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Introduction
Updated 5/11/2010: Posted results for new Max. Simul. Connection test
| At a Glance | |
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| Product | NETGEAR RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WNDR3700) |
| Summary | Atheros-based dual-radio, dual-band 802.11n router with Gigabit ports and media-enabled USB drive sharing. |
| Pros | • Very high routing performance • Very high aggregate wireless bandwidth • Wireless Guest networks • WDS Repeating / bridging • Good wireless throughput stability • USB drive sharing with UPnP AV / DLNA server |
| Cons | • No innovation in 5 GHz range |
My preview of NETGEAR's first real "simultaneous" (dual-radio), dual-band 802.11n router already covered most of its constuction and feature set. So after a brief feature set update, I'll get right to the performance.
Features
The 3700 comes in a new form factor that can sit horizontally on a desk or vertically on a supplied stand. There are also wall-mounting slots on the bottom. The internal printed circuit "metamaterial" antennas used in previous NETGEAR 11n routers are still used, however. But, contrary to what some may think, they don't negatively affect wireless performance.
Figure 1 summarizes the front panel indicators and controls. The wireless on/off switch (7) is a nice touch. Too bad there isn't one for each radio.
Figure 1: WNDR3700 Front panel
The back panel (Figure 2) has the Gigabit WAN and LAN ports and USB port for the USB drive ReadyShare feature.
Figure 2: WNDR3700 Rear panel
The 3700 implements the standard NETGEAR router feature set with a few new tweaks:
WAN Support - Types handled include Static and Dynamic IP, Other (static and dynamic IP), PPTP (static and dynamic IP) and BigPond. There is no specific PPPoE setting, so you might be better off using the Setup Wizard to set up your WAN connection. WAN MTU is set separately from the connection type (WAN Setup page) and applies to all WAN options. WAN port MAC address spoofing is supported only for Static and Dynamic connection types.
Firewall - The SPI+NAT firewall is pretty basic, although you can disable SPI. Both port forwarding and triggered port forwarding are supported. You get a rather short pick list of services in the Port Forwarding add screen, but you can specify the port numbers and protocols directly for both the outbound trigger port and inbound port range.
Ports can also be opened automatically via UPnP NAT Traversal (enabled by default), but at least you can log into the admin interface and see the automatically opened ports in the UPnP Portmap table. A single DMZ IP is also supported and you can disable the SPI portion of the firewall.
The WAN Setup page holds the SPI Firewall Disable (default unchecked), DMZ, Respond to Ping on Internet Port and MTU settings. There is also a NAT Filtering option (default "Secured") that isn't explained very well in either the online help or user manual.
The Block Services (outbound port filters) can be applied to all, one or a range of IP addresses, but not MAC addresses. They also can be controlled by a single rudimentary schedule (checkboxes for days of the week and one set of start / stop times).
The Block Sites feature is keyword-based and applies to web traffic only. You get an attention-grabbing red and black "Web Site Blocked by NETGEAR Firewall" page when you trigger the block and the ability to have one "trusted" IP address that can bypass any blocking.
Dynamic DNS clients - Only Dyndns.org is supported
Logging and Reporting - Logging seems mainly focused on logging web traffic. Everything goes into one log, with no filtering provided. You can clear or email the log, but there is no syslog or SNMP trap support. Email authentication has been added, but there is still no Test email button or ability to handle SMTP servers using secure connections or to specify an alternate SMTP port.
Other features - The DHCP server can be disabled and allows IP address reservation by MAC address. RIP direction and version (1, 2B, 2M) can be controlled and static routes set.
QoS: Simple four-level priority-based QoS for upload (Internet-bound) traffic has been added. You must specify the uplink bandwidth. QoS priority can be set by Ethernet port, client MAC address or application port. There are 18 pre-built QoS Policies for applications or you can define your own rules.
Note that this is not Automatic Quality of Service, as NETGEAR claimis on the 3700's web product page (Overview tab).
Check Price At Amazon
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Linksys WRT320N Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router Reviewed
The One To Beat: Linksys WRT400N Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Rou
D-Link DIR-825 B1 Quick Review
User reviews
View all user reviewsAverage user rating from: 18 user(s)
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Great wireless router!
