NETGEAR WNHDEB111-100NAS Wireless N Access Point
by Netgear
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Our Price: $149.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of NETGEAR WNHDEB111-100NAS Wireless N Access Point
Customer Review: Streams HD to the PS3 perfectly!!
Summary: 5 Stars
You will absolutely be happy with the speed of this unit. I have it going through two walls and into an enclosed entertainment center and it is still fast as heck. I can easily stream HD videos with DTS audio to my PS3 using PS3 Media Server a free program.Customer Review: Wonderful!
Summary: 5 Stars
A great product - works extremely well. I get 100% connection strength from my two access points joining my PC to my XBOX.Customer Review: WPS was a waste, but up and running quickly
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this bridge/access point with a NetGear WNDR3300. I was formerly using an AirLink101 and Belkin router on the G-band of Wifi. I decided once I started streaming video and music to my XBOX360, while playing on-line multiplayer games, that an upgrade was needed to resolve lag.
First, my iMac screams now. Before, even though the iMac was inches from the Belkin router and I have a cable modem, there was always a bit of a pause for common websites with good servers (Yahoo, Google, etc). The first benefit of this upgrade is there is NO pause on those pages now. Secondly, I turned on full encryption and left the NAT up for my game and it was lag free. I have yet to stream audio while playing.
The WPS auto detect and configure feature didn't work for me, but it may be because I didn't completely follow their instructions correctly. For example, they say to connect the WNHDEB111 to the WNDR3300 __BEFORE__ turning it on. I read that instruction after having already turned it on while not connected. In essence, I wasted 90 minutes fooling with the auto-config before just doing what I planned on doing manually all along.
So, here is what I did.
1. Write down my MAC. I have a cable modem with Cox, who in the past locked accounts to a MAC address. Meaning, if you changed computers hooked up to the cable modem, you would have to call them to reset. Routers have a MAC clone feature to avert this inconvenience. I went into my OLD router and wrote down the "WAN MAC Address".
2. Turn off old Router.
3. Hook laptop up to new router (WNDR3300) with Cat5 cable and turned on the new router. Once laptop was up, manually configured it to 192.168.1.10 and entered "192.168.1.1" in Internet Explorer to hit the router's config page. I didn't use the router's provided CD at all.
4. Configured router with MAC written down on step 1 (it's the last option for configuring WAN, "Use provided MAC"), turned on WPA2 + WPA (whatever the last option is) and put in a "passphase". After configuring the WAN MAC, the router reboots automatically and I also connected it to the cable modem at this point.
5. Turn on iMac, let it self-discover the networks. The iMac (as well as Dell Laptop which later had it's WiFi turned on) will see TWO networks. It will see the N and G networks, which are easily identifiable by their default name given by NetGear. Even if you change the network name on the Router, you still saw Netgear...G and NetGear N. I just clicked on "N" and entered my passphrase.
6. Just to double check step #5, turned on Dell laptop, selected "N" network on Wireless Utility (under control panel, and often an icon on the lower right corner where your time is).
7. Surfed a little on both computers to just make sure connectivity was ok.
8. Switch NetGear WNHDEB111 Wireless AP/Bridge from auto to "Bridge" mode. I know what I needed was a bridge, so after fooling with APS this is what ended up working.
9. Connect laptop to NetGear WNHDEB111 Wireless AP/Bridge and reboot both. Put in the config disk that comes with the NetGear WNHDEB111 Wireless AP/Bridge. This is a critical step because the utility that launches on the disk will find the NetGear WNHDEB111 Wireless AP/Bridge, even though it's on a different subnet.
10. The application will scan, find the NetGear WNHDEB111 Wireless AP/Bridge, and then say, "Would you like to change the IP?". I said yes and manually told it an IP address within the range of the WNDR3300 Router, "192.168.1.20".
11. Go through the manual configuration pages for the wireless security and enter the passphrase you used to configure the WNDR3300. Also, using a static IP didn't seem to work (it did on the Belkin/Airlink combo), and so I ended up being forced to using DHCP to configure the WNHDEB111 IP/Subnet/Gateway.
12. Rebooted everything (yeah, probably not necessary but this way I know after a power outage/restoral everything will come up clean), and double checked laptop physically connected (Ethernet cable, with WiFi turned off) could surf and resolve its own IP address from DHCP server.
13. Unplug NetGear WNHDEB111 Wireless AP/Bridge and walk over to XBOX360 to install. Plugged in power, and Ethernet. Turned on XBOX360 and changed to "Automatic" network configuration (IP/Sub/Gateway) since again, static IPs didn't work. SIDENOTE: My Belkin seemed to work ok with static IPs that hadn't been assigned by the router's DHCP, but the NetGear router doesn't seem to tolerate it, even with the NAT filter turned off.
14. Ran network tests (XBOX360 will force you to do this), and then played a few games of Gears of War 2 lag free.
A few notes to add. When I tried assigning the XBOX360 as a DMZ, the 360 instantly complained about moderate NAT filtering. This is even with strict NAT filtering turned off. It also seemed unhappy when I turned off UPnp. Universal Plug and Play is a notoriously "dirty" feature to leave on because it creates a lot of unnecessary traffic to support auto-discovery. I don't commonly connect new wireless devices and need them to auto config, so I had wanted to turn it off. I tried playing with UPnP off and on, as well as DMZs assigned and not assigned, while also playing with NAT filter on and off. It was nearing the 2 hour point since the total upgrade began and I had friends waiting to play online so I cut it short with the final configuration being: NAT Strict Filter off, UPnp On, and no DMZ assigned to the XBOX360.
