Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I bought this router due to being a tech junkie and the desire to have a router that can transfer files to my home server, via my laptop, in blazing fast speed. The Netgear WNDR4000 is part of the first bunch WiFi routers to support 3 spatial (data) streams (max 450 Mbps of bandwidth) on the 5 GHz band. I would say the router provides a solid connection (no drop outs.... yet.. my old WRT610N from Linksys had this problem), slightly higher throughput in file transfers then my Netgear WNDR3700 on the 5GHz band, easy to setup, and great parental control feature.
The down side of the router is that the 2.4 GHz band only has 2 spatial data streams for a max data link speed of 300 Mbps. Comparing the throughput on the 5GHz band between the WNDR3700 and WNDR4000 only showed a 15% gain instead of the expected 50% gain (300 Mbps vs 450 Mbps).
I also have the Cisco E4200, another router with 3 spatial streams on the 5GHz, that I am trying out and I would say it has the same throughput performance as the WNDR4000, better setup utility, and no so great parental controls.
Setup:
Inside the WNDR4000 box, you get the router, power adapter, Ethernet cable, and resource CD (documents and "Smart Wizard" application). Setup of the router is easy, just plug in the power adapter, Ethernet cable to your computer, and configure the router.
You have two approaches to configure the router; the classic web interface for people with experience or the "Smart Wizard" for people who want an easy approach without getting lost in the details. The web interface for the router setup is the same as the previous model, WNDR3700, so it was a breeze to do. Just setup the wireless security, forward ports for my networked devices, and I was ready to go. My PS3, Vulkano, and Windows Home Server had no issues working with the router.
Using the "Smart Guide" program only allows you to setup your wireless SSID and security password. For parental controls, Netgear provides a separate utility powered by a company called OpenDNS. It allows you to block up to 57 different website categories during different times of the day.
The setup utility (Cisco Connect) for the Cisco E4200 router is slightly better then the Netgear utility. Cisco Connect allows you to configure more features, such as guest network, upgrade router firmware, modify setup key, etc. For it's parental control, you have to manually input the website you want to block
Performance:
Wanting to know whether I made the right move with buying the router, I measured the throughput of the 5 GHz band on the WNDR3700, WNDR4000, and E4200 router. I used the tool "LAN Speed Test" to measure the throughput of the laptop, in the same room of the router, to my server on the router's gigabit port. My laptop has the Intel 6300 wifi card which supports the 3 data stream. The WNDR3700 showed 115 Mbps up and 128 Mbps down, WNDR4000 is 134 Mbps up and 140 Mbps down, and the E4200 showed 129 Mbps up and 148 Mbps down. As you can see from the numbers, the WNDR4000 is roughly 15% faster then the WNDR3700. At the 2.4 GHz band, all routers were around the same speed; 60 Mbps up and 70 Mbps down.
I live in a small apartment thus I could not test the range on the router. From inside the apartment, the routers have similar signal quality at different areas in the apartment.
Summary:
Overall, I am pleased with the router. However, I am docking one star from the rating for the router only delivering 2 stream (not 3) for the 2.4 GHz band (not sure why they did this, I hope it is not some standard) and for only the small 15% speed increase compared to the WNDR3700. Since these routers just came out, I guess we will have to wait to see how robust they are (hardware life and firmware issues).
Background:
As of March 28, 2011, the latest 3 wireless router from Netgear are:
WNDR3700v2 aka WNDR37AV - Dual Band gigabit router with 300 Mbps max on the 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz band.
WNDR3800 - Similar to the WNDR37AV, but with the following features: Print server capable, Clear Channel Selector, and Quick Start, Steady Stream HD.
WNDR4000 - Dual band gigabit router with 300 Mbps max on 2.4 GHz & 450 Mbps max on the 5 GHz band. It does NOT have the additional features on the WNDR3800.
All of these routers have a 680 MHz MIPS 32-bit processor, 64 MB RAM, and they are based on the 802.11N final version.
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NETGEAR N750 450 Mbps Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4000The NETGEAR N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router offers high-performance wireless speeds of up to 450 Mbps needed for demanding applications, such as large file transfers, streaming HD video and multiplayer gaming. Dual band technology avoids interference, ensuring top speeds and the highest range, while Gigabit offers ultra-fast wired connections.
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