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This is the best wireless router I have ever had. I upgraded from a Netgear WGR614 v6 and could not be happier. Great range and VERY fast...wired and wireless. I have a Thinkpad T60 laptop that originally came with an Intel 3945abg mini PCI-express adapter. After getting the new router I upgraded my T60 with an Atheros AR5BXB72 802.11abgn mini PCI-express adapter (Lenovo FRU 42T0825) from ebay. In addition, I had to install the 3rd (MIMO) antenna (IBM FRU 42R9909) direct from IBM. Installing the card was simple but, installing the antenna was a royal pain since it goes next to the LCD on the side of the laptop lid. My home is 2 stories plus a basement. My office and the router are located in the basement. I ran some tests using LAN Speed Test and Qcheck and got great results. My "Position-A" is in the same room as the router with the T60 within 8 feet. Position-B is on the first floor in the room directly over my basement office. Position-C is also on the first floor but, one room over. Using LAN Speed Test I would upload a 50 MB file from my desktop which is wired to the router to my T60 which is connected wireless. Each test was run 5 times. The results were very consistent from run to run. Here are my results: POSITION-A (Write/Read Mbps) 2.4 GHz /20 - 69.8 / 52.4 2.4 Ghz /40 - 126.4 / 117.0 5.0 Ghz /40 - 143.4 / 131.2 POSITION-B 2.4 GHz /20 - 69.0 / 49.4 2.4 Ghz /40 - 104.2 / 74.4 5.0 Ghz /40 - 59.0 / 43.6 POSITION-C 2.4 GHz /20 - 62.8 / 47.2 2.4 Ghz /40 - 84.8 / 53.2 5.0 Ghz /40 - 29.0 / 42.8 As you can see, the 5GHz/40 results were best within the same room but fell off quickly with distance. The 2.4GHz/40 setting was best overall. There are a few features that could make this router better but, nothing critical for me. I bought this router after reading the review here at smallnetbuilder. I'll have to admit that I was a bit puzzled by the lukewarm review of the same router over at Tom's Hardware but, after re-reading their review it appears they had some problems with the client which may have influenced the results they got from the router. |
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Bad customer service
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That's really too bad because Netgear has the world's worst customer service. The last router I bought from them (and it was the absolute last) was defective from the factory. They delayed and delayed, saying try this then try that, until the 90 day warranty ran out. Then they told me it was my problem. This is a violation of the law. If a problem is reported while the warranty applies, then it legally applies until the problem is solved. It isn't a beat the clock deal. But what are you gonna do? Netgear's call center is in Bangalore. It is the only time in my life that a tech support person has refused to let me speak with a supervisor. D-Link, on the other hand, once let me speak with the design engineer when trying to solve a problem. Guess who my vendor will be next time? All the test results in the world won't steer me toward Netgear. |
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caution
| Straight to the point - does not work with HP 6770se. Worked with my wife's 3 year old Lenovo laptop and my new desktop but could not connect to my 6770. Found a few other people with this problem too after the fact. Also adjusting the settings was very slow through the web interface. |
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A great performer!
| I've used a fair few N routers so far, and this one is the best. It gives a strong and consistent signal anywhere in my large house, and I don't have to worry about gaming and streaming at the same time. |
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Threw out my Linksys 350N, never happier
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This router has really made me happy, and now I wonder how/why I lived with my Linksys for so long. I live in an apartment where there seems to be an arms race going on over airspace. This cuts right through the clutter and gives all of my devices great reception/speed. Having the Wireless A standard is awesome for my XBox MCE, the wired connections even seem faster. I had to downtick the features, as i am unable to block specific ext IP addresses (but using PeerBlock software alleviated that). One word of caution to new users of this router, or any router that provides logs... the verbage it uses can be scary. It looks as if DoS and ACK attacks are successful although I have done extensive testing and verified they are not. This only happened because I have an internet facing web server - Korea and China seem to be quite active scanning for open ports or ports UPnP'd through the standard http port 80. Quick notes: I have only used this on my PCs, not any MacIntosh systems. Netflix is instantaneous on all my devices (Xbox, 2 laptops, and 2 wired PCs) Turn on the oddly worded video streaming enhancement Turn off UPnP and take an hour to configure port forwarding manually Arrange your devices according to their highest bandwidth, matching them to the proper band supplied by the router... XBOX on Wireless AN, laptops on BGN, wire up one machine, and enable the BGN guest mode (unless your guest will be bringing something more elaborate than a laptop) Use WPA2-PSK (AES) exclusively if you can get away with it. (TKIP) tends to work more like Wireless G, even on the N band. Don't use anything less than WPA2-PSK, unless you like to share to anonymous passers-by Don't bother with the installation CD, get a pot of coffee and learn a little doing it manually Make sure you wait for the router to save changes, the interface seems to slowdown and appear to be hung after a 'save' operation. just wait it out, or it may miss the change. I have not evaluated the router longterm, only a matter of weeks, but have yet to have any reason to reset it (knock on wood). Other reviewers may know better on this subject, to which i have no empirical data to take a stance. maybe the firmware has been revised? Summary - Buy it, configure it properly, enjoy it. |
