Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router

Comments about Netgear Rangemax Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router:

PROS:
This product is really reliable if you are solely using it for wireless internet. It is a dual-band router, which means that it is emitting two different frequency signals (2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz) SIMULTANEOUSLY.

This is excellent for people who want to set up several networks in their home or small business. You can create up to 4 networks with this router and these networks include: guest networks, media networks, and gaming networks.

The simultaneous signals is also beneficial for users who have various network card users at home. For example, if you had two laptops with two different wireless cards (let's say a G and an N), and you had a SINGLE band router, then both the N and the G cards will run at G speeds. This is because the router is limited by the slowest component, which is the G card in this case. On the other hand, if you had two simultaneous bands, you can set the G to be assigned to one of the bands (2.4 Ghz) and the N to be set to the other band (5 Ghz). This way, the router will allow both laptops to achieve their full networking potential by allowing the G card to go at G speeds and the N card to go at N speeds (which is much, MUCH faster!)

Another benefit, in my opinion, is the GUI interface, which allows you to change and customize your network. It isn't too hard to understand, but that can depend on your computer and network literacy.

CONS:
The 5 GHz signal does fade out quickly, but this is to be expected since 5 Ghz is a longer wavelength. The longer the wavelength, the less the range, or so I've heard. I have another desktop literally 25 ft (at most) away from the router on the same level of my house and I receive 90% signal when using the 5 Ghz.

Another problem that can become annoying is when you try to change the settings on the GUI (user interface). When you make a change, it can take from 30sec - 2 min to complete each change.

Another potential problem with this could be the USB drive (which I don't use often). There are specific USB/hard drives that are compatible with this router (which are listed on the NETGEAR website). Using other drives can cause the network, router, and your computer to freeze while accessing files on the drive. Another problem with the USB drive of this router is that the router CANNOT handle a huge load of data on a drive. I know there is a specific troubleshoot question on the NETGEAR website, which states that this router will have trouble (and can start freezing) if the drive attached has more than some amount of data (which is in the GB but I don't remember the specific number).

OVERALL:
This router is reliable when it comes to its 2.4 Ghz signal. The signal has NEVER dropped for me. I have three laptops with G cards connected to the 2.4 Ghz signal and all of them work flawlessly. This router is also excellent for people who need to create multiple networks.

The major problems that occur with this router is its USB port and the nagging wait time for the network changes. The USB port doesn't seem to be as great as it is hyped up to be, especially with all the limitations that it currently has. The 5 Ghz signal can dimish fast over long distances, but I heard this is expected of all 5 Ghz signals.

In total, I have three laptops, a PS3, and two desktops (one wired and one N-wireless) connected to my network and this router remains stable with this load. If your looking for a stable, secure, and reliable connection, then this router is excellent. If your looking for media networks, I would look for another router with better USB capabilities. Sorry for the lengthy review, but I hope this helps. :)

Comments about Netgear Rangemax Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router:

The router worked great until I used the USB drive function. According to the Netgear website, issues with slow network or locking up were caused by the index file created by the media server being too big for the router memory. The latest Firmware upgrade was supposed to have fixed the issue but in my testing it has not. 11Mps wireless speeds normally was down to under 2Mps. Even after following the directions on the Netgear site and upgrading firmware. I would not recomend this router for USB drive attachment, but as a standalone wireless router is great.

Comments about Netgear Rangemax Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router:

This is the best router!!!
Easy to set up and YES is is compatible with Windows 7...Excellent customer support.

Comments about Netgear Rangemax Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router:

I bought this router after reading the reviews and it's lived up to them. My old DLink router dropped connections, had low signals throughout the house, and generally sucked. Since switching to this one, there have been 0 complaints of lost or slow connections, and my video streaming was flawless.

The extra options for guest networks seem great too, will be great when family come over and need to get online.

Highly recommend giving this a try.

Comments about Netgear Rangemax Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router:

I had a Linksys Wireless-G but needed a wireless-N to stream video to my new Samsung BluRay player. My office with the cable modem was too far away from the player to get the signal to the player so I used the old Linksys as a router, ran a Cat6 cable from the Linksys down one story and now use the NetGear as an access point. I read a whole lot of stuff on the Internet as to whether you could do that and if so how. I had never even heard of an access point before I started this process. I finally ignored the stuff I read (for the most part)and decided that I could always restore the factory default settings if I really messed things up. I unpluged the Linksys, plugged in the NetGear, changed the IP address for the NetGear, and changed the DHCP setting for the NetGear. (You don't need to know what DHCP is; you just need to change it.) I did not load any software that came with the NetGear unit. I then plugged the Linksys back in, plugged the CAT6 cable in the back of the Linksys, ran the cable to the NetGear and it worked. It was a little tricky to get the BluRay player to connect to the NetGear but that was on the Samsung side of things and that's another story. The BluRay player came with Pandora Internet radio and works great with the NetGear unit.

Comments about Netgear Rangemax Dual Band Wireless N Gigabit Router:

Has a Guest network that allows Internet access with a separate password, not as privileged as the main network. Good coverage distance from the router. Works reliably with Vista, Mac, Roku, and Windows XP. Better than routers used previously.