NETGEAR WNDR3700 DUAL BAND WIRELESS-N GIGABIT ROUTER

 

NOTE – AN UPDATE AS AT Feb 2010

Recently I opened the router and completed a software update. I then put one of my Xbox 360s back on the 5GHZ band and the problems mentioned in my original post are no longer there. I get 4 out of 5 green bars on reception and, more importantly, the streaming from PC to Xbox 360 now works as well as it did on the 2.4 GHZ band.

Obviously the software update fixed whatever was originally causing the problems. Therefore I amend this post and remove any complaints about the 5GHZ band.

Also I re-tested the ReadyShare transfer rate by copying and pasting a 146MB video file.

When the external HDD was connected directly to the PC via USB2 the copy took 8/9 seconds. When connected via ReadyShare it took 3 minutes and 9 seconds.

My rating is 9 out of 10 and the only negative now (after the firmware is updated) is the slow ReadyShare transfer rate.

I decided, since it is Christmas, that I would upgrade my Home Wi-Fi network to the new 802.11N standard. While I was doing this, I also elected to buy a dual band router so that I could use the 5 GHz band for the Xbox 360s. I have two Xbox 360s and one is used mainly as a media extender to facilitate the viewing of recorded programs and other video on a TV set.

Everything that I have read suggests that the 5GHz band provides better performance for video transmissions.

Initially, I was looking at buying the latest (and expensive) D Link dual band router. Luckily, however, the technicians at my local computer business talked me into buying the Netgear WNDR3700 which is about half the price of the D Link. I am glad that they did.

Two new 802.11N Wi-Fi adaptors were also needed for the Xbox 360s and these are not cheap.

The Netgear WNDR 3700 was very easy to set up. I am running Windows 7 64 bit on my main computer and, as some people had complained on the internet that the install disk for the WNDR 3700 had problems with 64 bit Win7, I performed a manual install via a log on to 192.168.1.1.

I have nothing but praise for the clear and easy to use interface and I had it set up and running with log in passwords changed and WPA encryption applied in minutes. I did not try to use the set up disk so I can’t report on whether or not it works with Win 7 64 bit. However, the manual installation was so easy that I can’t see what extra benefit a disk could provide.

The router provides three separate networks – one in the 5 GHz band and two in the 2.4GHz band. The second 2.4GHz one is a “Guest Network” which came in very handy for me as my Wii will not connect when using WPA2 (AES). (I had the same problem with D Link so I guess it is something that needs to be fixed on the Wii.) I used WPA TKIP on the Guest network and the Wii connected without any further problems.

I have three devices that support 802.11N and 5 GHz – the 2 Xbox 360s and my Mac Book so I used 5GHz with them and everything else including my PS3 stayed on 802.11g with the Wii on the separate guest network.

However I have had a problem with this arrangement. The range of the 5 GHz frequency is very short and as the two Xbox 360s are at the opposite ends of the house (with the router in the middle) signal strength when running the X Box 360 Network Test varied from poor to average. This was very disappointing. When the signal is average the Xbox 360 Media Centre network test showed all green bars for receiving HD TV. On the other hand, when the signal strength dropped, this test performed badly. When actually viewing recorded HD TV stored on my computer via the Xbox 360s, there were drop outs and a slow response to the remote controller. It was worse than when using 802.11g. See note above.

I had also read that it was not wise to have a mixture of 802.11N and 802.11g devices together on the same 2.4GHz network as this slowed everything down to the 802.11g speed. Nevertheless, I put everything on this band and went back and did the tests with the X Box 360s again. This time the signal was a solid full strength and the Media Centre test was also solid full green bars whether or not I had 802.11g devices running at the same time.

Therefore, at least in my case, 802.11N (with some 802.11g devices) on a single 2.4 GHz band is all that I needed. Aren’t I glad that the Techs at the shop talked me out of the more expensive D Link as further reading on the subject suggests that 5GHz performance deteriorates rapidly over distance.

