Netgear DS834G firmware fault

Hello all,

I recently purchased the netgear DG834G wireless broadband router.

I set it up and it worked fine. However, it seems to drop the Internet
connection quite regularily. On one occasion it dropped the connection
and didn't automatically reconnect for (waited for days). In the end I
had to logon to the router and manually reconnect. The firmware was
1.03.00 so I decided to upgrade the firmware to 1.05.00 (the latest).

Everything seemed to work fine but now if I enable WPA-PSK and disable
SSID broadcast my wireless laptop cannot connect (it worked before the
frimware upgrade).

If I enable WPA-PSK and enable SSID broadcast everything works fine.
If I disable WPA-PSK and enable SSID broadcast everything works fine.
But if I enable WPA-PSK and disable SSID broadcast I cannot connect.

I bought a Netgear box because I thought it would be a good quality
piece of kit. I could have bought a router for half the price with
exactly the same functionality from a less well known manufacturer. I
am beginning to wish I had. I cannot recomend this product. Just the
number firmware updates since the product was released seems to
suggest a problem. I wonder if the man in charge of the product really
knows what he is doing.

I have used other Netgear products and they seem to work flawlessly.

I am now in a position where I am going to downgrade the firmware to
1.00.3.00 so that I can get "disable SSID broadcast" and "WPA-PSK" to
work (which I think is a standard configuration type).

Regards,

Bruce.

Bruce wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I recently purchased the netgear DG834G wireless broadband router.
>
> I set it up and it worked fine. However, it seems to drop the Internet
> connection quite regularily. On one occasion it dropped the connection
> and didn't automatically reconnect for (waited for days). In the end I
> had to logon to the router and manually reconnect. The firmware was
> 1.03.00 so I decided to upgrade the firmware to 1.05.00 (the latest).
>
> Everything seemed to work fine but now if I enable WPA-PSK and disable
> SSID broadcast my wireless laptop cannot connect (it worked before the
> frimware upgrade).
>
> If I enable WPA-PSK and enable SSID broadcast everything works fine.
> If I disable WPA-PSK and enable SSID broadcast everything works fine.
> But if I enable WPA-PSK and disable SSID broadcast I cannot connect.
>
> I bought a Netgear box because I thought it would be a good quality
> piece of kit. I could have bought a router for half the price with
> exactly the same functionality from a less well known manufacturer. I
> am beginning to wish I had. I cannot recomend this product. Just the
> number firmware updates since the product was released seems to
> suggest a problem. I wonder if the man in charge of the product really
> knows what he is doing.
>

"the number [of] firmware updates ... seems to suggest a problem"? How
many have there been? I only see 3 on the website.

Out of interest, what exactly can you buy for half the price with the
same functionality? Bearing in mind the cost of the thing would have
been about £70 (taking into account the "free" £30 card that was
included from many places for the last several months)?

Have you tried just going to the 1.04.01 firmware to see if that makes a
difference?


--
[ste]
My Rpoints referral:
http://www.rpoints.com/?ruid=44649

Bruce,

I would not bother to disable SSID broadcast - in security terms it doesn't
buy much at all, and can upset some wireless clients - see numerous previous
posts in this and other wireless groups..

Mike

"Bruce" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Hello all,
>
> I recently purchased the netgear DG834G wireless broadband router.
>
> I set it up and it worked fine. However, it seems to drop the Internet
> connection quite regularily. On one occasion it dropped the connection
> and didn't automatically reconnect for (waited for days). In the end I
> had to logon to the router and manually reconnect. The firmware was
> 1.03.00 so I decided to upgrade the firmware to 1.05.00 (the latest).
>
> Everything seemed to work fine but now if I enable WPA-PSK and disable
> SSID broadcast my wireless laptop cannot connect (it worked before the
> frimware upgrade).
>
> If I enable WPA-PSK and enable SSID broadcast everything works fine.
> If I disable WPA-PSK and enable SSID broadcast everything works fine.
> But if I enable WPA-PSK and disable SSID broadcast I cannot connect.
>
> I bought a Netgear box because I thought it would be a good quality
> piece of kit. I could have bought a router for half the price with
> exactly the same functionality from a less well known manufacturer. I
> am beginning to wish I had. I cannot recomend this product. Just the
> number firmware updates since the product was released seems to
> suggest a problem. I wonder if the man in charge of the product really
> knows what he is doing.
>
> I have used other Netgear products and they seem to work flawlessly.
>
> I am now in a position where I am going to downgrade the firmware to
> 1.00.3.00 so that I can get "disable SSID broadcast" and "WPA-PSK" to
> work (which I think is a standard configuration type).
>
> Regards,
>
> Bruce.

