Netgear networking advice

[lloyd]

Having just added a cache card to my Tivo, I'm trying to sort out the networking side. There seems to be some slightly conflicting ideas floating around regarding compatibility of various bits of Netgear kit, so I'm looking for advice and experience of what others are actually using sucessfully.

My existing router is a DG834GT, which my PC connects to via CAT5, and the next door neighbour (aka the fiancee :D ) connects her PC to wirelessly. If I connect the Tivo via a (long) CAT5 cable, then port forwarding etc. all works and I can access bash and tivoweb from an external address (with a rule in place to only allow from the network I manage in the office).

I made the mistake of buying a ME101 :mad: , which seems to be total c**p. Whilst I'm at home I can make use of it, as long as I keep pings going from the PC to the Tivo. I cannot access it via the external web.

I don't want to change the DG834GT.

So I think I have come up with two possible solutions, but before handing over any more of my hard earned cash, wanted to get the opions of the nice people on this list. :)

1. Use a WGE101, instead of the ME101.

or

2. Buy 2 x WG602 access points. Connect one to the Tivo, and the other to the the DG834GT. Sounds like a bit of a sledge hammer to crack a nut, but it may be a solid way to go. These must be v2 or v3 to be able to work in bridge mode.

Many thanks.

[iankb]

I have an old non-wireless Asus router, a Netgear WG602 Access Point, and a Netgear WGE101 Wireless Bridge. They work very well together, but I don't think that you can get the WGE101 anymore. What's worse, the replacement WGE111 is a games adaptor, and I don't know whether it will support more than one device.

[adrianeaton]

I use a WGE101 with DG834GT and it works fine no problems. I think the wge101 has been replaced with the WGE111 now but is probably similar.

[Ian_m]

I use a £32 WRT54G wireless router running Satori 4 in client mode to connect my TiVo to my DG834G access point. Works fine, has a telnet interface as well as web if you feel the need to have an advanced fiddle.

Get Satori (or later Alchemy) from www.linksysinfo.org, load into WRT54G (or GS), select client mode and away you go. Alchemy allows more than one device behind the router.

[frustratedinSC]

Netgear sucks, go with Linksys, you can't go wrong

[noel-pilot]

netgear has always been great for me! very reliable too!! i use the netgear bridge for my tivo, xbox and anything else we happen to plug into the hub thats then connected to the bridge! works perfectly!!

[manolan]

Netgear sucks, go with Linksys, you can't go wrong

Haven't I seen exactly the opposite said as well?!

[Ian_m]

I bought Linksys kit to replace old dodgy Netgear kit hoping to get better reliability and features. How wrong I was about the latest Linksys kit.

[iankb]

And why buy Linksys if you have to replace the firmware with third-party code to get it to work? How mad is that, especially if you're daft enough to buy it with that advanced knowledge. :rolleyes:

[Milhouse]

And why buy Linksys if you have to replace the firmware with third-party code to get it to work? How mad is that, especially if you're daft enough to buy it with that advanced knowledge. :rolleyes:

I dunno about that - I've bought relatively expensive (for home) networking kit in the past and been stuck with disfunctional firmware that can only be fixed by the manufacturer, assuming they are even prepared to acknowledge the problem exists. Can anyone say Draytek? :(

At least with the open source firmware you have a significantly better chance of having a bug identified and fixed in fairly short order.

The open source firmware offers features that are not offered by any manufacturer - at least not in one package - and combined with the improved chances of having bugs resolved rather than ignored this is why I went with open source firmware on Linksys WRT54GS, and I don't regret it for one second :) *cough* also I like to tinker. *cough*

The WRT54G/GS is ridiculously cheap (about £35-40 for the 54G) and combined with open source firmware (free in most cases) you get a product that wipes the floor with kit 3 or 4 times the price.

Bargain!

:)

[andyc_uk]

Can i jump in with a question myself. I have just upgraded my Tivo with bigger HDD and CacheCard (thanks to TivoHeaven). I am not a networking whizz and have a Linksys WRT54GS v4 router connected to my desktop PC and running two laptops wirelessly.

I imagined that plugging the Tivo cable into the back of my router would at least get it recognised and make the light go on, sadly not. linksys are not prepared to tell me the router settings to make my Tivo get connected to the net.

Bearing in mind my level of competency, any ideas would be fantastic.

Andy

[frogster]

I imagined that plugging the Tivo cable into the back of my router would at least get it recognised and make the light go on, sadly not.It should make the light go on. If it doesn't then you have an electrical problem.
For it to work you only need to ensure that the Tivo network drivers know that your gateway IP address is whatever it is. Probably 192.168.1.1


linksys are not prepared to tell me the router settings to make my Tivo get connected to the net. And why should they know that? The problem isn't with your Linksys router (I've installed hundreds and they are the brand I like best) but with the Tivo network card which is very basic and can't handle DHCP at all.

Tell the Tivo network card the IP address of your router and everything in the garden should be blooming.

[andyc_uk]

Thanks for the quick reply. The Tivo cachecard defaults to 198.162.1.1 and so is the router.

How can i connect to the tivo to check the settings, if i cannot connect it to my network? (I said i was fresh to this)

Andy

[frogster]

I have a Turbonet card, not a cachecard. When I installed the drivers for the card I ran a configuration/installation programme, and one of the questions it asks is what the gateway IP is. If you put in some other address then of course it doesn't work, though you can always reconfigure the router to use that address just long enough to telnet into the Tivo and change the settings. Apart from that it only asks for the subnet mask, and that has to be the same on both machines also.

