Review: Netgear Rangemax Next WNR834B

A stylish and cheap router, although not the best performance on offer

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Price: £100

Manufacturer: Netgear

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Verdict

Pros: Well-designed web interface; stylish; QoS for multimedia streaming
Cons: Can’t adjust or replace antennas; no wall mount; unimpressive performance
Overall: One of the most stylish routers on test and one of the cheapest, although its performance is bettered by its rivals

Tim Smith, Personal Computer World 11 Dec 2006

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Draft n routers table

Netgear’s Broadcom-powered WNR834B router has a clean design that uses dual internal antennas rather than the more common three.

The router can be accessed either with its IP address or by using a couple of ordinary URLs, routerlogin.com or .net. On power up, the router can be set to check for new firmware either via the internet or from previously downloaded images.

A setup wizard built into the router’s firmware guides you through creating a cable modem internet connection and the settings can be tested before being saved.

The passphrase for wireless encryption is shown in plain text as it is entered but is blanked out when applied. Wep, WPA and WPA2 are supported but there’s no external authentication server support.

Unfortunately all the security is turned off by default and SSID broadcast is turned on: Netgear relies on you running the setup wizard to configure this on first installation. The web interface is well laid out with contextual help on offer in the right-hand column.

For multimedia use, Netgear has its Steady Stream technology, which is a proprietary quality-of-service (QoS) feature to prioritise audio or video packets.

Domains, URLs or services can be blocked and a message shown instead. An IP address can be given unrestricted access to the internet or the restriction limited to certain times of day.

Alerts of attempts to access blocked sites and services can be emailed either immediately, on a schedule or when the log is full.

All the settings on the router can be backed up to a local file for reference. Remote management is possible but must be turned on. Access to this feature can be restricted to a single IP address or a range.

Netgear’s support website also has some good guides, demos and tutorials in the Technical FAQ section that are great for getting a pre-purchase feel for the product.

This article is part of a group test of draft-N routers.
See also:
Belkin N1
Buffalo Airstation Nfiniti
D-link DIR-635
Linksys WRT300N-UK
Trendnet TEW-631BRP
Graphs and table of features can be read via our pdf downloads above.

You can also read an introduction to this group test and discover the Editor's Choice of product.