"[ste parker]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> Bruce wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I recently purchased the netgear DG834G wireless broadband router.
> >
> > I set it up and it worked fine. However, it seems to drop the Internet
> > connection quite regularily. On one occasion it dropped the connection
> > and didn't automatically reconnect for (waited for days). In the end I
> > had to logon to the router and manually reconnect. The firmware was
> > 1.03.00 so I decided to upgrade the firmware to 1.05.00 (the latest).
> >
> > Everything seemed to work fine but now if I enable WPA-PSK and disable
> > SSID broadcast my wireless laptop cannot connect (it worked before the
> > frimware upgrade).
> >
> > If I enable WPA-PSK and enable SSID broadcast everything works fine.
> > If I disable WPA-PSK and enable SSID broadcast everything works fine.
> > But if I enable WPA-PSK and disable SSID broadcast I cannot connect.
> >
> > I bought a Netgear box because I thought it would be a good quality
> > piece of kit. I could have bought a router for half the price with
> > exactly the same functionality from a less well known manufacturer. I
> > am beginning to wish I had. I cannot recomend this product. Just the
> > number firmware updates since the product was released seems to
> > suggest a problem. I wonder if the man in charge of the product really
> > knows what he is doing.
> >
>
> "the number [of] firmware updates ... seems to suggest a problem"? How
> many have there been? I only see 3 on the website.
>

That fact that we are up to 1.05.00 suggests there have been at least
5. This is quite a lot for a product of his age. However, I do agree
that it doesn't necessarlily suggest a problem and some of the updates
have been for addional featuires rather than bug fixes.

> Out of interest, what exactly can you buy for half the price with the
> same functionality? Bearing in mind the cost of the thing would have
> been about £70 (taking into account the "free" £30 card that was
> included from many places for the last several months)?
>

Having checked again it looks that the sub £50 models don't include a
modem (which I think is quite misleading when many of them had
ADSL/Cable in the model description).

I actually spent £100 on mine which didn't include a "free" card (I
don't think that offer was on at the time). I bought it in Dixons, but
I could have got it for £90 if I had bought it online. Equivalent
models from other manufactuers were available up to %33 cheaper (not
50% which I had said).

> Have you tried just going to the 1.04.01 firmware to see if that makes a
> difference?

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

I downgraded the firmware to 1.03.00 as I planned.

WPA was enabled and SSID broadcast was disabled and at first I thought
everything worked fine. Then I discovered that the SSID WAS being
broadcast and then astoninglishly I realised that WPA is NOT enabled.
This was inspite of that fact that the these functions were clearly
ticked on the configuration screen. I even unticked them, clicked
apply, then re-ticking them. I also tried powering down the router for
5 minutes. Still the same problem.

This is a serious bug:- The box said it was secured when in actual
fact it was not.

Anyway, for now I have disabled the wireless function of the box so I
can look into it again another time.

Maybe I should not have downgraded the firmware. However, there was
nothing in the documenation or on the website to so say I shouldn't.

I may try 1.04.01. I will keep people updated.

Thanks,

Bruce.

I know it doesn't really add to the security. The reason I wanted to
enable it was that I didn't really want the average Joe to know there
was a wireless network in the area.

However, having read what you said I realise I might now have to
enable it get things working as I want them.

Thanks,

Bruce.


"Mike Ball" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<416c361e$0$10613$(E-Mail Removed)>...
> Bruce,
>
> I would not bother to disable SSID broadcast - in security terms it doesn't
> buy much at all, and can upset some wireless clients - see numerous previous
> posts in this and other wireless groups..
>
> Mike
>
> "Bruce" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I recently purchased the netgear DG834G wireless broadband router.
> >
> > I set it up and it worked fine. However, it seems to drop the Internet
> > connection quite regularily. On one occasion it dropped the connection
> > and didn't automatically reconnect for (waited for days). In the end I
> > had to logon to the router and manually reconnect. The firmware was
> > 1.03.00 so I decided to upgrade the firmware to 1.05.00 (the latest).
> >
> > Everything seemed to work fine but now if I enable WPA-PSK and disable
> > SSID broadcast my wireless laptop cannot connect (it worked before the
> > frimware upgrade).
> >
> > If I enable WPA-PSK and enable SSID broadcast everything works fine.
> > If I disable WPA-PSK and enable SSID broadcast everything works fine.
> > But if I enable WPA-PSK and disable SSID broadcast I cannot connect.
> >
> > I bought a Netgear box because I thought it would be a good quality
> > piece of kit. I could have bought a router for half the price with
> > exactly the same functionality from a less well known manufacturer. I
> > am beginning to wish I had. I cannot recomend this product. Just the
> > number firmware updates since the product was released seems to
> > suggest a problem. I wonder if the man in charge of the product really
> > knows what he is doing.
> >
> > I have used other Netgear products and they seem to work flawlessly.
> >
> > I am now in a position where I am going to downgrade the firmware to
> > 1.00.3.00 so that I can get "disable SSID broadcast" and "WPA-PSK" to
> > work (which I think is a standard configuration type).
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Bruce.