a lengthy powering down of the cable modem and then the router so that the router can read the PC's MAC address and "spoof" it to Adelphia.

Netgear's online and supplied documentation are so simple-minded as to be useless. I felt much better when I took a sledge hammer to this Cisco POS!

Gary Kellison, Carlsbad, California

This firewall router takes minutes to set up, has a nice web interface, and has run continuously for about a month.

VERY DISAPPOINTED. Purchased Netgear RP614 on 03/09/2005 and it died on 07/07/2005. Tried reloading firmware, reconfiguring, etcetera and no luck. Also note, before it died this router would flake out from time to time for no reason and would require a reboot of the modem, router, and computers. Highly doubtful that I will ever buy any Netgear products in the future.

i've had this thing for 3 weeks.

i hate it.
it must die.

If you are a non-major computing person/techi/hobbiest/hacker/etc. and need a DLS or Cable router, this will probably work for you, if you do not get the overheating or random connection drop issue.

For the rest of the computer literate world, do not buy this. I have SBC Yahoo! DSL which uses PPPoE. The thing works with my ISP, but not with me. I want to run a HTTP server (Apache) and in order to do so i need port 80 accessable to the internet from my Server. I tried everything, i spent 2, 12 hour periods hacking the sh*t out of what the problem could be. Nothing. And now i guess it overheated and didnt want to give any computer an IP addy other than 192.168.0.3, even though no setting were changed when the problem popped up.

So i give it 1 star becuase it has a nice case, that's about it.

I'm going to D-Link or LinkSys.

With its compact size it takes up little space. Very easy to install and use, was up in as little as 10 mintes. Has 4 ports to hook computers, X-box/PS2, printers or other things into. I am very please with this product but dont count on Netgear to help much if you need them.

I thought i was getting a bargain when i was purchasing this with SPI and NAT firewall for this price. Well it sounded too good to be true, which it was.

At first it was flawless, had some bad ports that wouldnt open, than was losing the DHCP lease even after i assigned it my mac adress on the comcast account. On top of that, it will drop the lease every 1-2 days, which it shouldnt with MY MAC Address, and a power cycle every time. I hate power-cycling everytime i want it to work properly for another 1-2 days in order to repeat.

I shoud of and now am going to push out the extra cash for a Linksys, which none of my friends or family have problems with, wireless or wired.

It was good while it lasted though.

After 2 weeks of tech support from my ISP, Netgear, Best Data and Motorola, Netgears final response was "Try exchanging Version 3 for a Version 2 model." Are you kidding me. First, I was told by Netgear to exchange the initial router(Which I bought to replace an old Netgear RP114 router), Amazon.com was Great in easily doing so in less than a week. Yet, the new router still would not dynamically connect. Next, Netgear, after another 2 hour phone call with tech support suggested that it wasn't compatible with my Best Data CMX110 cable modem. So, I bought a new Motorola SB5100 modem. Still no joy with the RP614v3. Now Netgear is suggesting replacing the V3 with a V2, I think not, I'm going to look at D-Link and Linksys. I hope this is enough to convince you not to purchase the RP614v3, I can't speak to any other versions.