Save your money

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mr_harmon
mr_harmon's picture
Save your money

Do not buy one of these opensource routers unless you you are in need of a time wasting hobby. If you love soldering and endlessly downloading and recompiling software that does not work, finding manufacturers packaging errors ( my first box is labeled an opensource router but is a version 9) my second box appears to be a Version 8 but no firmware updates work, factory or opensource. I went out and bought another brand router that was not designed or sold as being an opensource router and it worked instantly. Save your money and time get something else.

mr_harmon
mr_harmon's picture
The second one I bought turns

The second one I bought turns out to be a version 7, Can netgear get the right product in the right box?

achilles
achilles's picture
you shud contact netgear for

you shud contact netgear for getting ur units replaced ..... many people on this site have done this and got their units replaced ....
It's really unfortunate that u have got wrong units 2 times .... but once u get a v8 there shud not be such prblms .....
rest z ur choice ....

sqls
sqls's picture
You could try the Linksys

You could try the Linksys WRT54GL. It's about as flawless and perfect that an "open source" router could be. Most all the firmwares install without a single error or problem and you can install the firmwares straight from the developers websites (ie, dd-wrt, openwrt, tomato) and not need a custom firmware like is needed with these Netgears :(. I've used the Linksys -a lot- and it works great. I just recently got one of these Netgears and so far it's been a pretty bad experience. Wasn't worth the $5 dollars I saved.

sqls
sqls's picture
I would like to add tho' that

I would like to add tho' that the Netgear is somewhat new. And people are working on getting the firmwares to work for it. So, I'm sure eventually the bugs will be worked out and it'll be a great option.

Peter Redmer
Peter Redmer's picture
mr_harmon, I wanted to

mr_harmon, I wanted to address a few of your comments in your post.

First, not everyone views soldering, tinkering, and recompiling as a waste of time. Lots of folks (many of the users here, including myself on occasion) truly enjoy taking things apart, making mistakes, and learning new things. Definitely not a "waste of time."

Second, you bring up a legitimate concern about the router being labeled incorrectly. This is an issue that NETGEAR has acknowledged and will be happy to resolve for you. Did you contact them at any point? The product line manager from NETGEAR responded personally to a member's issue on the forums.

http://www.myopenrouter.com/forum/thread/10311/WGR614L-really-a-WG614v9/...

I assure you that NETGEAR wants to do everything they can to resolve issues like this.

Third, you mentioned that you went out and bought another non-open source router and it worked instantly. Did you try using the WGR614L without loading custom third party firmware on it? It works like any NETGEAR router, if you don't tinker with it, and it works great (I've used it.)

Lastly, sqls has a great point - all of the third party firmwares for the router are works in progress, may or may not contain bugs, and are always progressing forward. As users develop the firmware, they get better and better. That's what the community is for - to share your questions and experiences :)

All in all, I thank you for your post and would encourage you, when you're ready, to hop back on board with an open source router... but only if you're ready to do at least a little compiling and tinkering :)

mr_harmon
mr_harmon's picture
I recompile software and

I recompile software and tinker with equipment for a living. and I do not appreciate the fact that this company has a historical, verifiable history of mis-labeling product ( per your provided link this problem has continued unresolved for 1 year 3 months}. I want to warn others that if they feel compelled to buy a netgear product that they go to a retail outlet, insist on opening the box and powering up the device to verify that they are receiving the correct item before purchase.
So far Netgear has not been helpful other than advising that I return to the vendor, the vendor is blameless, it is Netgear's fault for wasting everyone's time.