Netgear N750 Dual Band 4 Port Wi-fi Gigabit Router (Wndr4300) Review

First appear at CES 2011, the N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (WNDR4000) is a major upgrade to the Netgear WNDR3700 RangeMax, equally it supports a speed of 450Mbps (as opposed to 300Mbps) on the 5GHz band. This makes it the direct competitor of the recently reviewed Cisco Linksys E4200, and it's a decent contender, all things considered. Unfortunately, except for the shut-range throughput on the 2.4GHz band and the more comprehensive guest networking characteristic, the WNDR4000 trails behind the E42000 in terms of performance, features, and ease of use.

With that said, the Netgear WNDR4000 is nevertheless a very skilful router. At a street price of around $150, about $20 cheaper than the Linksys E4200, information technology makes a worthwhile investment for both dwelling and pocket-size role environments, especially ones with Wi-Fi clients supporting the 5GHz band. Other, similar options are the Cisco Linksys E3200 and the Asus RT-N56U.

Design and setup
The Netgear WNDR4000 router comes in a squared-off shape with a sleek casing that attracts fingerprints. The router can work in a horizontal or vertical position (when coupled with an included detachable stand) and is wall-mountable.

On the back the router has one WAN port (to connect to an Internet source, such every bit a broadband modem) and four LAN ports (for wired clients). All of these ports are Gigabit Ethernet, offering a meridian speed of i,000Mbps. Likewise on the back you'll find an on/off push and a USB port to host an external difficult bulldoze for the router'southward network storage feature.

On the front, the router boasts an assortment of color-changing LED lights indicating the condition of the Net connection, the wireless network, and the ports on the back. Near these LEDs is the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button that helps quickly hook Wi-Fi clients into the wireless network.

It's very like shooting fish in a barrel to ready the router with the included Netgear Genie software application, which is somewhat like Cisco Connect on the Linksys E4200. While Netgear Genie isn't as like shooting fish in a barrel to utilize as Cisco Connect, equally the setup process takes longer and involves more steps, we don't think anybody would accept trouble getting the WNDR4000 up and running. We were able to do that within about 10 minutes, including the time needed to accept the router out of the parcel.

Features
The WNDR4000 is the first true dual-ring router from Netgear that offers the college 450Mbps speed that's available merely in the 5GHz band. This is the new 3-stream standard (also known every bit 3x3) that'southward getting more and more popular for loftier-stop wireless routers. As a truthful dual-band router, the WNDR4000 is capable of simultaneously broadcasting Wireless-Northward signals in both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. On top of that, the router is likewise able to broadcast two more guest wireless networks, 1 for each ring. Invitee networking, another increasingly popular feature, creates separate wireless networks that enable guests to access the Internet without having access to local resources such every bit files or printers.

We liked the WNDR4000's invitee networking feature as it supports two additional networks and an unlimited number of connected clients. The Linksys E4200 provides guest networking just in the 2.4GHz band, and supports a maximum of 10 concurrent clients.

The Netgear Genie setup software takes you lot through the process of creating the two main wireless networks. In order to set up up the guest networks, y'all'll need to log in to the router's Web interface by pointing a continued estimator's browser to the router'due south default IP of 192.168.1.1. Here y'all'll have access to the router'south other advanced features.

One of these features is support for a USB external hard drive and so the router can host networked storage, like to a NAS server. The WNDR4000 has some basic features constitute in Netgear'due south dedicated NAS servers such equally the ReadyNAS Ultra4. We tried the network storage option with a few external difficult drives and were pleased with how it was designed.

Get-go off, the router supports hard drives formatted in both NTFS and FAT32 file systems. This means yous tin just plug in your electric current external hard drive with data already on it and share it with the rest of the network. The router also tin interface with compact difficult drives that are USB bus-powered.

Regarding file sharing, the WNDR4000 supports the Windows SMB protocol, which allows whatever computer in the network to access its storage using a network browser (such as Windows Explorer) without having any boosted software installed. Mac computers will automatically discover the network storage share and brandish that in the Finder. By default, all folders of the connected external hard drive are accessible by everybody. The only way to restrict access to the storage using the router is via the countersign for the default admin account. For example, yous can fix it upwardly and then that the password is required to gain the read-but or full read/write access to a particular binder on the external hard drive. Once set, the restriction is applied to anyone wanting to access that binder. This is a primitive, simply effective, mode to manage network storage. Most NAS servers use more than advanced restriction protocols via user accounts. Nonetheless, considering the fact that this is primarily a router, we were happy with this level of restriction.

The WNDR4000's network storage also offers media streaming to DLNA-enabled devices, such every bit the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. This characteristic automatically scans the attached external difficult drive for digital contents, making them available to devices within the network. Too, the router can automatically browse for new content when new files are added or repeatedly over a menstruum of time. We tried this out and information technology worked as intended.

