The DGND3700 is a rather plain-looking router, but its appearance doesn’t do justice to the hardware in contains. As well as all the usual aspects of premium wireless routers, such as supporting both 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless networks, the ability to work with both cable and DSL internet connections, Gigabit Ethernet and two USB ports at the back, it provides plenty of ways to use all the technology it offers.
For example, it has a built-in DLNA server, allowing streaming of music or video from attached USB storage to any other device that supports it, including certain televisions. You can choose to share files as a local network share, or over the internet via FTP or secure HTTP. This works perfectly well, but due to the limited scope for editing security settings in the built-in software, we’d prefer an FTP or Web server running on a dedicated computer when sharing files online.
Netgear has used the same frame-based design for its on-board software interface for years, and it looks more suited to a budget router than one that costs this much. Nevertheless there are lots of options to configure the network, with the usual port forwarding, QOS settings and firewall, and the addition of content filtering. This isn’t as advanced as the whitelists DrayTek uses on its Vigor routers, but you can still block specific domains and keywords for some computers, while allowing them for others
The DGND3700 is quite expensive, considering some of these extras are already present in cheaper models. However its performance is what sets it apart, beaten only by the more expensive Fritz!box and DrayTek Vigor. At short range, our file transferred across at 75Mbps while at long range it achieved 30Mbps.
This added performance just about makes it worth the asking price, although given the choice, we’d prefer to pay less and forgo a few of the router’s features.
Comments
tla said: DGND3700V2 this modem router does not support IPoA protocol so if your connection is ADSL with static IP probably will not be helpful because most ISPs use this protocol
Hans Bool said: I received my Netgear DGND3700 yesterday and a bit anxiousinstalling amp setting it up as over the years Ive not come across anymodem or router and Ive worked on many that installed without a hitch - exceptperhaps the crappy modems that the various ISPs are giving their customersAlso mostly the setting them up eg like their firewall if they have oneis a nightmare as the manuals usually speak a different language that onlyrocket scientists can understand J The other issue withpurchasing a 3rd party modem andor router often is non-compatibility andorthe lack of support from ISPs if the gadget is not on their supported list ofancient modems and routersAnyway in every aspect that I looked at so far the Netgear isbrilliant - its big but I love the design and looks great with all my otherblack hardware If folks are going to whinge about the finger print attractingglossy surface once setup how often would you touch it The unit can stand updefault lie flat or hung on a wall with the stand removed 2 Year warrantygives me the feeling that Netgear has confidence in their own product Installing it was very straight forward going through varioussettings quite simple with clear instructions explanations that one can understandand recommendations - before I knew I was online A great feature is that inthe router setup program it looks for the latest firmware and installs it flawlesslySetting up security was also quite simple and even withoutfiddling with the build in hardware firewall - upon running my tests - I wasinvisible from the internet and in stealth mode Both on my Ethernet wired PCand wireless on the laptop transfer speeds are significantly better now -meaning I now actually can take advantage of Bigponds ADLS 2 which I wasnot able to with Telstras own supplied modem and 3rd party D-Link 615router Next I played an online High Definition YouTube music clip onthe laptop 24 GHz Band 80211n and walked about 40 meters into the backyardand then all around the house outside - no degradation in quality watchingthe clip and at no point even buffering Then I gave setting up a home network a go - something I triedmany times before admittedly not in Win7 yet but given up as seeminglycomplicated and too time consuming to work out Within less than 1 hour thenetwork was working and now my laptop wireless and PC wired can see andspeak to each other This saves me a lot of time in synchronising thetwo Theres much more this gadget has to offer which Ill work outand test in the near future As far as one can get ecstatic about a piece ofhardware I am in awe with this modemrouter - the Netgear is just totallyawesome and I give it 1010 It truly is the modemrouter combo of the futureat a great price techbuycomau and a bargain compared to much more expensivemodem and routersSome users are reporting dropping outs whichoften is their ISPs fault and not a flaw in the Netgear apart from firmwarethat needs updating which Netgear has I never use my ISP IP addressesbut configure my modemrouter to OpenDNS settings and in case of a dropouthardly ever since I started using the free service and so far none with my newNetgear over the past couple of days I use the OpenDNS Dynamic IP updater client Ive used theexcellent free OpenDNS service for years - all information and theupdater client can be found here httpwwwopendnscom No need to say I cant recommend the Netgear DGND 3700 highlyenough
Hans Bool said: Hah apart from lacking compatibilitybuying Apple stuff insanely high prices they are far from perfect in bringing a mature product on the market Remember the IPhone with poor antenna placement that affected millions Or their latest IPad lacking 4G connectivity although advertised that it has
Hans Bool said: Hah apart from lacking compatibility with Apple stuff insanely high prices they are far from perfect in bringing a mature product on the market Remember the IPhone with poor antenna placement that affected millions Or their latest IPad lacking 4G connectivity although advertised that it has
Stefano Gatto said: Bill145 Thank you Ill refresh the firmware once more and see how it goesVs29125Yes this is what I meant its amanagement decisionto release a product So management is what makes the difference between Apple and Netgear Professionalism and honesty of the engineers are the same both sidesBesides their hard work management from both companies decide to start selling when products reach differentlevels ofmaturity
Bill145 said: The solution to the connection dropping was a beta file that you could obtain from netgears 2nd line engineers The firmware has since been updated and all is well I received the beta file 7 weeks ago and the updated firmare one week ago and neither have dropped connection
Vs29125 said: Wasnt it rumored that an engineer warned about the antenna issue and was ignored And dont talk about ignorance in battery issues It simply is not possible if Apple is so conscious about Quality as you claimed To release a product most companies do internal testing and sometimes external testing as well Issues like these would definitely crop up It is only a management decision to release the product or not
Stefano Gatto said: Perfection does not exist even if some get close to itI think the main difference between your Apples example and Netgears one I mentioned above is that the latter knows that their firmware is NOT working as they start selling it whereas who can claim Apple knew about the antenna and the battery issues
Asdf said: Yes you are right Antennagate last year batterygate this year do it like Apple
Stefano Gatto said: A counter example is Apple Anything they release is only when it works especially from the software perspective And this is the reason of their success
Stefano Gatto said: I have go exactly the same experience with other Netgear products over the past years since 2003 The last experience was WN2000RPT which was dropping Internet connection every few hours Later on a better firmware was released and now it looses this connection every week or so I still lost 3 monthsIt looks like Netgear cant wait to put on the market products for which they did not finalize a proper firmware I think they are perfectly aware of the issues but cant afford retain from starting to sell immediately as soon the hardware is ready a bit like NokiaWhen will people understand that software and hardware go hand in hand
budda said: Everywhere I look this router is getting good reviews from websites but absolute crap reviews from real world users - especially about ADSL connection drops and poor Netgear supportSadly sounds likesomethingto avoid for a while longer until firmware is improved -
BobW66 said: Ibought one of these modemrouters from Amazon recently It installed OK but then it started dropping my ADSL broadband connection every few hours and had to be manually reset I contacted the Netgear Technical Support Helpline and was recommended to try changing some settings but this made no improvementAfter a few days I gave up and returnedthemodem routerto Amazon for a refund After reading some of theUser Reviews on the Amazon website it appears that I am not the only one who experienced such problems