Netgear no more

What was I thinking????

I used to be a big Netgear fan...thought they made great products..and read
great reviews.....and I recently made my second Netgear purchase ( WGR614,
WG511 and WG 311), but after weeks of trying to get the wireless portion to
work, I have given up.

There appears to be no technical support (other than useless automated
messages), so I have no choice but to return everything and eat the
restocking fee ( fricken rebates were processed so I had already cut the UPC
codes off the box- dumb move during a 60 minutes period lapse of judgment
when all was working.)

So my question is , what manufacturer is next on the list? Are DLINK or
LINKSYS or SMC any better...any worse??? Recommendations please! I need at
least 4 wired ports plus 2 wireless ports..

And what about 8 port router? ....I'm half tempted to give up on wireless
completely (I now believe all the hype is just that - hype - this stuff does
not work anywhere close to what is advertised - I have no trouble at all
with wired connections and nothing but trouble with wireless). I'm thinking
perhaps I'll spend the necessary dollars and have those hard to get to
places professionally wired...it will be cheaper in the end rather than
dealing with all this stress!!!

Marvin

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 00:47:12 GMT, "Marvin G" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>What was I thinking????
>
>I used to be a big Netgear fan...thought they made great products..and read
>great reviews.....and I recently made my second Netgear purchase ( WGR614,
>WG511 and WG 311), but after weeks of trying to get the wireless portion to
>work, I have given up.

I've had a similar problem with Netgear wireless products.

>There appears to be no technical support (other than useless automated
>messages),

Apparently, with the auto replies it does say (buried in the text
somewhere so that you are likely to miss it) that if the auto reply
does not answer your question to just resend the message using the
'reply button'.

I've had a bit of luck with this but 'technical support' have not been
able to resolve my problem.

>so I have no choice but to return everything

I'm on the verge of that.

I've got a Netgear Wireless Access Point and Laptop card, the laptop
card keeps giving itself a different MAC address every time I start
the computer so I am unable to utilise the MAC Access security
facility.

>So my question is , what manufacturer is next on the list? Are DLINK or
>LINKSYS or SMC any better...any worse??? Recommendations please! I need at
>least 4 wired ports plus 2 wireless ports..

In the UK D-Link appear to have a good reputation, but then I thought
that of Netgear.

What I will probably do is go for one who does NOT have a premium rate
phone support number.

Geoff Lane

I've never used Netgear and actually have a hardwired
network at home and work. I rely too much on high speeds
so wireless just doesn't cut it for me. But I have a
friend who set up a wireless net at home and used Linksys.
He doesn't know a whole lot about networking and managed
to get it up and running with little trouble. I also use
Linksys switches in my networks and have had no problems
with them. Not sure if this helps, but thought I'd share
my experiences.

Mark Purick



>-----Original Message-----
>What was I thinking????
>
>I used to be a big Netgear fan...thought they made great
products..and read
>great reviews.....and I recently made my second Netgear
purchase ( WGR614,
>WG511 and WG 311), but after weeks of trying to get the
wireless portion to
>work, I have given up.
>
>There appears to be no technical support (other than
useless automated
>messages), so I have no choice but to return everything
and eat the
>restocking fee ( fricken rebates were processed so I had
already cut the UPC
>codes off the box- dumb move during a 60 minutes period
lapse of judgment
>when all was working.)
>
>So my question is , what manufacturer is next on the
list? Are DLINK or
>LINKSYS or SMC any better...any worse??? Recommendations
please! I need at
>least 4 wired ports plus 2 wireless ports..
>
>And what about 8 port router? ....I'm half tempted to
give up on wireless
>completely (I now believe all the hype is just that -
hype - this stuff does
>not work anywhere close to what is advertised - I have no
trouble at all
>with wired connections and nothing but trouble with
wireless). I'm thinking
>perhaps I'll spend the necessary dollars and have those
hard to get to
>places professionally wired...it will be cheaper in the
end rather than
>dealing with all this stress!!!
>
>Marvin
>
>
>.
>

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 06:18:57 -0800, "Mark"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I've never used Netgear and actually have a hardwired
>network at home and work.
> But I have a
>friend who set up a wireless net at home and used Linksys.
>He doesn't know a whole lot about networking and managed
>to get it up and running with little trouble. I also use
>Linksys switches in my networks and have had no problems
>with them. Not sure if this helps, but thought I'd share
>my experiences.

I think Linksys have a good reputation and it is nice to hear from
satisfied users.

Thanks,

Geoff Lane