Wndr 3700, 37av, 3800, 4000 -

[ImperialBlade]

Hello all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I have narrow my choice of long radio range routers to the Netgear line of Rangemax routers. From what I have read they seem to have the longest range with highest through as an overall average. (if there any other contenders please let me know) I have a Time Warner Road Runner cable connection "Turbo" 25Mbps / 1Mbps).

I am in need of something for a 3 story home (2500 sqft) that is linking a lot of multimedia devices - PS3, XBOX 360, IPod touch, Nintendo DSi, 3 laptops. I have my wireless router in the basement (I know not optimal).

I am a bit confused on the different Netgear models and what they "bring to the table" if you will. I will list the models and what I have gleaned to be differences.

3700 - 16 mb of flash ram, end of life

37AV - 8 mb of flash ram, more stable?

3800 - 16 mb of flash ram, print server capable (not for sale yet)

4000 - 450 Mbps, 8 mb of flash ram, print server capable (not for sale yet)


Thanks,
Eric

 

[ajay2]

Netgear 3700 not worth the many hassles

I'm a noob, but spent countless hours on the net (after my purchase) researching the 3700 and was very disappointed to experience what many have been complaining about: locked out of router, crappy firmware updates, features that simply donot work, router setting change but won't save. Also had to reboot router on the 2nd day with what many suggested was the most stable firmware (1.0.4.68). Unless you are very familiar with setting up a network manually, stay away from this piece of junk. My old smc 54g is much more stable and just about as fast for my Internet usage. I went thru 2 of these Netgear 3700'sand finally gave up. Hoping to try the DIR-655 next, once I recover from the Netgear frustration.

my 2 cents

 

[claykin]

Welcome to the forum

3700 - V1 hardware is same as 37AV. Both use 8MB Flash. 37AV has lifetime warranty and some say it has better DLNA support. However now that both models have the same firmware, I'm not so sure about the DLNA thing any longer. Netgear has us all confused!

3700 V2 hardware uses 16MB flash. V2 hardware is beginning to show up in stores. One report thus far from a person who bought one at Fry's. He is claiming to have problems with online gaming. Time will tell. IMO, the V2 is probably a cost reduced version of the 3700 to make room for the forthcoming 3800.

3800 and 4000 are new products announced at CES. They will ship in Q2.

3800 appears to be a 3700 with a few features added. Whether it uses a newer Atheros radio, we don't know yet.

New 3800 features
feature - readyshare remote ReadySHARE® Remote-Access data on an attached USB hard drive while away from home
feature - readyshare printer ReadySHARE® Printer-Connect a printer to the USB port and access it wirelessly
feature - clear channel Clear Channel Selector-Dynamically avoids busy Wi-Fi channels for clear and fast wireless connections automatically
feature - netgear genie NETGEAR Genie™-Easy dashboard control to manage, monitor, and repair home networks

 

[claykin]

I'm a noob, but spent countless hours on the net (after my purchase) researching the 3700 and was very disappointed to experience what many have been complaining about: locked out of router, crappy firmware updates, features that simply donot work, router setting change but won't save. Also had to reboot router on the 2nd day with what many suggested was the most stable firmware (1.0.4.68). Unless you are very familiar with setting up a network manually, stay away from this piece of junk. My old smc 54g is much more stable and just about as fast for my Internet usage. I went thru 2 of these Netgear 3700'sand finally gave up. Hoping to try the DIR-655 next, once I recover from the Netgear frustration.

my 2 cents

I doubt you'll find the grass greener on the other side. Netgear is working on the firmware issues and 1.0.4.100 beta is out.

Visit the Dlink forum site before you plunge into their product problems.

You may also want to check the drivers used for your wireless clients. Some client drivers are buggy and cause routers to lock up, etc. In a perfect world we'd like routers to be robust and be able to deal with all sort of anomalies thrown at them, but in the consumer space that's not likely to happen anytime soon.

 

[ImperialBlade]

Thanks for the replies. I am soaking this all in.

Am I overlooking any other candidates based upon my criteria?

 

[Daboo]

I recommend looking for the 3700 as a refurb model. I picked up mine for about $80 and it has been great.

The only problem I had was in connecting to work through a VPN connection. The initial setup offered to upgrade to the latest firmware and like a fool, I let it. The modem seemed great, but would not stay connected to the VPN.

I "downgraded" to the .75 firmware and all has been great. I did the "downgrade" over a month ago and the modem has been rock solid and not requiring any reboot. Connection speed has been usually at 240 mbps till I get some network traffic going to work and then it jumps to 300 mbps.