Despite this issue, I still like the WNDR 3700 and I guess that I will buy the WNDA 3100 USB Wi-Fi dual band adaptor so that I can use and get the benefit of the 5 GHz band on my second computer which is located much closer to the router than the 2 Xbox 360s. I walked around with my Mac Book (which is using 5GHz) and this confirmed that the 5GHz signal strength does indeed fall off quickly with distance. See note above – The 5GHZ reception, while slightly less that the 2.4GHZ is now OK  – at say 20 meters behind a wall, 2.4GHZ was 5 out of 5 bars and 5GHZ 4 out of 5 bars.

Of course, I can’t say whether or not another brand of router would perform any better, but I can say that 802.11N (backwards compatible to at least g) with a mixture of N & G devices on one 2.4GHz network is all that is needed.

Another important thing is that, if you do not turn off UPnP, Xbox live works flawlessly with this router.

Even though I am a little disappointed with the 5GHz performance (See note above – 5GHZ is now OK), I am not sorry that I bought this router. The shortcoming with 5GHz is made up for by the performance in the 2.4GHZ band performs very well and 5GHZ is also good. In addition there are a number of functions that I really like. I will list a few of these:

· It is a Gigabit router

· It has an on/off switch. Many routers do not have this simple facility and you have to remove the power cord to turn them off

· There is also a button to turn the Wi-Fi on and off

· The control interface is easy to use and extensive. Unlike some other routers, doing things like port forwarding etc is made very easy.

· It checks for and installs updates automatically. (You can easily turn this off or on as desired.) It updated automatically the first time I used it without any input on my part. Updating other routers I have used has been something of a challenge.

· The LEDs on the front are easy to understand and let you know what the router is doing

· You can attach a USB drive to it that becomes available on your network

· It has something called WPS which is a function that works with WPS enabled devices to make it very easy to set up a secure network. I have not used this as I do not have any WPS enabled devices but it seems to me to be a good thing for people who have trouble with WPA passwords and the rigmarole in setting up a secure network.

· It has an easy to use back up function that makes it simple to re-set the router.

· There are many other things that I have not fully explored like WDS, QoS and traffic monitoring.

There is a good review here at CNET http://www.cnet.com.au/netgear-rangemax-dual-band-wireless-n-gigabit-router-wndr3700-339298270.htm

I note that CNET also found the 5GHz performance not so good and they also criticised the speed of data transfer rate of the “Ready Share USB Storage Access”.

I agree with their assessment about the 5GHz speed (See note above)but I conducted my own test of the data transfer speed for a USB attached HDD.

I used a 372MB Video Podcast file on my computer’s HDD and an external USB HDD.

· First test is a transfer from Computer HDD to USB HDD when the USB HDD is attached directly to the computer – TIME 15 seconds

· Second with the USB HDD attached to my Belkin Network USB Hub – TIME 1 min 36 seconds

· Third with the USB HDD attached to the WNDR3700 Router. – TIME 3 minutes and 24 seconds

This confirms CNET’s tests and comments. CNET gives the WNDR3700 a rating 7.3 out of 10 and users give it 7.7 0ut of 10.

I would give it 8 out of 10.  9 out of 10

Pros – everything I have mentioned above

Cons – The signal strength of the 5GHz Wi-Fi drops off quickly over relatively short distances but this is offset by excellent 2.4GHz performance. Data transfer rate of the “Ready Share USB Storage Access” is slow but I will not be using this feature and, in any case, I did not know it had this function before I bought it. I will continue to use my Belkin Network USB Hub which itself is a bit slow compared with a direct connection.

Summary

Excellent router with the only 2 1 negatives mentioned above. If your Xbox 360 or similar 802.11 N 5GHz enabled device is within a reasonable range of the router I would not hesitate to recommend it.

I note that the Netgear site has a “coming soon” WNR 3500L Gigabit model which appears to be the same as the WNDR3700 but without the 5GHz. However the specs for this one do not mention the “Multiple SSID” with a “Guest” network and, if this is the case, I would recommend getting the WNDR3700 just for this excellent feature even if you have no current use for the 5GHz band.

Furthermore, the cost of routers has dropped substantially. I paid AUD$235 which is not too bad considering I paid $150 for a DI624 four years ago. You can get it on line for around AUD$200 but I like to support my local blokes. They help me out a lot with free advice and general help.