Netgear DGN2000?

LEK-89

LEK-89

LEK-89

Associate
Joined
11 Oct 2008
Posts
2,240
Location
Leicester
Been looking into upgrading to a new wireless router as I am seriously getting rid of our supplied O2 wireless box II. The router is in the living room and whenever I use the laptop in my room sometimes the internet is really slow due to the wireless performance and my mum also says that the wireless does not work very well in her bedroom either i.e. she cannot the laptop on her desk but if she moves the laptop towards the door it works. To me it sounds like either the wireless performance on the O2 router isnt all that good at all or there is some interferance in the house, to me I do not think it is interferance though because when we used to use the DG834GT router with Sky the wireless was excellent all the time. We have still got the old DG834GT router now but it is over 2 years old but I want to get something newer, just so its more future proof than the DG834GT.

I have been reading up on the new Netgear DGB2000 router and from most people say it is the busness, not just the wireless N range but also because it has the famous Broadcom chipset which works really well with the ADSL line etc (The DG834GT also had the Broadcom chipset). The only cons that keep coming up about the DGN2000 that I seem to read about everywhere is that some of them have problems boil down to keep having to re-booting the router & slight overheating. From anyone's personal experience with them on here do you think the DGN2000 is as good as it is said to be or are some of these problems that happen with these router's common?

Thanks - Liam
 
I forgot to mention as well, I have been reading about MAC spoofing the new DGN2000 router with the O2 router's MAC address. The only worry I have about it is that the O2's mac address is different to what it says on the O2 router's control panel, what I mean is that the difference between what is on the router & what is displayed on the control panel is 1 digit different, the last digit of the MAC address. Could any one shed some light onto why there is a slight difference with the MAC key??

Thanks - Liam
 
I have the DGN2000 as my current router, but also came from a DG834g and DG834gt.

The DGN2000 is good, it does the job. Ive not had a problem with it so far.

If you want to use wireless-N then not only has the router got to support it, but the devices your connecting to as well, so all your laptops etc need to get new wireless-N hardware. This is too costly for me so I dont use wireless-N on my router. So in reality I dont think you will see much improvement on signal strength if you dont use wireless-N.

I got the DGN2000 as I thought it had QoS but it doesnt. The DGN2000 is basically the DG834GT but with wireless-N support. So if you wont use wireless-N then there is no difference between the two. Ive read this is even true down to the chips used in both routers.

Anyway I dont have any overheating or reboot issues, out of the 3 routers the DGN2000 has been the most stable so far.

You should try Netstumbler before buying a router though, it may be that your neighbours are using the same channel for their wireless and that can cause interference. I found that recently and fixed the wireless issues I had by changing to an unused channel.
 
Ive had one for about a year now and when i was on zen broadband it was great, flawless in fact.

Ive moved now to the o2 top package with a fixed IP. My line isnt the best and i get about 7.5 to 8.5meg from it.

I got the DGN2000 setup on the o2 and it was ok at first but over a few weeks i was having problems with it slowing down the connection... i was convinced it was an o2 problem rather than with the netgear.

Having reconfirmed all the settings with o2 i swapped back to the o2 III box and my speeds went straight back to normal.

I still cannot figure out what exactly the problem is with the DGN2000 and my o2 service but after trying the netgear at my sisters house for a month or so i can confirm its not the router thats playing up, its something to do with my o2 service that its not happy about.

Considering you are with o2 keep this in mind. I am using the fixed IP service so maybe this has something to do with it? o2 tech support ( on the pro package ) are actually very good and have phoned me back a few times to keep me updated as to anything they can offer to solve the problem- so far nothing but at least they appear to give a toss :p

Its certainly an odd problem... the netgear will work fine for a week or even more and then slowly over time the throughput crawls down to a snails pace. Rebooting has no effect at all. The instant i swap back with the o2 router speeds are back to normal. Ive tried several pcs to make sure its not an issue there etc

As regards the wireless reception and the options in the setup i cant fault the router at all. Very easy to use and nice extensive options ( for a router of its class ) and the wireless signal is strong, fast and constant.
 
Last edited:
xiphrex said:
I have the DGN2000 as my current router, but also came from a DG834g and DG834gt.

The DGN2000 is good, it does the job. Ive not had a problem with it so far.

If you want to use wireless-N then not only has the router got to support it, but the devices your connecting to as well, so all your laptops etc need to get new wireless-N hardware. This is too costly for me so I dont use wireless-N on my router. So in reality I dont think you will see much improvement on signal strength if you dont use wireless-N.

I got the DGN2000 as I thought it had QoS but it doesnt. The DGN2000 is basically the DG834GT but with wireless-N support. So if you wont use wireless-N then there is no difference between the two. Ive read this is even true down to the chips used in both routers.

Anyway I dont have any overheating or reboot issues, out of the 3 routers the DGN2000 has been the most stable so far.

You should try Netstumbler before buying a router though, it may be that your neighbours are using the same channel for their wireless and that can cause interference. I found that recently and fixed the wireless issues I had by changing to an unused channel.
Click to expand...

