Home > Consumer Reviews > Netgear DG834G 54Mbps Wireless ADSL2+ Modem Firewall Router with 4-port 10/100 switch

I do not see why people are saying this is hard to setup. I bought this to replace my Speedtouch 330 USB modem and to be able to network computers a lot easier.

I bought this along with a Netgear WG511 PCMCIA card, a few months ago and I have had no problems. The router did become faulty, but Netgear replaced it free of charge under the 90 day warranty.

I have BT Yahoo! Broadband with 2 PC's and my Xbox (for Xbox Live) connecting via wired connections to it, and a laptop on wireless.

I would say that within 10 minutes all was up and running. And te longest process of the setup was installing the drivers and software for the laptop.

All you need to do for wired connections is configure your ethernet card to TCP/IP (don't worry, this is a lot more straight forward than you might think).

1) For a computer running on Windows XP you need to open up the network connections and right click on the connection that you are connecting through.
2) Right click on this and select proporties, and then slect Internet ProtocolTCP/IP from the list, and proporties of this.
3) in the window that opens, you want to make sure that both IP and DNS are set to automatic.
4) Apply all the settings and you should be able to connect to the router.
5) Open internet explorer and type in the address bar http://192.168.0.1 Then type in the defualt username: admin and password: passsword to enter the router setup.
6) The router will now be able to automatically detect your internet settings and all that is required is to enter your username and password for your internet service and the rest is done.
7) When it has done this, click connect and you will be able to access the internet.

If you require wireless, this is enabled by default, so any wireless card should be able to detect your network.

I hope this helps anyone with any problems, the setup leaflet provided outlines most of this as well.

Believe me, this process will take no more than 5 mins and you will be on the internet a lot quicker than you thought.

As I mentioned before, i use this router for Xbox Live, so anyone wanting this for Live go for it. I have never had a single problem with it, once you have set it up, you plug in your xbox and it will connect instantly.

On a final note, those that are experiencing problems with this, AOL broadband is known for being difficult to work with and network. My recommendation would either be BT Yahoo! Broadband because of the good costomer support and recent price drops however be aware that for heavy users, as of sometime in 2005, BT are introducing bandwidth capping of 15gb/month for the 512kb service and 30GB/month for the 1mb service. For the average user however, this should not pose any problems.

Hope this helped!!

First the unit I received was defective. (Amazon were great, got a replacement within 7 days.) Installed belkin wireless cards and then the troubles started. Belkin blamed Netgear, and visa-versa. Hours spent on the phone to kindly Belkin staff and rude-as-hell, condescending Netgear support.

Finally I bought Netgear cards, again problems. The latest card, Netgear WG311GE, did not work with the DG834G. More aggravation, more hours of rude 'tutting' as the support guy came to the conclusion that I needed the previous 'Netgear WG311'. Netgear then replaced them.

Installed the 'WG311', loaded the software and 5 minutes later I was up and running and have been now for 2 months - no problems.

Great kit, so long as it works first time, because their support staff are 'orrible!

Does exactly what it says on the tin. ADSL modem, router, 10/100 switch, firewall, and wireless access point in one sleek little UFO shaped box.

Very easy to set up - I printed out 19 pages of instructions on setting up a router from my ISP's website, but the Netgear DG834G configured itself in a few seconds! All I had to do was plug all the connections in, install the setup software and drivers from the accompanying CD, and type in my ISP user name and password.

I also bought a Netgear WG511 wi-fi card for my wife's laptop, and that was even easier to set up - it automatically detected the wireless connection and set itself up. Transmission speeds are consistently 100% (54mbps) from anywhere in the house.

The only problem I had was caused by a new digital cordless phone set that I stupidly installed the same day. A phone call would crash the ADSL modem in the DG834G, but an additional microfilter solved the problem.

Once you're up and running, I'd definitely recommend changing the router setup password, restricting connections by MAC address, changing the routers SSID name, and preventing it from broadcasting it's SSID name - all very easy to do with the setup utility. If you're worried about sensitive data being transmitted, invoke the 128 bit WEP encryption too.

I'd go as far as saying that the Netgear DG834G can avert a divorce - now that we can share our ADSL connection wirelessly!

Just a word to praise Amazon also - I ordered a lot of kit over the Christmas/New Year period on the Free delivery offer, and all of it arrived within 2 working days of my orders.

I had a non wireless router for 3 months working from home, and wanted to be able to work form other rooms in the house and in the garden. So I bought this.

I plugged it in, connected it to a pc to configure it, within 10 minutes I had my laptop connected via wireless.

My partner and I work from different rooms wirelessly, lots of time this year I have managed to work in the garden, with excellent reception. (The router is in the front upstairs room, I am in the back garden)

Its been perfect, not a single problem for 3 months.

Speed is good, security is good. Only my partner and me can connect.

I have even attached an old PC and connected the printer to it, so that I have a printer server, and I am not technical.

Excellent product. Not sure why you would pay more for others.

Now, I've always been worried about the thought of setting up a wireless router and network. In fact, I've always been doubly worried as I have the added disadvantage of being an AOL Broadband user.

However, I needn't have worried. Setting up the Netgear in conjunction with the software downloaded from the AOL site was a breeze. I was honestly up and running in under ten minutes.

One minor grouch (with AOL, not with the router itself) was that AOL didn't state anywhere how to get into the wireless router settings to change and customise the privacy settings. I actually found out about that by reading the reviews on here.

Five stars for Netgear, three stars for AOL.