NetGear WGT624 Wireless Router

I bought the WGT624 (WGT624 v2 to be exact) because I was very impressed with the Netgear MR814 (802.11b - 11 Mbps) I had purchased for my daughter to take to college. While I was setting the MR814 up, I noticed that the throughput on the Netgear's wired switch was noticeably faster than the Linksys BEFSR41W (also 802.11b - 11 Mbps) wired switch was. The wireless range was better as well, but the wireless speed was roughly the same. Her MR814 continued to work as steady as a rock, so when I decided to upgrade to 802.11g, I went with the Netgear WGT624 and two matching WG511T cards.

With the first release of the firmware (which was only one of five or six releases over the next year), I could only get reliable file transfer (of larger files) if I locked the router (and therefore the cards) into Netgear's proprietary Super G (108 Mbps) mode. Since that's the mode I wanted to use anyway, that wasn't a problem for me at first. However, since the card is locked at that speed, I wasn't able to roam as far away as I would have liked. (The network would otherwise step down the speed of the network from 108 to 54, 48, 36, etc as the signal gets weaker due to the distance between the WGT624 and WG511T.)

A later revision of the firmware for the WGT624 and drivers for the WG511T seemed to fix the problem that caused me to have to lock the wireless portion in Super G mode. I was able to use Auto 108 (which will communicate at B, G, and Super G as needed/possible). Now, I could roam as far away in my house as I can get. I still occasionally had the network fail to transfer files (but both large and small files seemed affected whereas only large files seemed to cause problems before). The network connection would drop for about 20-30 seconds and then re-establish, but not before the network transfer timed out.

I later upgraded to version 4.2.4 of the firmware and a beta version of the drivers (v3.8 or 3.9) hoping it might solve that occasional dropping of the network during transfers. Instead, I ended up with a router that rebooted every few minutes (the lights would go through the boot sequence as if the router had just been powered up) when I tried to transfer a file. I even had this problem just browsing pages over the web, which was something new (and bad). This happened with both the wireless and wired connections. (The wired connections has always been solid before.) To make matters worse, this version of the firmware could not be downgraded -- or so the Netgear web site said. Trying different drivers for the WG511T had no effect. After a couple weeks of this, I went out and purchased a Linksys WRT54GS and one matching WPC54GS. These have Linksys "Speedbooster" technology, which wasn't as fast as Netgear's Super G, but was reliable from day one. The other downside is that the Linksys' wireless range is much shorter than Netgear's - I would estimate it's nearly half the distance.

About two months after purchasing the Linksys WRT54GS, Netgear came out with firmware version 4.2.6 for the WGT624, which "fixed" the problem with downgrading as well as some other problems, so I decided to give that a try. After the upgrade, I still had the problems with the frequent rebooting. I downgraded back to version 4.1.4, which is the earliest version available on the web. It was still rebooting every few minutes. I finally did a hard reset as a last resort before just going back to the Linksys router. Viola, rebooting problems were gone! I had to re-enter all my network information, but that takes about 5 minutes using the web interface. (As it turns out, I could have downgraded at any time - even with v4.2.4, but I would have had to do a hard reset on the router to return it to factory values. This is done by holding in the reset switch for 10-20 seconds.) Now, I was back to having to lock the cards in 108 Mbps mode. So, I upgraded to 4.1.8 with a hard factory reset. Then I tried 4.1.11. I experienced no reboots and was able to transfer files.

Now, I don't know why I did it, but I decided to try v4.2.4 of the WGT624 firmware again. This is the version where the really nasty rebooting problem surfaced. I did a hard reboot back to factory settings. Re-entered my network info - I am getting pretty fast at that by this time - and wonder of wonders, I was able to browse and transfer files in auto 108 mode with no reboots and no dropped connections. Went to v4.2.6 (the latest), did a hard reboot, and have the same thing. The Netgear WGT624 is now reliable with both the Netgear WG511T and Linksys WPC54GS wireless adapters (at the same time) using the 3.9.0 beta drivers for the WG511T. I think the moral of the story I found was to do a hard reset after upgrading (or downgrading).

I'm now back to using the Netgear WGT624 as my wireless router, and the Linksys WPC54GS will be going off to college next fall. The Linksys WPC54GS router has been much more trouble free, but I like the far greater wireless speed and range of the WGT624. I play with my network all the time, so I'm comfortable with this. If you just want to be able to "set it and forget it," go with the Linksys router. If you go with the Netgear equipment instead, and you get a router/WAP and wireless Ethernet adapter card combination that works reliably, never ever upgrade. Never. For me, it's been a real love-hate relationship. Right now, the Netgear seems to be staying on its medicine, and I can live with it.