NETGEAR MR814 802.11b Cable/DSL Wireless Router

Untested with centrino

By Rajesh Srinivasan  May 22, 2003 | 14 out of 15 found this NETGEAR MR814 802.11b Cable/DSL Wireless Router review helpful

I bought this Netgear router 2 weeks ago for $50 (after mail-in rebate)and was disappointed. I was trying to use it with my new centrino laptop with a P3M processor and I had set-up problems. I contacted the support who tried to resolove the issue wi...th me on the phone for 1/2 hour and couldnt. I tried a few tricks up my sleeve and finally got it to work and was excited. However, my excitement was short-lived as the connectivity failed when I restarted my laptop the next morning. A couple of more phone calls to support(rather friendly) and I got it working again. Finally, I found that the wireless connectivity was automatically dropping every 1/2 hour or so. I had to power cycle the router(unplug and plug back the AC power) to establish wireless connectivity each time. I called support(again!) and the support person acknowledged that this model wasnt tested with centrino! I returned it to the store and got a linksys (for a higher price) and its awesome. No dropped connection, excellent range, easy set-up.One plus with the Netgear is that it is ultra light and ultra thin. It came with a nice little stand that you can make it stand vertically and I loved that. Linksys, on the contrary, is bulky.PROS: light, thin and comes with a vertical standCONS: Incompatible with centrino technology, complex set-up, narrow range Read more Less