I did a test on a 37 MB file download both on the gigabit hardwire and the wireless connections using the same laptop and Comcast's "Blast!" service with a DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem. Both downloads were within a second of each other at just over a minute. That's fast.

I figure I saved @$100 on the purchase, especially since I didn't chase the latest and greatest model...which probably is no faster. So besides the models you're looking at, consider looking for a refurbished model. If you're nervous about a refurbished model, buy the extended warranty for about $15. You're still close to $100 in savings.

Chris

 

[wats6831]

I'd consider the Linksys E3000. Based on my research and my personal experiences with the WNDR3700, TrendNET 691 and some others, the E3000 with Tomato is by far and away the best router of the current dual band/gigabit switch crop.

If you do not need gigabit ethernet but need dual band, consider the WNDR3400. Seems to be quite highly rated. Or the venerable DLink DIR-655.

 

[bimmerdriver]

I have a WNDR3700, a v1, which I found out after I registered it, that Netgear had changed its name to WNDR37AV because they were going to release a new WNDR3700, the v2. I asked Netgear tech support why it registered as a WNDR37AV, when it was labeled on the enclosure and the box as a WNDR3700. They declined to explain it was because they were going to introduce a new version of the WNDR3700. I was out of the country on business while this was going on and by the time I figured out what they were doing, it was too late for me to return the unit. I complained to Netgear but they refused to do anything about it. I escalated the issue and the only response I got from the "customer service advocate" was sorry for the inconvenience.

There are a lot of problems with the firmware on the WNDR37AV. You will see this if you go on the Netgear forum. There are a lot of people who are very displeased with what Netgear did with the WNDR3700v1 and who are also dissatisfied with the support they are providing. (If you speak out on the forum in a manner that is unflattering to Netgear, the moderators will delete your posts, even if they do not violate the rules.)

They just released new firmware, but it still has problems. Considering how many months it took them to put out this firmware, it could be a long wait for another release, if there is ever another release. With the WNDR3800 and WNDR4000 coming out soon, I would not have high hopes that they will give either the WNDR3700v2 or the WNDR3700v1/WNDR37AV much attention. If I were you, I wouldn't touch either of them at this time.

Basically, my impression of Netgear from my experience with their customer support is that they consider their customers to be disposable and you can't trust them. Their support people will lie and stonewall you. The sad thing about this is that Netgear has some pretty good technology. The problem is that their customer service ethics are non-existent. For me, this is reflected by the recent comment by their CEO that IPV6 is an opportunity for them.

I would be looking hard at the E4200 right now if I were you, but if you decide to get a Netgear router, beware that there are reports on the Netgear forum that some people who purposely purchased WNDR37AV to avoid the problems with the WNDR3700v2 are opening the box only to find a WNDR3700v2 inside. If you purchase a Netgear product (or any product for that matter) do so from a retailer that has an unconditional satisfaction guarantee or better yet, open the box in the store to be sure you are getting the router that you intend. Netgear does not listen to the end customers. Maybe if enough people returned the products to the retailers, they would get the message.

 

[freesafety13]

I have a WNDR3700, a v1, which I found out after I registered it, that Netgear had changed its name to WNDR37AV because they were going to release a new WNDR3700, the v2. I asked Netgear tech support why it registered as a WNDR37AV, when it was labeled on the enclosure and the box as a WNDR3700. They declined to explain it was because they were going to introduce a new version of the WNDR3700. I was out of the country on business while this was going on and by the time I figured out what they were doing, it was too late for me to return the unit. I complained to Netgear but they refused to do anything about it. I escalated the issue and the only response I got from the "customer service advocate" was sorry for the inconvenience.

There are a lot of problems with the firmware on the WNDR37AV. You will see this if you go on the Netgear forum. There are a lot of people who are very displeased with what Netgear did with the WNDR3700v1 and who are also dissatisfied with the support they are providing. (If you speak out on the forum in a manner that is unflattering to Netgear, the moderators will delete your posts, even if they do not violate the rules.)

They just released new firmware, but it still has problems. Considering how many months it took them to put out this firmware, it could be a long wait for another release, if there is ever another release. With the WNDR3800 and WNDR4000 coming out soon, I would not have high hopes that they will give either the WNDR3700v2 or the WNDR3700v1/WNDR37AV much attention. If I were you, I wouldn't touch either of them at this time.