This evening I will be streaming music while playing and so we'll see. I also haven't verified the additional range over G yet. I have a pool in the backyard and the old network barely worked after going outside, and was dead before the pool. I will also test the range.
One very nice feature on the WNDR3300 is that if you push the big blue button in the middle for two seconds, it turns off the LEDs showing which internal antennas are getting the strongest signal. So unless you really enjoy obnoxiously blue, bright LEDs creating a Disco in your room, you'll be pushing it everytime you reboot the router. Yes, everytime it reboots the lights default to on. Nice! :)
Customer Review: Great. Fewer wires...more footprints...Hmmm...
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Anyone who has had the *pleasure* of setting up a wireless network with a Netgear router will probably have a bit of reluctance about jumping into the fray again with another product from that manufacturer but this kit is at the other end of the spectrum, as long as you ignore the supporting material.
These little boxes which by the way, offer a nice contrast to the Netgear 834B router (I'm into symmetry in my work area) have a great deal of flexibility and utility, even if streaming video and gaming are not priorities. I have one unit configured as an access point linked by Ethernet to my router and the other unit installed two floors below as a bridge via Ethernet to another desktop. My primary PC has Vista; the secondary employs XP Pro and both work nearly flawlessly with these units. I also have a laptop with a wireless adapter and thus far, I haven't found any dead areas anywhere in the house. I have noticed a slight reduction in processing speed on the XP desktop compared to a hardwired connection directly to a cable modem but for most applications, and I would surmise home-based users, the difference will not be significant. The units communicate under 802.11n draft standards and are backward compatible. The documentation claims speeds up to 270Mbps but since my wireless adapter is under the 802.11g standard, I can only accept the representations. I also tested the bridge capability on a digital cable DVR via Ethernet and I was able to identify the box on the network but that's not a use that is critical to me at present.
The kit comes with two access/bridge units, two power adapters, two Ethernet cables and a setup CD. The setup wizard is where any problems, you may incur will commence. The units have to be configured for the individual network but the configuration assistant interface makes it more difficult than it has to be. Each unit has a unique security pin that has to be recorded for the network but each unit can be hooked up by Ethernet to a router and configured as access points rather than trying to initially install one as a bridge. There is a switch on the back of each unit that allows selection of AP, bridge or auto. If a unit is set to auto, once it is in place, it will determine functionality based on the devices in communication with it. That said, configuration on the router login site can be accomplished in one of three ways: (1) By push button, (2) by entry of the security pin or, (3) the units can be powered up and discovered under the wireless network device manager. A manual in PDF format can also be found on the setup CD.
Any upgrades to firmware can be automatically downloaded when the user signs on to the website. I noticed another reviewer apparently encountered some difficulty with customized security designations but in my case I had already established a security-enabled network with my Netgear router so my pre-established security keys were automatically transferred. Supposedly, these units are compatible with most routers. As noted my system is already under the Netgear platform so I can't address the validity of that pronouncement.
Customer Review: Does not penetrate walls well. Updated
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this kit to send HD video from my computer to my TV media device. It has adequate bandwidth and worked out of the box, but I do not get a strong signal from the main floor to the basement of my house, a distance of about 25 feet. There are a couple of walls as well as the floor, and the basement ceiling has metal duct work and pipes above the plasterboard, so I am probably lucky to penetrate all that. I used a laptop to indicate wireless signal strength, and spent a couple of hours orienting each device for the best signal. Now I get a level that varies from 50% to 70%, and that works reliably for HD at 720p. I have not been able to send 1080i over the link without momentary stops and starts in the audio and video; however the link never breaks connection and never needs resetting. It seems to just limit the bandwidth as the signal strength goes lower.
I bought a third WNHDE 111 to connect to another computer, and than link has never been interrupted since I installed it over a month ago. It has always worked well. I had previously used a Linksys G router that was interrupted once or twice a day, and it had to be reinstated manually using the "repair" function in the Windows wireless software. It was my wife's computer in the kitchen, so I had to fix it!
I still have the wireless G system up, and it works well around the house with a third computer, a laptop, but it never gave a reliable signal for my wife's computer in the kitchen; and it would not carry the HD video for the TV. I also use that old G router to connect the ethernet from my main computer to the WNHDE 111.
I recommend this device if you don't have too many walls and floors to penetrate. I am a retired electronics engineer, and I assure everyone that the higher the frequency, the poorer the penetration, but the more bandwidth and the more freedom from interference.
Update: After 7 months, I have better results. With some tweaking of the settings (set the Channel Width to 20 MHz, turn off the "Broadcast SSID", and lower Beacon Period to 50 msec) I can now stream 25 Mbps HD video through all the walls. I think the main problem was that the auto 20/40 Channel Width was trying to run at 40 and was not successful, sometimes switching between 20 and 40. When I reduced the channel width, I got an increase in signal strength. I can now stream 1080i HD for hours without any problem.
Jim