I don't know to what extent the cachecard is like this.

The router light should come on regardless and if it doesn't then this would indicate some sort of electrical fault (faulty or badly-seated card, faulty cable). This might explain why you are having trouble as apparently your IP settings are correct.

[blindlemon]

The Tivo cachecard defaults to 198.162.1.1 and so is the router. That may be partly a typo, but the TiVo cachecard default IP adddress is 192.168.1.200 - 192.168.1.1 is the gateway address which should be the same as your router.

[ndunlavey]

Netgear sucks, go with Linksys, you can't go wrong
It's not often you see those words in that order.

[Ian_m]

Netgear sucks, go with Linksys, you can't go wrong
Except for the Linksys WAG54G which was the biggest pile of p** I have ever seen, I have had to replace many on site (8 if you include my one at home) as they all failed or were totally unreliable. Replaced with NetGear DG834G which have been fine, maintained VPN tunnels for months at a time.

[cwaring]

NetGear WRG614 here. No problems at all. Then again, I've had it less than 6 months and only have one PC and my Tivo connected to it ;)

[frogster]

Except for the Linksys WAG54G which was the biggest pile of p** I have ever seen, The WAG54G V1 was very naff.
The V1.2 was equally naff until the last two firmware upgrades, with which it works perfectly.
The V2 is also excellent with the most recent firmware.

[Ian_m]

The WAG54G V1 was very naff.
The V1.2 was equally naff until the last two firmware upgrades, with which it works perfectly.
The V2 is also excellent with the most recent firmware.
All ours were V1 and V1.2. Some just died in the field after say 8-12months others V1.2 had to be continually hard reset and reconfigured every so often. I recently threw away 3 old ones that were 18months old (or older) and dead, the supplier was not interested in taking back nor was Linksys interested as we wanted a refund not a replacement (which some of these were already replaced by Linksys) as all been replaced with NetGear stuff.

[frogster]

As I mentioned, the V1.2 and V2 both work splendidly with the latest firmware (which was a long time coming, I agree).

I know of no manufacturer that offers after-sales service as good as Linksys (Freephone hotline, 3 years no quibble warranty including free collection and return by UPS, full exchange for a recent model no matter what the fault). So you really can't go wrong with Linksys. You made a mistake in not getting your models swapped out.

[Ian_m]

You made a mistake in not getting your models swapped out.
We did get some V1 swapped 3 times, but just failed in the same way months later even with latest firmware. As we needed working reliable solutions (despite V1.2 being better) and we did evaluate quite a few solutions and finally NetGear DG834G were deployed. Not had any issues with all I have deployed, all just work.

Worked to our advantage as things changed at work and more people worked from home we set up VPN connections with the DG834G's to our Vigor router, all worked fine. We never got WAG54G VPN connections to stay up beyond a couple of days. We had one DG834G user keep his VPN tunnel up for over 4000 hours before his wife unplugged it to plug in the vacuum cleaner. We never saw this level of reliability with the Linksys WAG54G.

[The Obo]

I use a WGE101 with DG834GT and it works fine no problems. I think the wge101 has been replaced with the WGE111 now but is probably similar.

I have a WGE111 connected to my DG834Gv2 and it works like a dream!
(As it is a "games adapter" you can only attach one device to it though)

NB: With the original firmware it would lose it's connection abuot once a week
- the latest firmware (1014) has been up for months without a problem!

[Sneals2000]

And why buy Linksys if you have to replace the firmware with third-party code to get it to work? How mad is that, especially if you're daft enough to buy it with that advanced knowledge. :rolleyes:

I suspect because the functionality offered by third party firmware is way beyond what most router manufacturers offer "out of the box" as standard on devices at this low price point, AND Linksys seem to have a similar attitude to enthusiasts modifying their gear as Tivo. They don't obstruct it actively it seems.

Linksys have even continued to manufacturer an older version of one of their devices, so that enthusiasts can continue to upgrade, as their newer version ditched Linux for a different OS (which required a smaller memory footprint and was thus cheaper to implement in hardware terms)

I've had Belkin, Netgear and Linksys stuff. All has worked reasonably well in the given application - but the Linksys (running stock firmware - not flashed with third party stuff) was the easiest to set-up of the three, and had the shortest "open box to working securely" time. It didn't try and force me to use a set-up wizard either.

In looks terms, I think the Netgear stuff is probably better designed visually, with the Linksys stuff looking pretty dire - which can be an issue if it is visible in a living room install.

[Jimus]

I use a netgear wge111 to connect my TiVo to my network and it has worked faultlessly since I installed it.

It talks to my Draytek router without problems and is nicely configurable over the web interface, its true that it can only connect one device at a time. Not an issue for me.

I like the fact that it is dinky and fits unobtrusively behind my TiVo and out of the way so there are no unsightly dorky looking boxes in the lounge. Good strong signal too.....

Cheers

Jimus

[stevensdrs]

You can still obtain WGE101 units which are "factory refurbished" (as new) from a company in Ireland. They are advertised on the big auction site with the 4 letter name. I got mine there and it works great and cost about half the price of a new WGE111. :o