Basically, my impression of Netgear from my experience with their customer support is that they consider their customers to be disposable and you can't trust them. Their support people will lie and stonewall you. The sad thing about this is that Netgear has some pretty good technology. The problem is that their customer service ethics are non-existent. For me, this is reflected by the recent comment by their CEO that IPV6 is an opportunity for them.

I would be looking hard at the E4200 right now if I were you, but if you decide to get a Netgear router, beware that there are reports on the Netgear forum that some people who purposely purchased WNDR37AV to avoid the problems with the WNDR3700v2 are opening the box only to find a WNDR3700v2 inside. If you purchase a Netgear product (or any product for that matter) do so from a retailer that has an unconditional satisfaction guarantee or better yet, open the box in the store to be sure you are getting the router that you intend. Netgear does not listen to the end customers. Maybe if enough people returned the products to the retailers, they would get the message.

A very well written post.

After reading the review on this site about the WNDR3700v1, I made the plunge and purchased one. So here is my story.

1st one I purchased either had bad vram or the firmware was non-existent so I took it back to the retailer. Swapped it for a another one. That one has a bad radio in it. I tried 4 different wireless devices sitting right next to it and their connection speeds would MAX out at 11Mbps but most of the time it would default to 1Mbps.

But being the genius that I am, I decided to purchase a 2nd one just to use as a repeater and to test if the other router is truly bad (it was). I take the one with a bad radio back to the retailer for replacement and as I'm in the store I noticed the "official" WNDR37AV have released. They are in a black box and are retailing for $179.99, $40 more than the 3700. But guess what, it has the exact same specs as the 3700v1, including only 8MB of flash not the 16MB we saw on the 3700v2. So I take the router out of the box and I show person that is handling my replacement request that Netgear is selling the exact same router as the one I have now returned 2 times as a "upgrade".

At this point I am getting really pissed off but I take my 4th 3700 home to set it up and to my surprise I start getting connection speeds of 200+Mbps. All seems good in the world again until I wake up this morning and my signal quality is 70+% but my transmit rate had defaulted back to 6Mbps.

I've tried DD-WRT, OpenWRT, stock firmware, everything from a firmware standpoint. My network is N only with no G devices at all. I've tried every channel for both the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz. I've tried 20Mhz, 40Mhz, and dynamic for the channel width. No matter what I do I cannot get these 3700's to perform as should be expected. My Dir-655 greatly outperformed these Netgears up until it decided to die on me, forcing me to look for a replacement. At this point, using N only with 40Mhz on both the 2.4 and 5Ghz band, I can actually put both routers right next to each other and the maximum connection speed I get is 127Mbps, so what happened to the other 173Mbps????? I've wasted countless hours trying to tweak these routers, not to mention the time I've wasted to return the faulty ones back to the retailer.

If anyone is looking to purchase a WNDR3700 I professionally recommend to avoid it like the plague. Especially if the TA number ends in 02R6.

 

[johnnyfoofee]

i had same problem

i returned my wndr3700 last month.and got a draytek 2920n i know its a bit more and maybe i'm crazy,but i,m using this with a alienware m17x and the speed/stabilty is hard to beat.

 

[Oakind]

I just returned my WNDR 4000 today to Staples. I got it for $118 and was stoked about the great deal.

Uptime was solid, but the wireless signal strength wasn't there. My 4 yr old Westell from ATT has a stronger signal throughout the house. And that I why I upgraded - or thought I was.

THe NAS worked perfectly (I really Liked this feature). As did the guest network. Setup was real easy. The 4000 runs fairly hot.

The 5ghz band is pretty useless unless your within 20 feet or in the same room, and the 2.4 ghz performance was very disapointing. Enough so, that I would switch back to the Westell for wireless signal strength.

I am going to try out the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH : AirStation™ Nfiniti™ Wireless-N High Power Router - if Amazon ever ships the darn thing. Its half the price, has USB NAS and is suppoded to have greaat range. I do not need the dual band, so the Buffalo's single band is a non-issue.

Hope this helps.

 

[claykin]

And...What client are you using to connect to the Wifi router?

 

[stevech]

Let's all use 1,000 watt transmitters in our routers so our 0.03 Watt (really) transmitters in our laptops/phones will match.

 

[Oakind]

If your 1000 watt comment is directed to my post, please be more professional...

I'm looking for a strong signal on at N speeds for a room that is 30 feet away and the Netgear 4000 couldnt carry its weight - I have to rely on an old router to push a signal. Not much performance from a $150 router.

I expected better.