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Pros
Does wireless repeating. (Mostly) easy setup. Attractive.Cons
Bottom Line
With its repeater functionality, this device might be handy as a second router or a repeater in a large office, but mediocre throughput makes it hard to recommend the Netgear WNR3500 enthusiastically for home or business use.
Netgear Rangemax Wireless-n Gigabit Router Wnr3500 User Manual Youtube
Setup and management of the Netgear RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500 router ($119.99 direct) is easy enough for networking neophytes to handle. And advanced features, such as its wireless repeating capability (which extends the reach of your Wi-Fi network) could make it attractive to experts looking for a good deal for a small business. But while this 2.4-GHz router's features sound good, digging a little deeper reveals unimpressive performance and an interface that needs work (especially where it concerns security).
Setup
The WNR3500 has a distinctive, black lacquered 8.9-inch-high case, and blue LEDs illuminating both sides of the panel make the device reasonably attractive. On the clearly marked front panel, numbered, multicolor LEDs indicate which ports are connected. Lights for Wi-Fi and WPS encryption are also nicely displayed. The device is a bit large, though, for hardware meant to reside in a home.
The router has four Gigabit Ethernet ports, eight internal antennas, and two control buttons—one in front, the other in back. The first turns on WPS encryption automatically, the second enables the (useless but attractive) antenna lights. Because the WNR3500's antennas are embedded—that is, hidden in the case—there's no way to adjust them, so finding a good location for the box is important. Leaning it on a wall or blocking its sides will likely reduce performance.
Netgear hasn't modified its setup process for as long as I can remember, and I can understand why: It just works. The smart wizard walks you through all the steps needed to get you started with a minimum of fuss. At the end of the process, the wizard prompts you for a username and password. Forcing you to choose a password is a good security practice—too many people leave the default. Unfortunately, first you have to find the default password, which is in the setup manual on the CD. Netgear might want to rethink this unnecessary complexity.
The WNR3500 uses Netgear's familiar user interface, and the layout has remained largely unchanged since the company entered the Wi-Fi router market. While the setup process hasn't needed to evolve, the interface should have—it dates from a time when people were less concerned about wireless intrusions, so, for example, you'll find no dedicated security section. Instead, protection features are scattered throughout the UI. Wi-Fi security and filtering settings live in the workspace panel, but the access-control button sits in the advanced wireless settings pane.—
Features
The router boasts an advanced feature that fairly savvy consumers will like—the ability to adjust (Quality of Service) parameters. This lets you, for example, prioritize traffic so that your voice calls don't get stuttery when your kids are playing Quake online. Turn the capability on and add a QoS rule, and you're set up to manage network traffic. The rules are less comprehensive than those of the
The router's most distinctive feature, its wireless repeating capability, is unusual for a home Wi-Fi router (a fact that's reflected in the unit's slightly elevated price). Using up to five routers that support the feature, you can extend the reach of your wireless network. It gives the WNR3500 a big advantage over many home routers.
Although you have to set up each unit manually, doing so takes just a few relatively easy steps. In a simple dialog, you configure the router that's plugged into your Internet modem as a wireless base station and set the others as wireless repeaters. Once you've done that, all wired and wireless devices on any of the routers should be able to share your Internet connection, files, and printers.
There are some disadvantages. For one, you can use only WEP security (or none), not the much stronger WPA2—so use a 128-bit encryption key. Also, if any of the repeaters connect to devices other than the base station wirelessly, bandwidth will drop by half.—
Performance
The WNR3500 offers several different performance modes: 54 megabits per second for backward compatibility; 145 Mbps, useful in signal-saturated environments; and 300 Mbps for maximum throughput. Though these designations simplify selecting the right channel and bandwidth, they're highly misleading because the router can't possibly achieve the indicated speeds. While 300 Mbps sounds impressive, and it is the theoretical speed described by the 802.11n standard, a 2.4-GHz connection is unlikely to ever make even the 100-Mbps mark under real-world conditions.
I put the WNR3500 through its paces with our IxChariot software, and it quickly became obvious that throughput was fair at best. The router was attached to an HP laptop running Windows Vista and powered by a 1.83-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3-GB of RAM. The wireless card was a D-Link DWA-160. The custom Windows XP SP3 PC I used for the IxChariot server had a 3-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4-GB of RAM. With the router at its 300-Mbps setting and at a distance of just 3 feet from the laptop, IxChariot reported so-so throughput of just 66 Mbps. At 20 feet, the WNR3500 scored 55 Mbps. That's not a big drop, but it's still a mediocre result. At 50 feet, the score dropped to 38 Mbps.
By contrast, the $60 2.4-GHz
Netgear Rangemax Wireless-n Gigabit Router Wnr3500 User Manual Diagram
The Netgear RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500 sounds and looks impressive. It's attractive, and its ability to extend the reach of your Wi-Fi will make networking enthusiasts sit up and take notice. But a dated interface, mediocre performance, and a scattered approach to security really hurt its score. Advanced niche features are well and good, but there's no substitute for getting the basics right.
Netgear Rangemax Wireless-n Gigabit Router Wnr3500 User Manual Software
More Wireless Router Reviews:
| Recognized languages: | English |
|---|---|
| Pages: | 149 |
| Size: | 3.31 MB |
- Chapter 1 Configuring Your Internet Connection
- Chapter 2 Safeguarding Your Network
- Planning Your Wireless Network
- Manually Configuring Your Wireless Settings
- Using Push 'N' Connect (WPS) to Configure Your Wireless Network
- Connecting Additional Wireless Client Devices After WPS Setup
- Chapter 3 Protecting Your Network
- Protecting Access to Your Wireless Router
- Blocking Access to Internet Services
- Chapter 4 Using Network Monitoring Tools
- Upgrading the Router Firmware
- Viewing Wireless Router Status Information
- Managing the Configuration File
- Chapter 5 Customizing Your Network Settings
- Using the LAN Setup Options
- Configuring the WAN Setup Options
- Allowing Inbound Connections to Your Network
- Configuring Port Forwarding to Local Servers
- Wireless Repeating (Also Called WDS)
- Chapter 6 Fine-Tuning Your Network
- Quality of Service (QoS)
- Chapter 7 USB Storage
- USB Storage Basic Settings
- Configuring USB Storage Advanced Settings
- Connecting to the USB Drive from a Remote Computer
- Connecting to the USB Drive with Microsoft Network Settings
- Chapter 8 Troubleshooting
- Troubleshooting a Network Using the Ping Utility
- Wireless Connectivity
- Appendix A Default Configuration and Technical Specifications