Survey: Tell Us How You Feel About the NETGEAR WNR3500L

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DH2000
DH2000's picture
I was upset after flashed my

I was upset after flashed my new WRN3500L router from stock firmware (which crashed often when writing a 1-2g file size to a WD MyBook NTFS USB 3 hooked up to this router) to Tomato 1.28.7476 MIPSR2-Toastman-RT K26 USB Ext two weeks ago:
I lost Guest SSID option, my wireless speed throughput not faster than stock firmware or than my old Linksys WRT54GS (with mode G Only), the LAN speed also slower than stock firmware.

But after 2 weeks playing around with this firmware, I started liking it!
I discovered a lot of features with this Tomato firmware.

I found this Tomato firmware is rock solid. It didn't reboot the router when my internet connection is lost as my old Linksys WRT54GS router(not with tomato firmware) did to reconnect the internet connection.

After upgraded wireless adapter for my WDTV Live player to Wireless N from G, I was exciting to see it can play 1080p movie from an HDD USB 2 plug to the router via Network share or via Media Server option that couldn't with the old router.

I got 150/xx TX/RX rate in Device List for my WDTV player and 243/xx for my Laptop Wireless N in setting the Wireless mode to N only with WPA2 PSK+AES, 40MHz Channel Width, Upper Control Sideband, Transmit Power=0.
(I was trying with different values for Transmit Power without success so put it to 0 hardware default! What is the value exact of this hardware default?)

The Wireless Rate in Overview kept showing 150Mbps rarely shows 243Mbps! I remembered there is an option to set to 300Mps mode with Stock firmware. How can I set it in this Tomato firmware? I saw B/G Mixed option in Wireless Network Mode settings but G/N Mixed. I hopes to see it in next release.

I'm still looking for a media player for my HP Touchpad that can play mkv/avi file. I got a free one that can browse the Media server on the router but refused to play any video files. It said it only supports transcoding media server!

I like the Device List option, I kept monitoring it. It will be great if there is a column that displays the throughput speed in there!

Also I will be very happy if I can setup Guess SSID with Tomato firmware!

Thanks

digixmax
digixmax's picture
I bought this WNR3500L for

I bought this WNR3500L for wireless network extension in my house (using WDS or Repeater-Bridge types of setup).

The router has great potential: high-power CPU, large amount of RAM and Flash memory, great choices of 3rd-party firmware (DD-WRT, TomatoUSB), USB support.

Unfortunately, the router has really poor signal reception which severely degrades application throughput and response-time performance, rendering it unsuitable for my intended application and likely a poor choice for standalone use in moderate size (e.g., 2-story) home.

Solar1
Solar1's picture
This is my first Netgear and

This is my first Netgear and first tomato on my 3500. I'm liking it so far...but it's been less than 1 Hour.

Mindach
Mindach's picture
MadRocker, You slam the

MadRocker, You slam the Netgear hard but your reasons are a rant not related to routers. USB3? what are you going to do with it, the next firmware may take more advantage to the Broadcomm chipset. I have looked inside many and there is still no better unit for the money with the firmware upgrade.

Your external antenna can be done and the power can be adjusted to anything you like, so streaming video runs smooth on WIFI and the range (even stock) is amazing.

Tell us a better model, and something valid, don't please don't just run down a really good product.

jmwhite
jmwhite's picture
Absolute beast of a router.

Absolute beast of a router. Had the stock Netgear firmware on it for about a total of 5 minutes before being flashed to DD-WRT, which it has been running since purchased date late last year. Ran DD-WRT 14929 Big on it for 8 months with 0 problems and decided to move into the newer builds and got steered towards Kong builds, which are absolutely great.

Peter Redmer
Peter Redmer's picture
@jmwhite--I've had very

@jmwhite--I've had very similar experiences with my WNR3500L and v2. I've used both Toastman and Kong builds, and man, both are totally solid.

jmwhite
jmwhite's picture
ardje said: I once bought 3

ardje said: I once bought 3 of these. It was the worst investment of my live. No real opensource, no documentation to make the opensource. This should not ever have been allowed to be called "the open source accesspoint". Luckily, in the next try of running open source on a "non-open-source" access point (like the WRT54GS), I stumbled upon the WNDR3700, and my boss was willing to sponsor this for me. Now we have about 110 of these running a slightly modified version of openwrt making it suitable to do campus wide roaming and giving country wide control over all access points. Do not buy the WNR3500L, buy the WNDR3700 v1 or v2, the WNDRMAC or the WNDR3800. Those are *real* opensource accesspoints, and should have been labeled like that. (Pity though, because the WNR3500L does have very nice hardware that does QinQ, if only I could use it...).

Yes because Netgear are going to tell you how to install third party firmware step by step..... Surely when you buy such a product you are expected to have at least some knowledge of firmware flashing and third party firmware. Hell there plenty of guides on this very site that show you how to do pretty anything as well as flash a variety of different third party firmwares

It was labelled as Open Source as it was specifically designed to run Linux based firmware, which of course means a variety of firmwares including DD-WRT, Tomato etc etc.. Not sure what the problem is?

You compared the WNR3500L to the WNDR3700. For one the WNR3500L is designed for home use where as you mentioned the WNDR3700 which is for high performance/business or enterprise which you seem to be talking about by saying "campus" perhaps University or something? When you buy a router or router(s) you make a decision partly on its enviroment. Pretty harsh to slate the WNR3500L for the reasons you stated above....

Actually I'm not sure if your just trolling to be honest...

buddee
buddee's picture
 

 

Something i am not sure if you realize or not, even though the wireless driver for broadcom isn't open source, the kernel that drives it is open source, thus open source firmware, because routing isn't totally comprised of the wireless driver, and actually routing in general doesn't rely on a wireless driver - you can route packets without using a wireless driver whatsoever, the wireless driver is used for the wireless nic within the hardware so that the kernel can use it, the routing however is done at the kernel level.

And yes, last time i checked, that kernel (linux) is still open source... and is the core of the 3rd party firmwares at all, without that kernel, you can have open source, closed source drivers etc, and it wouldn't really matter without the core that utilizes it.

Ruedii
Ruedii's picture
I'm happy with the generous

I'm happy with the generous ammount of RAM available, and I like that they increased it further with the v2.

I'm a little disappointed in the chipset choice having no Open Source driver. This has blocked OpenWRT from providing an officially supported release.

An open source driver is on the way, if Netgear's Open Source team would would like to help get releases out for the 3500L and 3500Lv2 I'm sure the OpenWRT team would greatly appreciate it.

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