Come to think of it now - My neighbour has recently just got BT Broadband with the new BT HomeHub, and I think that could well be that is the problem! Each time we all look on our laptops we can always pick up their network as well, each time with Excellent signal (both mine and my mum's newish laptops have draft-N wireless buit in). The current O2 wireless box's channel is selected to the default Auto setting so I do not know which channel it is on currently but I think that it could well be conflicting with the signal from next door's. We have had O2 for just over a month now and we get a 6.5mb connection roughly here (45db line attuention & 7db SNR) but in the evenings or overnight it always looses sync' & always connects at a lower 5600K until I reboot it again the next morning and it shoots back to 6500K. I think if I got the Netgear DGN2000 it will handle my connection & the line much better than the current O2 router because as both of you mentioned there it has the Broadcom chipsets (O2 & Be use Broadcom equipment in their exchanges if I am right?). The only other con about the DGN2000 that I seem to keep reading about everywhere is the lack of gigabit ethernet, not that I need it anyway.

AtreuS - Yeah your right about configuring & setting up the router, Netgear's have always been spot on with their routers & that's why I never use anything other than Netgear, hence why I want to get the DGN2000 :P lol

I've noticed you are in Leicester xiphrex, which exchange are you on?

Thanks again - Liam
 
Last edited:
I think Im on the stoneygate exchange, my isp is nildram.

Also with the DGN2000 I have updated to a custom firmware from DGTeam. It gives you more options on your router's config page. One of those which may help your connection is an advanced ADSL page that allows you to adjust the ingoing SNR. I didnt need to for my connection though so I dont know how well it works, but in theory you can adjust it to find a balance between speed and stability all from your side.

Also I find the sync speed to be misleading sometimes. As in, sometimes I will sync at ~6500 and sometimes at ~5500 but the practical maximum download speed for both of these is pretty much the same.
 
Yeah I've read up about the DGTeam firmware's and how useful and reliable they are etc and the option to tweak your SNR! I've just configured my old DG834GT router that we used with Sky, already re-flashed it so the Sky crap is removed & I have just put the latest DGTeam firmware on it now. I have also updated the router with the required settings for it work with O2 BB so I am going to try the router out a little later as everyone is using the net at the moment.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, the router lost the sync last night & reconnected at 5405kbps on G.992.3. The SNR has also risen up to 9.0db and its been connection for over 17 hours now. Maybe O2 have a 9db profile on my line??

Uptime: 0 days, 17:28:11
DSL Type: G.992.3 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,217 / 5,405
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 18.5
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 25.5 / 42.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 6.5 / 9.0
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 59 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 824 / 133,321
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 824 / 71
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 18,375 / 39

Liam
 
Last edited:
Has anyone who is on O2 noticed, even if you have not requested a static IP, O2 seem to give you one anyway? Its only because since we have had O2 at my house for over a month now we have always had the same IP from hem everytime I have connected to the net! It has never changed at all once and we never requested the static IP either. Is it just me or has anyone else had the same IP for ages?

Liam
 
Well I bit the bullet and bought the DGN2000 router and received it today, just managed to get it set up & so it works on all the laptops but I ran into a couple of problems with it. Firstly the first thing I did was flash it with the DGTeam's version of the firmware and it went well but I noticed afterwards that the power light or the DSL lights would not light up at all! :confused: I paniced and thought that the router was faulty but the I decided to download the original firmware from Netgear's website and re-flashed it again and the lights ran properly again. Next job I did was to set all the settings on the router so it would work with O2 & mac spoofing etc and it all connected to the net fine. Then I set the wireless settings up and set it to 270mbps channel 1 & to WPA2 security with my own password. On my laptop it couldn't find the new network for around 2 mins for some reason and then when I attempted to connect to it, it kept asking for a PIN code before the passkey! I thought what the hell is this PIN business??

Anyway i chose the "i dont have the pin" option and then it gave me the option to enter the pass key and then it came up saying that the passkey had been entered incorrectly! (even though I did enter the right one!) and so I attempted it again and it worked, but as my laptop's wireless is draft N compatiable it only connects at 65mbps and I thought it is supposed to connect at 130mbps at least! :(. Anyway then I set up the wireless on my mums laptop too and this did it perfectly fine, found the network straight away and asked for the passkey straight away (PIN request never came up) and entered the pass key and away it went and worked fine. The only thing I noticed was strange on my mums laptop which is also draft N compatiable, it saw the new wireless network as 802.11g instead of 802.11n (my laptop see's the network as 802.11n no problem) and it also see's the neighbour's HomeHub2's wireless network as G instead on N (I can see my neighbour's as N). Could this be possibly down to the wireless adapter type on my mums laptop? Anyway the main problem I am mainly concerned about is this "PIN request" that I got on my laptop. What is this down to? the wireless adapter on my laptop or an extra security feature that my laptop is compatiable with the new router? (maybe down to this WPS function & button??)

