DG834PN any good? If not which is best?

Soldato
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I see this M/R/F/S is on OCUK this week only.

Is is any good? I'm looking to buy a new one but I can find wery little info on these forums from people who already have one.

Is there a better one to get?
 
Associate
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Its actually pretty good. I have one and also a Linksys WAG54GX2.

Price wise with the current special offer on the router (which AFAIK is a Netgear promotion which runs until the end of Jan - OcUK are working it a little different to elsewhere though - have a look you'll see what I mean) its a good deal.

Range is better than the DG834GT on which it is based (uses the same Broadcom chipset) although not quite as good as perhaps claimed. Stability is pretty good and everthing seems to work well, although I'd steer clear if you have an Xbox 360 as its been reported to cause the DG834PN to play up (its to do with the Xbox constantly searching for new wireless controllers - it it doesn't even need to be connected to the Netgear)

Choosing between the DG834 & Linksys WAG54GX2 I would go for the Linksys for a few reasons:
1. It uses the Airgo "True" MIMO chipset which is proper MIMO - the Netgear kind of hacks it with an older Atheros Super G chipset and the Video 54 Rangemax antenna tech. Range is a lot better than the Netgear even without matching wireless cards.
2. The Linksys has very good QoS support, the Netgear has none. Pretty important if you are going to be doing any VOIP
3. Linksys supports VPN endpoints, the Netgear does not

Major downside to the Linksys though is the very bizarre decision to put a power button on it which means in the event of a power loss it doesn't power itself back up - very daft idea that. It also has no line stats or uptime stats in the web based GUI although they are available through SNMP.

If you don't need these features and bearing the current promotion on the Netgear in mind then it would be a good buy.
 
Soldato
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Thanks, will probably go for the DG834PN, it's £30 cheaper.

Worried about the QoS though. Got my dad a VOIP Linksys phone over xmas....
 
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Vanilla said:
Thanks, will probably go for the DG834PN, it's £30 cheaper.

Worried about the QoS though. Got my dad a VOIP Linksys phone over xmas....
The QoS is only really an issue if using the VOIP at the same time as using the connection heavily for other things - ie if the bandwidth requirements exceed that of your actual connection. Up to that point QoS would make little difference.
 
Soldato
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That's good to hear. I am a bandwidth whore sometimes though. Max upload.

Rarely max download though (8mbit!)

~£70 is a good price. I'm going to sell my WRT54G and my Linksys ADSL2Mue modem to fund the pruchase. I don't feel they work well together as i'm double Nat'd. No way of turning the NAT off on the modem :/
 
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Where did you see the remarks about the xbox 360.
I am looking for a great sub-£100 wireless router/modem which I will hard wire to the pc and then network using the xbox 360 wireless adaptor for playing in another room.
Anyone got any good ideas?
 
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Bodger said:
Where did you see the remarks about the xbox 360.
Netgear's very own forums (a number of people have the problem) and the ADSLGuide forums
Looks like the problem only applies to the DG834PN as other routers have no issues with the Xbox 360.
 
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Bodger said:
Thanks, What else would you opt for, Belkin, D-Link, Linksys or another model from netgear?
Many Thanks
Linksys WAG54GX2 is good. The WAG354G is also reckoned to be pretty good too, although less features (like VPN, QoS) than the WAG54GX2.
Netgear DG834G is pretty stable too
Alternatively Zyxel's are very good as are Dratek's ADSL routers - especially if you want VPN and/or QoS functionality.
Personally I'd avoid Belkin like the plague and I don't have much experience of recent D-Link kit.
 
Soldato
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Anymore people got this new router in use? I went to buy the DG834G and noticed its done away with and this seems to be its replacement.

Its the extra signal range that interests me as the DG834G was crap.
 
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