SmallNetBuilder

Basic Features

The RP614 comes in NETGEAR's new "Platinum" plastic packaging. As I said in the intro, NETGEAR is aiming the "Platinum" line at the Home user, with the good ol' Blue Metal Box (BMB) package used on products intended for "business" users, going forward. The "Platinum" is an attractive, stackable design, that can also be stood on its end when you use the stand that's included with the product, or wall mounted with the screw-type mounting features molded into the bottom cover.

All indicators are on the front panel of the cabinet and include one Link/Activity/Speed (color indicates the connection speed, Green for 100Mbps, Amber for 10) for each of the four LAN ports, Link/Activity for the WAN, and Power and Test. All lights are nice and bright and show up as backlit symbols that are visible from a wide angle.

All four switched 10/100 LAN ports are on the rear, along with the 10BaseT WAN port, power socket, and Reset-to-Factory-Defaults button. There's neither a shared Uplink port, nor Normal/Uplink switch. So if you need to expand beyond 4 ports, just follow the instructions in the Reference Manual.

NETGEAR includes a printed Installation Guide, and Resource CD, and includes a normal CAT5 patch cable. The CD contains:

• PDF versions of the Installation guide and Reference Manual,
• some helpful info on setting up port forwarding, including a list of ports used by popular applications
• setup information for major broadband ISPs
• a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader installer
• a copy of NETGEAR's Installation Assist (more on this later)
• a copy of zer0knowledge's Freedom Anti-Virus program (Version 3.2)

  Update 7/23/02 NETGEAR's zer0knowledge Freedom bundle is a no cost 1 year, full-featured, 8 user version that includes Anti-Virus and Firewall capability. If you see zer0knowledge bundles with other products, check to see whether it's just a "demoware" version that you'll need to pay extra to enable the Anti-Virus and Firewall capabilities! Note that the software is Windows-only.