Netgear DG834G

If there were such a thing as a router beauty contest, then Netgear's DG834G would win hands-down. The company's familiar Â‘platinumÂ’ case may have been around for a few years now, but it still looks cool enough not to look out of place in a lounge. It looks much the same as its non-Wi-Fi predecessors, the DG814 and DG834, but with the addition of a single 2dBi non-removable antenna at one end.

In common with many of its rivals, the DG834G no longer has the luxury of a power switch. But it does have the usual status LEDs on the front, for ADSL sync, wireless LAN activity and a link light for each of its four 10/100Mbps switched Ethernet ports. At £150.63 (ex VAT, or £177 inc. VAT), the DG834G’s list price is significantly higher than its rivals. However, it is widely discounted and can be picked up for as little as £100 (sometimes bundled with a Wi-Fi network adapter), so it’s actually price-competitive with its rivals. The DG834G has a comprehensive feature set that’s hard to fault. Its security features are an example of this thoroughness: you get a decent firewall with Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) & Intrusion Control, Denial of Service (DoS) and IPSec/Virtual Private Network (VPN) pass-through. But then so do plenty of other multi-function routers that the DG834G goes head to head with. It does have one unique selling point, though: Netgear’s latest router has a faster processor and additional flash memory so that it can accept firmware updates for ADSL 2 (12Mbps downstream) and ADSL 2+ (24Mbps), two upcoming ADSL broadband standards. This is a nice feature to have, although by the time we see these proposed standards turned in to reality, the DG834G is likely to be history. Getting online with the DG834G is a stress-free experience, thanks to its Smart Wizard. To get connected you run this wizard, which can automatically detect your basic ADSL and network settings. This can take a minute or two, but all you need do is enter your username and password and that’s it, the wizard takes care of the rest. In common with its peers, the DG834G is Web-configured -- a job that's made easier by its well-designed, tri-pane user interface. Most routers have so-so UIs, but the DG834G’s stands out for the attractive, clear and easy to follow layout. The ever-present help pane on the right-hand side provides assistance when you’re stumped for the right setting to choose. Paper documentation isn’t fulsome, but you do get a resource CD-ROM that includes animated instructions, the Install Assistant. The DG834G’s feature list matches the best on the market and feature for feature it has pretty much everything you might need. The only question-mark about it concerns the firmware. When originally launched, the DG834G lacked Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) security, but firmware update v1.03 corrected that -- you now get a choice of PSK or 802.1x authentication. However, that upgrade brought with it a few bugs, prompting a raft of complaints on user forums and newsgroups, with issues concerning MSN Messenger (of all things) plus the loss of the scheduler for content filtering being caused by the latest update. Sometimes the v1.03 upgrade would actually cause the router to become non-responsive. The problems caused by the firmware update must have been significant, because Netgear has gone to the trouble of providing a firmware recovery utility specifically for DG834/Gs that have been rendered unusable by the upgrade. Hopefully, the current firmware release, v1.04.01, nails all the outstanding bugs.

Member reviews

An excellent router for home or remote office users, with the ability to be accessed remotely by IT staff. It can be bought for as little as Â£75 with a free Wi-Fi card. Stay away from the latest firmware though, as this breaks VPN software and makes DNS resolution, sporadic at best.

Member's rating:

10.00 out of 10

Reply 20 May 04 11:19 Reply

I am composing this review using the product, which does everything claimed in the documentation.

User interface and documentation are very well designed.

I have two criticisms:
1) WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is disabled by default;
2) the default administrator ID and password are well known.

Consequently, if this is deployed by somebody who doesn't understand the consequences (or how to enable WEP and change the password) it may appear to work for a while until somebody, realising that it is insecure, takes control. All the attacker requires is an 802.11b or 802.11g device within radio range of the DG834G.

My advice to Netgear: require that the administrator password is changed before the router will function; include instructions within the printed documentation on enabling WEP (instruction are included on the accompanying CD-ROM) and recommend this as the default configuration. I would like to say enable WEP by default, but understand why this would increase their support costs.

9.00 out of 10

Reply 21 May 04 23:36 Reply

Having gone from a previous two-box (ADSL modem router and separate wireless access point) I can't believe I've waited this long to switch.

The DG834 is simplicity itself to setup. All I had to do was input my ADSL account username and password -- everything else was done for me.

I did upgrade the firmware from v 1.3 to v1.4 as I will eventually want to use WPA. The upgrade process was painless and worked first time.

I can't recommend this highly enough. It even looks the business, being a very pleasant and modern design.

9.50 out of 10

Reply 24 May 04 15:04 Reply

This is the best DSL router I have come across: it's easy to configure, has exellent range & performance, brilliant value for money (less than Â£100 at Amazon), looks good (unlike some competitors' products)...the list goes on & on. All my friends have this router based on my advice about an earlier 11MB version of this product, however, This is even better!

Reply 26 May 04 19:35 Reply

Crashes every day or so even with latest firmware.
My old Alcatel router stayed connected for months at a time with no probs. If Netgear properly fix the firmware it will be absolutely excellent, however.

7.00 out of 10

Reply 27 May 04 21:01 Reply

Reply 28 May 04 16:51 Reply

With decent firmware, this would be a good product. Unfortunately, even with the latest firmware download (1.04.01) the router often locks up after about 4 hours use, requiring a power-on restart. Also, the log file fails to record events correctly. There are many similar and worse tales of woe on various broadband forums. Sorry NetGear. You need to do better than this.

4.00 out of 10

Reply 31 May 04 10:09 Reply

When I first got it, it never stayed connected for more than a few hours. Now with the latest firmware version it is better but still not fixed. Now it stays up for about 1-2 days. Still unacceptable!

Reply 4 Jun 04 17:47 Reply

Worked within 10 minutes of getting out of the box.
I have no complaints so far -- as many features as I could ask for, no reliability problems so far (v1.3 firmware).

Reply 7 Jun 04 19:53 Reply

The router has everything you want at a reasonable price: Firewall, Wi-Fi, router/ADSL modem.

New firmware 1.04.01 is still buggy. My router consistently hangs during high-download speeds -- as many other users describe. Netgear have YET to provide a firmware upgrade for the last 2 months to fix this. An email request to support returned a "call netgear phone-support" reply. How do you expect to keep your customer base?

Otherwise, router functions easy to set up. Nice setup-wizard interface. Problem-free connections. Range could be improved slightly with a better antenna and a power on/off switch would be nice.