The router's NAS characteristic can likewise handle other NAS functions such as FTP and HTTP server. You tin can also set up remote connections to admission data remotely via the Internet. To do this, however, you lot volition demand to employ a dynamic DNS service, such equally Dyndns.org, unless your connection to the Internet has a static IP accost.

The second advanced feature that we actually like is the WNDR4000'south Traffic Meter, which allows you to control the router's bandwidth. For example, you tin can set up the router to disconnect from the Internet if a certain amount of data has been downloaded (or uploaded, or both) over a sure menses of fourth dimension. This is useful when you have a limited quota and don't desire to go over. Unfortunately, the Traffic Meter doesn't offer bandwidth control for individual computers, and then you can't utilize information technology to restrict one individual in a network from downloading as well much.

Similar the WNR2000, the WNDR4000 comes with a handy feature called Live Parental Controls. To use this, you first demand to install the Netgear Live Parent Command software (which is on the included CD). This guides you lot through the steps of setting upward a free online account with OpenDNS and setting the overall Web filter level to your choice of high, moderate, low, minimum, or none. Later on that, you no longer need the software. From anywhere in the globe, you can now go to the Parental Controls Center site, log in with the account you just created, and further customize the router's Web filtering feature. For parents who are on the go a lot, this is a squeamish manner to take some control over the Internet access of those at abode.

As with most routers from Netgear, the WNDR4000's Web interface is by and large well-organized and responsive, making managing the router an like shooting fish in a barrel chore. The router also has many other features found in nearly wireless routers such as Content Filtering, which lets you lot block sure Web sites and services, port forwarding, Quality of Service, and Universal Plug and Play.

For security, the router supports all existing wireless-encryption methods including WEP, WPA, and WPA2. As mentioned above, it likewise comes with Wi-Fi Protected Setup so you can add a new client to the network by pressing a button, instead of having to type in the encryption key.

Performance
Much equally we liked the way the WNDR4000's network storage feature is designed, we typically aren't impressed past the performance of this feature in wireless routers with built-in network storage support. In our testing via Gigabit Ethernet, the router offered a write speed of 51.8Mbps and a read speed of merely 57.6Mbps. At these speeds, the router can just ability light file sharing with the connected external hard drive. For more than serious network storage needs, we'd recommend a dedicated NAS server.

In its primary function as a wireless router, the WNDR4000 did much better in our testing.

In the 5GHz band, the router scored 89Mbps for close range and 63.9Mbps for long range, putting it in fourth and 3rd place respectively among the true dual-band routers we've reviewed. Unfortunately, compared with the Linksys E4200, which scored 100.48Mbps for close range and 79.1 for long range, the WNDR4000 was still quite noticeably behind. Still, at these speeds, the Netgear can finish transmitting 500MB of data in just 45 seconds, a short time compared with nearly other wireless routers.

In the 2.4GHz band, the router's performance was much less consistent. Information technology impressively topped our nautical chart in the close-range test with 67.8Mbps. However, when we increased the range to 100 feet, the router's functioning reduced to just 23.9Mbps, the biggest deposition we've seen. This means those who rely almost on the 2.4GHz band for their wireless networking will be disappointed and probably experience an unstable connection as they move abroad from the router. In the mixed-manner examination, in which the router was set to work with both Wireless-N and legacy clients at close range, information technology scored a decent 57.9Mbps.

The WNDR4000 offered very long range in our trials, up to 290 anxiety for the 5GHz band and 310 feet for the 2.4GHz band. Notation however, at maximum range the throughput is very slow and is only practiced for very calorie-free Internet surfing. We found that the router was best used inside 100 feet on the 5GHz ring and virtually lxx feet on the two.4GHz band.

The router passed our 48-hr stress examination, during which information technology didn't disconnect once. Note however that the stress test was conducted inside a range of only around 15 feet. Increasing the range could reduce the stability of the signal.

NAS performance (in Mbps)
(Longer confined indicate amend functioning)

Read

Write

QNAP TS109 Pro (Unmarried Volume)

152.4

101.four

Apple Fourth dimension Capsule

114.2

81.2

2.4GHz Wireless-Due north performance (in Mbps)
(Longer confined point ameliorate operation)

Mixed fashion

Range

Throughput

5GHz Wireless-N functioning (in Mbps)
(Longer bars indicate meliorate performance)

Range

Throughput

Service and support
Netgear backs the N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router with a standard i-year warranty. The support pages on Netgear's site are somewhat elusive (y'all take to click through many layers of links to find what you want) but offering lots of support data, such as troubleshooting, a knowledge base, firmware, drivers, and manual downloads.

Conclusions
Nosotros liked the Netgear N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (WNDR4000) for its ease of use and skillful functioning on the 5GHz ring, but were let down past its range performance on the 2.4GHz band. Withal, it would make a very adept router for homes and small offices, specially those with wireless clients that back up the 5GHz band.

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Source: https://www.cnet.com/reviews/netgear-n750-wireless-dual-band-gigabit-router-wndr4000-review/

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