Netgear rolls out Wireless-N Upgrade Kit

Netgear looks to be doing its part to bring every last home network into the Wireless-N fold, with the company now rolling out its appropriately-named Wireless-N Upgrade Kit, which includes a 5GHz Wireless-N HD Access Point (WNHDE111) and that RangeMax Dual-Band Wireless-N USB adapter (WNDA3100) that made an appearance at the FCC earlier this year. Like most such kits, the included Access Point can function either as a standalone bridge (including with a game console or media receiver) or as a full-fledged 5GHz Wireless-N access point when it's connected to an existing router or gateway. There's also not many surprises with the USB adapter, although it does boast some "patented metamaterial micro-antennas," which promise to out-do other non-metamaterial 802.11n adapters. If that's got you sold, you can pick up the kit right now for $149.

[Via BIOS]

[Shadowise @ Jul 30th 2008 1:48PM]

Nice to see more 5GHz equpiment coming out, but this is still draft N isn't it? Or has it been finalized now? I'm still looking for a decent all in one solution... gigabit ethernet, adsl modem, wireless N...

[OneLove @ Jul 30th 2008 2:19PM]

Pass. Am saving for a 4850 (and new power supply) so I can pwn in cod4.

[El Taco @ Jul 30th 2008 3:57PM]

still draft.

[who? @ Jul 30th 2008 1:58PM]

How much without adapters...?

[masteroffm @ Jul 30th 2008 2:04PM]

around $100

[masteroffm @ Jul 30th 2008 2:03PM]

what they really need to come out with is a wireless-N bridge that will work with any wireless-N access point and have a 4 port switch on the back

[etechshop @ Jul 30th 2008 2:20PM]

I hate netgear routers as you can not just config their router using an ip address like: 192.168.1.1.

you are force to use their stupid router wizard which requires an active internet connection.

[inteller @ Jul 30th 2008 2:31PM]

no you dont have to use that, idiot.

[nick @ Jul 30th 2008 2:55PM]

you can admin the router from the IP address. although since you can't figure out how, you probably ought to stick with the wizard...

[fendee1 @ Jul 30th 2008 2:05PM]

usb adapter $99.99

[totoro @ Jul 30th 2008 2:17PM]

Is "kit" in this context being used in the British sense? (i.e. product)


I'm still waiting for Apple to release Time Capsule/Airport Extreme with true dual band (G and N), so we can use our G iPhones, TiVos, and Xbox360s on the same router as our N computers (without slowing N down from 5G)

[Shadowise @ Jul 30th 2008 2:25PM]

I think its kit as in package, seeing as it's 2 parts and is used to upgrade existing routers.

I don't think they meant "bit of kit".

[majortom1981 @ Jul 30th 2008 2:41PM]

Why get this when you can get a wrt600n for the same price and install dd-wrt. Yes dd-wrt doesnt do 40mhz channels yet but it still does 130mbps . The wrt600n does both 5ghz and 2.4 at the same time.

[Lasombragh @ Jul 30th 2008 2:49PM]

Netgear routers are, sadly, garbage. I've owned more than one and every single one has failed within a year (within 7 months actually). That isn't to say that I couldn't (and I have) gone through their warranty replacement process, but that's one tiring hoop to jump through on what was becoming a regular basis.

With any luck they've cleaned up their act, but I wouldn't hold my breath. In the least, read some user reviews before dropping your hard-earned cash on one of these. I had to the learn the hard way.

[Brian! @ Jul 30th 2008 3:00PM]

I have had the same problem with Linksys. Everyone of them failed on me. Worse was when I used to buy combined modem/routers. So when it failed, I lost my internet connection completely.

I ended up moving to Netgear from Linksys and my router has been fine. I even find the times I do use P2P apps, my transfers are faster. The Linksys had to be reset after a few hours of P2P as it would slow the Internet connection to a crawl.

