So I bought a WNDR3700 last evening to replace an aging WRT610N v.1 that kept losing its settings.
I had bought one a week ago, but had no end of troubles with it, and decided to give it one more try.
The new unit has worked pretty much from the moment I opened the box. Before doing anything, I went to the Netgear folder that the install disk from the previous version had placed on my hard drive, and renamed it Netgear_bak.
So I'm not using any of the software on the install disk.
I'm running a laptop and a desktop, both with Windows 7 64 bit. The laptop connects via the integrated Realtek RTL8192E Wireless LAN.
The desktop connects via a Linksys WMP600N PCI-E card.
The router is sitting about 30 feet away, and 10-12' below the desktop. From these positions, with the WRT610N v.1, I the best I ever got was a 2.4 GHz band that was 50-70% signal strength, and a 5 GHz band that was 10% signal strength. My best tests had me moving a 1 GB zip file over the 2.4 GHz band to the laptop in about 6.5 minutes. I think it was getting speeds of something like 2.3 Mbps. The 5 GHz band could get speeds of about 4.5 to 5 minutes for the same file (but only the desktop could connect to that band). Unfortunately, the router was unstable, and particularly in the afternoons, would see significant spikes that made using the computer very problematic. Hence looking for a replacement.
Connecting the new WNDR3700 wired this morning, everything works fine.
I set the wireless connection as 2.4GHz @ 130 Mbps, and the 5 GHz @ 300 Mbps.
In my first test, I connected the desktop to the router via 2.4 GHz channel, and the router to the laptop via the 2.4 GHz channel, and moved that 1 GB test file. It took 13 minutes, averaging a speed of 1.2 Mbps. I'm pretty sure that's significantly slower than it should be capable of. The desktop shows a signal strength of 70%, and the laptop shows about 88% from where I'm sitting.
So, I switched the desktop over to the 5 GHz channel, and saw a signal strength of 30% which I've *never* seen on 5 GHz, with any router. I tried moving the 1 GB test file again, and got speeds ranging from 4.9 to 5.10 Mbps. It took 2 minutes, 45 seconds.
Thinking that the 2.4 GHz band might be slow, because I've got it in 130 Mbps mode, I went back to the router, and switched the 2.4 GHz band to 300 Mbps.
Redid the test. Performance dropped. File transfer speed crept along at about 300-700 KB/s, and it took 30 minutes or so to move that same 1 GB file between the machines. Is this normal? On the WRT610N, as mentioned above, I used to be able to do that in about 6.5 minutes, or up to 8 minutes.
I have checked with inSSIDer, and I don't see any interfering signals at the moment....just mine. I'm in a townhouse, in the end unit, and normally I can see 6-8 networks, but I've always configured my system to use different channels than the others....and most of the others seem configured so that they only turn on when their owners come home.
This unit definitely shows promise. But a few things stand out...
1-It only seems faster when I'm connecting wirelessly over 5 GHz....the WRT610N by comparison had terrible coverage to this area of the house.
2-I have uploaded the latest firmware file to the router, but I have not either powered the router on and off after upgrading the file, or used the little button that you have to press with a pencil, to do a factory reset. Am I supposed to do that?
Plef5204
I had bought one a week ago, but had no end of troubles with it, and decided to give it one more try.
The new unit has worked pretty much from the moment I opened the box. Before doing anything, I went to the Netgear folder that the install disk from the previous version had placed on my hard drive, and renamed it Netgear_bak.
So I'm not using any of the software on the install disk.
I'm running a laptop and a desktop, both with Windows 7 64 bit. The laptop connects via the integrated Realtek RTL8192E Wireless LAN.
The desktop connects via a Linksys WMP600N PCI-E card.
The router is sitting about 30 feet away, and 10-12' below the desktop. From these positions, with the WRT610N v.1, I the best I ever got was a 2.4 GHz band that was 50-70% signal strength, and a 5 GHz band that was 10% signal strength. My best tests had me moving a 1 GB zip file over the 2.4 GHz band to the laptop in about 6.5 minutes. I think it was getting speeds of something like 2.3 Mbps. The 5 GHz band could get speeds of about 4.5 to 5 minutes for the same file (but only the desktop could connect to that band). Unfortunately, the router was unstable, and particularly in the afternoons, would see significant spikes that made using the computer very problematic. Hence looking for a replacement.
Connecting the new WNDR3700 wired this morning, everything works fine.
I set the wireless connection as 2.4GHz @ 130 Mbps, and the 5 GHz @ 300 Mbps.
In my first test, I connected the desktop to the router via 2.4 GHz channel, and the router to the laptop via the 2.4 GHz channel, and moved that 1 GB test file. It took 13 minutes, averaging a speed of 1.2 Mbps. I'm pretty sure that's significantly slower than it should be capable of. The desktop shows a signal strength of 70%, and the laptop shows about 88% from where I'm sitting.
So, I switched the desktop over to the 5 GHz channel, and saw a signal strength of 30% which I've *never* seen on 5 GHz, with any router. I tried moving the 1 GB test file again, and got speeds ranging from 4.9 to 5.10 Mbps. It took 2 minutes, 45 seconds.
Thinking that the 2.4 GHz band might be slow, because I've got it in 130 Mbps mode, I went back to the router, and switched the 2.4 GHz band to 300 Mbps.
Redid the test. Performance dropped. File transfer speed crept along at about 300-700 KB/s, and it took 30 minutes or so to move that same 1 GB file between the machines. Is this normal? On the WRT610N, as mentioned above, I used to be able to do that in about 6.5 minutes, or up to 8 minutes.
I have checked with inSSIDer, and I don't see any interfering signals at the moment....just mine. I'm in a townhouse, in the end unit, and normally I can see 6-8 networks, but I've always configured my system to use different channels than the others....and most of the others seem configured so that they only turn on when their owners come home.
This unit definitely shows promise. But a few things stand out...
1-It only seems faster when I'm connecting wirelessly over 5 GHz....the WRT610N by comparison had terrible coverage to this area of the house.
2-I have uploaded the latest firmware file to the router, but I have not either powered the router on and off after upgrading the file, or used the little button that you have to press with a pencil, to do a factory reset. Am I supposed to do that?
Plef5204