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An awesome router
| best I had tested |
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Good but have to reboot every few weeks - disable the traffic meter
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After one of the firmware upgrades, I found the router locking up every couple or few weeks. After many months of having to physically reboot the router, I finally located this discussion: http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?s=e64576afc1e19a664e4ca84297fa4615&t=46284 on the Netgear forums. This discussion offered the solution of turning off the traffic meter (statistics, whatever). Disabling this feature has allowed the router to function normally without requiring rebooting. I'm very disappointed that Netgear has not addressed this issue with a firmware update. Other than that, I'm pleased with the router and its performance. |
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speedy laggy
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A fast and well featured router. Although, it jams, lags and needs to reboot often. It often resets to its default IP, sometimes annoying. It has good peak performance, the HW seems ok. I wait for a well tested and optimized firmware a lot, because, it was not too cheap. |
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Disappointing
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After all that hype I've got a WNDR3700 replacing my DIR-825. Stupid mistake. The output signal strength is much weaker than any other N router ever tried before, even on 2.4 band. Performance isn't bad when clients are in range, something not easy with the limited coverage. Firmware is simply a bad-joke; decades ago I had analog modems more complete than this crappy thing. Finally, something about WNDR3700's build quality. Terrible, just an awful plastic blob, a Chinese-made cheap toy. To reviewer: Sorry but how much Netgear paid you? |
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Decent wireless router, terrible customer service.
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Aside from its buggy OpenWrt based firmware this router performed well for over 4 months. Until I noticed its 2,4GHz band suddenly started to perform under par and not what it used to when just bought. After thoroughly testing it I was certain the problem was the WNDR3700, I even bought another 300Mbps N-router (TP-Link TL-WR1043ND) and confirmed that it was not my wireless clients. I also noticed that the WNDR3700's 2,4GHz wireless (original and replacement unit) is not that great compared to this cheap 2,4GHz TP-Link router. Contacted NETGEAR and after a while I was told that I could RMA the unit and see if a replacement has the same issues. The replacement's 2,4GHz wireless worked properly again, however when sending my original unit back I included my vertical stand since I was only instructed to keep my cables/power supply. When I noticed this I thought it would probably not be a problem for them to help me get another one, but what was I so wrong about that. After several weeks and contacting multiple departments they are unwilling to help me get another vertical stand. I even asked them to point me somewhere to buy it, or just buy it from them. Their only response is that I should have not send accessories along with my unit. That may be so but why if I knew I shouldn't have send this particular accessory along would I do it anyway. What is so difficult in sending/selling me a silly piece of plastic only used by a couple NETGEAR models and probably only available/made for them? I am very disappointed by the chain of events and their reluctant customer service. ==Update 5/31/2010== I am the writer of the review with the title: "Decent wireless router, terrible customer service. " for the WNDR3700. When I wrote it I had already been in contact with NETGEAR for almost a month, I noticed the responses always originated from a US NETGEAR representative. Because things have changed it perhaps is only fair the new information gets added? Since I live in Europe (The Netherlands) I wondered why I was redirected to the US and tried contacting several European NETGEAR customer service instead. Almost immediately after sending a mail I got a reply from NETGEAR UK, notifying me that when the stand was in stock again they would sent one. In contrast to other European customer services that did not even bother to reply, even now weeks after sending, this of course was a very pleasant surprise. About a week later a stand was sent to me free of charge. Not related to vertical the stand and because of this problem and your reply about valid frequencies for regions, I wondered if there are more differences between regions, especially with signal strength. To test this I put my laptop in a fairly distant location and after a couple minutes I changed from EU to US region, doing this signal strength almost improved 10dBm. The 5GHz actually even got a little bit worse though, I was wondering if there are any articles about the wireless differences among regions on smallnetbuilder ( I can't find them) , the only other article I can find on the web is this Cisco article on transmit power levels. |
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