[Nihility @ Aug 1st 2008 9:01PM]

This is all just anecdotal but I've had 2 netgear wireless USB dongles die on me within less than a year. The WPN111, which if I had taken the time to read the reviews on I wouldn't have bought in the first place.

[designworks @ Jul 30th 2008 3:01PM]

Been using the WNHDE111 for 4 weeks ranges around
1-2M=300mbs
2-4M=162mbs
6-12M=108mbs

USB Wifi dualband adaptor is very buggy under vista 32 and 64 requires continued repluging

[Brian! @ Jul 30th 2008 2:57PM]

This is not a bad kit. It is handy if you want to expand your existing network into a dual-band wireless N. From what it seems it is not a full router, this is an access point. So it connects to your router just like a computer would. Then it gives you a wireless-N network.

Handy if you want to stick your games or video streaming devices on your 5 gigahertz N network and keep your legacy devices and less critical computers on your wireless-G.

Oh, if your router lacks wireless at all, this would add it too.


The one thing about 5 gigahertz is that it does seem to have a shorter range. Wireless-N is supposed to be faster and the new band gives you less interference, but I remember that you could not go as far with it.

[Nathan @ Jul 30th 2008 2:58PM]

What's the point? My 16mb/s internet connection doesn't even max out my G network, and that's far faster than most peoples' i know. I suppose N would be nice for streaming 1080p video rips, but that's about it.

[Brian! @ Jul 30th 2008 3:05PM]

Nathan,

Well, since you never actually get the full wireless bandwidth, then faster does help. Also, Wireless-G is crowded with Bluetooth, RF receivers, phones, baby monitors, etc... When you look at who to connect with on your computer and you see all your neighbors, it is likely that their wireless traffic causes interference with your own. That is the main reason to move to a different band and network type. Eventually that will be flooded too though.

Speed is good for gamers. Although I am not sure if this kit would help latency at all. It is also good for HD devices like Tivo or the Slingbox where you might be interested in streaming HD around your home. And then there is network attached storage (NAS) which is basically a hard drive with a mini-computer you just connect to your network. Then all your computers can access it. High-speed access to your NAS can be pretty nice.

[CraigJ @ Jul 30th 2008 3:19PM]

streaming 1080p with 5.1 from your server to the PC hooked up to your TV is a good reason regardless of your interned connection...

[designworks @ Jul 30th 2008 3:04PM]

Band rescaning when connection is droped is a pain as it is slow at rescaning

[L.Rawlins @ Jul 30th 2008 3:36PM]

Maybe I missed the comment above explaining this... but is their now a legit 'N' standard?

I can't say as I've seen that story, and if it had been finalised I would have expected it to be one.

Thanks in advance to anyone who responds.

[Uh? @ Jul 30th 2008 5:13PM]

Metamaterial, you say? I'll take 7!

[kyoseki @ Jul 30th 2008 5:45PM]

This would be the Wireless N access point that looks exactly like their Wireless N routers but completely fails to work with it in a wireless capacity?

Why the hell do they keep putting out 2.4 Ghz 802.11N routers but 5.0 Ghz 802.11N access points?

The only dual band 2.4/5.0 Ghz router they make looks fucking hideous (and completely different to these access points).

[THuGaCaTioN @ Jul 30th 2008 6:11PM]

what does it mean upgrade kit, will they upgrade my DG834N router
its such a piece of crap, i had to get it changed by Netgear about 6 times before I finally got one that didn't continuously stop working

[NxP3 @ Aug 2nd 2008 8:11PM]

I had netgear equipments for a while, but I've had pretty bad experience with them. They're flaky and no where as reliable as they make it out to be. Besides, the configurations on them are so limiting compared to others. I had 2 rangemax wnr854t go bad on me and the one before that a cheapo netgear one also was unreliable. Every damn small setting change requires you to reboot. It constantly needed rebooting. I just went got me a dlink dir655 and that thing works like a charm. And there's so many settings you can play with to optimize your gaming and streaming.