The Netgear N150 Wireless Modem Router DGN1000 is a simple ADSL2+ modem/router with an 802.11n wireless access point.
It also has four 10/100 Ethernet ports, a built-in firewall, parental filters and the Netgear N150 Wireless Modem Router DGN1000 even has physical buttons for controlling the state of the wireless network.
It isn't a full-blown 802.11n wireless router (its connection speed tops out at 150 megabits per second rather than 300Mbs) and the Netgear N150 Wireless Modem Router DGN1000 only has one antenna, but it's a useful wireless router if all you want to do is share an ADSL2+ connection across a handful of devices in an apartment or small house.
Its wireless networking speed won't make it the talk of the town, and this was shown in our 2m and 10m range tests, in which the Netgear N150 Wireless Modem Router DGN1000 router recorded average transfer rates of 3.55 megabytes per second and 2.98MBps respectively. Its no match for a high-end router such as Netgear's own DGND3300 oor Belkin's N+ (F5D8635au4A), but you can use it for streaming video to a device like the the Netgear Digital Entertainer EVA 8000 as long as the distance between the units is not more than 10m and you aren't streaming HD files.
The modem in the Netgear N150 Wireless Modem Router DGN1000 performed very well from our test location, which uses an ADSL2+ connection. We averaged a download speed of 16.595Mbps and an upload speed of 845 kilobits per second using PC World's broadband speed test. The download speed is even better than the one we achieved with Netgear's DGND3300, but the upload speed was a little sluggish.
Setting up the Netgear N150 Wireless Modem Router DGN1000 modem was a simple task: all we had to do was enter our username and password. The modem detected all the connection settings on its own. When you first install the modem and log in to its interface, it will check for updates to its firmware — it does this even before you get a chance to configure it. Just cancel this and perform the upgrade after you've set everything up. It's a good feature for users who don't feel comfortable manually upgrading the router's firmware.
The upgrade assistant looks like this when it's trying to download a new firmware version. If it takes more than a few minutes, you might have to refresh your browser window and try again (as we did).
Once the file has been found, the upgrade process will start. Don't interrupt the router during this process.
When it's finished, this cryptic message will appear telling you to look at the LEDs on the router. Hit OK to go back into the router's web configuration page.
If you're a parent, you might appreciate the easy to use keyword and URL filtering, which can be used to block access to any sites or search terms that you don't want your kids to be exposed to. Users who try to access a prohibited site (or a site that features a flagged keyword) will end up with a big notice on their screen telling them that access has been denied.
It's not subtle.
If you set up a static IP network, you can add your own PC as a trusted computer so it won't be affected by the filters (but don't tell your kids that). If you want to be super-sneaky, you can even check the Netgear N150 Wireless Modem Router DGN1000 router's log to see if anyone has been searching for the terms you've flagged.
While the parental filters are easy to implement, the forwarding of ports (if you want to efficiently use BitTorrent, for example) is quite the opposite. Port forwarding can be found in the 'Firewall Rules' section of the web interface, and you can only add rules that are already in the 'Service' drop-down list. In order to forward a port that's not on the list, you must first visit the 'Services' part of the Web interface to enter it, then go back to the Firewall Rules to add it for your designated IP address.
Apart from that, the web interface is easy to use overall and it's the same layout as every other Netgear router we've seen over the last few years; if you've used a Netgear before, you'll know the score. Other useful features of the router include support for Dynamic DNS service (DynDNS.org), one-touch wireless networking security, and a button so you can switch off the wireless portion of the router when you're not using it.
All up, the N150 Wireless Modem Router DGN1000 is a simple ADSL2+ modem/router with a nice physical design (although its green LEDs are too bright for our liking) and it can be wall mounted. We think it's perfect for an apartment or small house; it's useful for distributing an ADSL2+ connection, as well as for basic video streaming, and it has effective keyword and URL filters that will make your kids hate you, so use them wisely.
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Comments
Tim Howsley said: I replaced my old Netgear virgin router type G to this N version After weeks of talking to virgin I am now about to change ISP The reason is this useless black box It constantly goes offline I can no longer pick up a signal in my bedroom this routeruseless
Bigboy said: this peripheral is a joke and totally unfit for purpose it has been adopted by the two most notorious large scale BB suppliers in UK orange and Virgin because it is cheap well its worth exactly what they paid for it ie very little do not buy and do yr research before being given this by an isp
Samhamilton said: I bought a DGN100 as my previous netgear router was failing intermittently It was about 5yrs old Because I use a VPN I had to change the LAN address from the default 19216801 to 19216811 when I did that I could not set the router to use the OPEN DNS servers as it cleared all the settings when applying I had to reset to factory defaults and enter the OPEN DNS servers and apply before changing the LAN address it still did not show the OPEN DNS servers on the basic settings page but they were set OK on the router status page
simon ramsey said: had same problem you have to change router to LLC based multipexing and change adsl setting to ADSL2
Falsa said: once per hour it lost connection with ADSL Different product in same installation did notThis is a mean value some days it lost adsl connection TWICE per hour
Joao Gabriel said: I just got this modemrouter and is the worst Ive had so far I step 3 meters away and my signal is gone Cant connect any wireless device if I am not closer enough If I get one or 2 bars in my device the link speed varies 1 to 10 Mbps
Richardchartley said: Does not connect to my dell with talktalk