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Do NETGEAR routers burn out after 7 or 8 months?

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xav1379

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 11, 2006
17
0
London, UK
All,

Just wanted to share my experience of NETGEAR broadband wireless firewall routers...

I have a MacBookPro, an iBook (my partner's actually) and an HiFi system connected to an Airport Express all running on a wireless network managed by my NETGEAR router (DG834G).

I had two of them and observed that I could not stream music anymore after 1 or 2 hours of use.
Worse, their wireless component burned out after 6 or 7 months, for both of them!

It is really spooky and I doubt that it is a defect. I started to genuinely believe that NETGEAR routers are crap.

Would you have any alternative wireless solution that you would recommend me for my network?

In the meantime, I will run to the shop and exercise my warranty...

Thanks.

Regards,

xav1379
 
I have the same router, DG834G and have had it for nearly a year now. It hasn't missed a beat! I think you've just been unlucky. My old wired Netgear router is now being used at my friend's house and it's been going 2-3 years now without fault!

3Com on the other hand.... I have 3 friends who bought 3Com routers and they've all failed in under a year.
 
I have a two year old WGR614 that is still going strong quite happily. Are you living next to power lines or something?
 
?????????????????

There not Powerbooks!

;)

Expect them to run for years or untill you upgrade.

As long as they have room to breathe they'll be fine
My Cisco Linksys is running fine - lots of air around it.
 
Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. Ive had teh DG834G for years now and to be honest I have had to repair it twice, but it was the modem part it seemed as opposed to the wireless. The second time it broke my broadband line was being upgraded, so my ISP thought it might be them and double upgraded me for free to appologise!

Apart from that I run it rugged and it's fine. I actually use a second Netgear WPN824 RangeMax router for my wireless as I needed a stronger signal due to my kichen and other cables in the house. The WPN824 doesn't have a built in modem so it still plugs into the DG834G which handles the broadband connection and all my wired connections, like desktop, printer & WPN824 etc etc, with the WPN824 handling all my wireless attached to the DG834G. but I have never had any wireless "problems" as such with my DG834G, it's just the amount of interference I get in my home. I've never had a problem yet with the WPN824 (apart from until a recent firmware update it crashes Centrino laptops! :) ).

I have known this router to die quite commonly with the same problem, both versions (I have the very first version 1) and it can die mysteriously, but compared to other equipment I have used they are much MUCH better! The hardest bit is convincing Netgears tech support over the phone that it's broken so they can replace it! Once that's done it's a pretty quick turnaround and the router is returned good as new.
 
i have a DG834G too. Ive had it for about two months now and all has been fine! If it does go wrong though, it has a years warrenty so you could just take it back right?
 
3Com

NATO said:
3Com on the other hand.... I have 3 friends who bought 3Com routers and they've all failed in under a year.
Click to expand...

My 3Com router has been up for over a 2years! It hasn't had a software update, and has disconnected from my ADSL connection twice (both from their end!)

I would happily buy another 3Com router, but I think their USB wifi cards are pants.

F
 
I've always had good luck with Netgear. I've had a Netgear FVS318 router for a couple of years now and have had no problems. Netgear is the only brand I'll buy now. In the past I had real problems with Linksys, but I think they are all pretty much the same. Everybody seems to have good luck with each different brand.

Your mileage may vary.
 
Well well well... It looks like I am doomed. For a while, I thought that the Airport Express was generating too much traffic for my router and killed it. But it's just me being paranoid.

Will go back to the shop tomorrow without asking myself anymore questions. It does not work and there is nothing I can do about it.

By the way, the British Telecom exchange is next to my building and I believe that it has some antennas at the top used by mobile phone networks...

Any correlations?
 
I've had great luck with Netgear routers. My experience is that Linkys routers are crap (others will foam at the mouth and argue against this of course).
 
Seasought said:
I've had great luck with Netgear routers. My experience is that Linkys routers are crap (others will foam at the mouth and argue against this of course).
Click to expand...

ditto that - i might be wrong, but i have two burned out routers that say otherwise, and my netgear is going strong.
 
Seasought said:
I've had great luck with Netgear routers. My experience is that Linkys routers are crap (others will foam at the mouth and argue against this of course).
Click to expand...

I had the opposite luck, my Netgear burned out and my linksys is still running great.
 
My 6 year old D-Link router died on me last night. I accidently knocked into the power supply and it unplugged and plugged in too fast and shorted out the machine. It powers on but won't communicate through the ports anymore.

Probably going to buy another D-Link router today.
 
I had an old Netgear DG824 which did the same as yours, the wireless burnt out after about a year and a half. As it came with a 3 year warrenty I called them up, but their Indian call centre was useless and I just decided to buy a new one.
My friend had a Netgear DG834 and his wireless stopped working after a while too.

I would stay away from the Netgears. When you are choosing one, make sure the manufacturer hasn't got an Indian call centre!
 
The only thing to learn from this thread is something I learned from user reviews when I was researching which wireless router to buy, it's just a lucky chance if you get one that works for you. All wireless routers seem to break down into 50% perfect behaviour, 50% perfect disaster.

After going around in circles for a couple of weeks, I just gave up and bought one that had the best good mail-in rebate at the time. I got lucky. My Netgear WGR614 has been going strong for almost two years now.
 
Haven't used netgear. My linksys completely died just after warranty was up.
 
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