I am also a bit confused to what is the best way to have the network set as, 130mbps or 270mbps? WPA2 or mixed WPA & WPA2? Also is chanel 1 the best one to keep it on? Anyway besides this, on the ADSL side of things it has currently been connected for over 3 hours and the SNR has gone right down to 2.5db and has held the connection well. I found that on the original O2 Wireless Box II router, it would usually loose the sync by now or if it went below 3db :).

Thanks - Liam
 
Last edited:
That ADSL sync light not coming on is a bug in the DGTeam firmware apparently. I have it too. After a reboot the sync light never comes on but then router is working fine anyway. To get it back you can go to the Advanced ADSL settings page and then just click apply. This will force ADSL to resync and the light then comes on and stays on. But if its not on it doesnt effect the router in any way.

Im pretty sure that PIN business is the WPS feature this router has. Havent used wireless-N though so not sure about anything on it. On my routers page it says this though:

WPA-PSK + WPA2-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key ) - use both WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK standard encryption. A high performance client like the NETGEAR WN511B must connect using WPA2-PSK in order to achieve maximum performance. Wireless clients that connect to this router using WPA-PSK will run at no more than 802.11g speed.
Click to expand...

AFAIK this and the WPA-802.1x are the only ones that work with wireless-N, the others force wireless b or g.

So your laptop might not be connecting to the router with WPA2-PSK.
 
xiphrex said:
That ADSL sync light not coming on is a bug in the DGTeam firmware apparently. I have it too. After a reboot the sync light never comes on but then router is working fine anyway. To get it back you can go to the Advanced ADSL settings page and then just click apply. This will force ADSL to resync and the light then comes on and stays on. But if its not on it doesnt effect the router in any way.

Im pretty sure that PIN business is the WPS feature this router has. Havent used wireless-N though so not sure about anything on it. On my routers page it says this though:



AFAIK this and the WPA-802.1x are the only ones that work with wireless-N, the others force wireless b or g.

So your laptop might not be connecting to the router with WPA2-PSK.
Click to expand...

Yeah i've just noticed on the router that their is a PIN code, just noticed it down & removed the saved network off my laptop and attempted to connect it again from scratch. typed the PIN code in & still wouldn't have any of it by saying that the information did not match the router so I had to click the i do not have a pin option & enter it using the passkey again, and then again because it claims that its incorrect :confused: (maybe this is a security feature with draft-N so you have to enter the passkey twice?) Or in order for it to connect using the PIN code, do I need to press the WPS button on the router first?

Liam
 
Well I woke up this morning to find that somehow my laptop could not see the DGN2000 router at all! Tried my mums as well and the same happenend so somehow the wireless completely stopped working (wireless light was on the router was still on) and so I decided to give the router a reboot which seemed to cure the problem. Now though for some reason my laptop is connected to the router at only 13mbps!

Liam
 
Right after a bit of reading up on the internet, I found that the low wireless speeds on my laptop could be due to the wireless adapter settings on the laptop itself. So I looked in the advanced settings for the adapter & noticed the 802.11n band types, one was set on 20mhz only and the other was set to auto, so I changed the one that was on 20mhz to auto too and presto, disconnected from the network & reconnected again at 135mbps. This is an inprovement but the max my router can achieve it 270mbps wirelessly. Now I have read that it really depends all on the network adapter too but I've read up that mine can easily achieve 300mbps+ (Intel WiFi Link 5100 card), could anyone confirm this or am I only limited to 135mbps? The current settings on the DGN2000 router are set to channel 2 & upto 270mbps mode with WPA2-PSK security. Is this correct or does it need to be set on a different channel or a different security settings?

Thanks all - Liam
 
Starting to have really annoying problems with the router now. Had my laptop turned off for late this afternoon & upon booting the laptop up this evening when I got to the desktop it wouldn't connect to the router at all, it would find the router for a second when scanning, then disappear in Windows but it would fail, after a minute or 2 it will finally find the router properly and connect to it. I'm starting to really think that I might possibly have a faulty unit. Currently these are the following problems I have discovered with the router:

Router's wireless stops working when first trying to connect to it first thing in the morning, requires a reboot for it to work again

Router is not found again when connecting using another computer, something to do with the SSID broadcast maybe?

The well known heat issues with the router, maybe this could be cause of the problems?


Would Netgear replace the Router under the warrenty on these grounds?

Thanks - Liam
 
Last edited:
Well i'm still having problems with my router, and been onto online support with Netgear & gave me the usual things to try which I had already done! Then just as I was about to give up, then last email reply I got from the Netgear guy sent me was a link to download the newst firmware?!?! Then I looked at the link and indeed Netgear have finally released a new firmware for users outside America :) Will be updating mine shortly to see if it fixes my problem.

V1.1.8.0 http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/11948

Liam
 
Forgot all about this topic! I updated mine to the new firmware V1.1.8.0 which was only released the other day. But as expected it still did not fix my wireless problem. Sent mine back to the place I got it from today for an instant replacement, will post back in a few days when I receive the replacement!

Liam
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom