Netgear WNDR3700 query.

BloodyL · 25 Aug 2011 at 20:50

Hi there,
My trusty old WRT54GL is beginning to show its age now and is struggling to cope with my demands these days.

I've been taking a look at the Netgear WNDR3700, the question I have is if I flash this device to Tomato or DD-WRT, will I lose the modern features such as dual wireless, gigabit lan etc?

Cheers!

BloodyL · 26 Aug 2011 at 07:22

A bit of googling has answered my question, Tomato is out of the question as it too Broadcom specialised, whereas DD-WRT will be fine and will retain all of the features.

xrs · 26 Aug 2011 at 14:53

I have the WNDR3700 and I really didn't get on with the stock firmware. I had to continually reboot the router which was a nightmare. Installed DD-WRT and it has been rock solid. The only issue is the wireless signal is really poor. Even when next to it my laptop gets about a 10mb connection. Because all our computers are wired up this has not really been an issue. I think other people have experienced this issue and it is a known bug. Just be aware that this might happen to you too.

V_R · 26 Aug 2011 at 15:34

I also have the WNDR3700, still running stock FW, other than the known wireless signal issues is there anything else that is a problem?

EDIT: Wireless issues with DD-WRT that is, not stock FW.

mmj_uk · 26 Aug 2011 at 15:40

As xrs says DD-WRT support isn't that great for this router (wireless signal becomes poor), OpenWRT which uses different drivers works really well but that's not quite as user friendly.

Mujja · 26 Aug 2011 at 15:44

I read somewhere on this forum last month there is a newer revision where the wireless issue has been fixed. I wasn't aware I had a problem, bought mine a few weeks after it was released so must have the earliest revision.

I also moved from a WRT45GL running DD-WRT to the WNDR3700. Stock firmwares were stable for with wireless transfers over FTP around 17MB/s using the 5Ghz radio. That was a HUGE jump from the 2MB/s the WRT54GL gave me.

I moved to the DD-WRT firmware for the OpenVPN feature months ago and no issues.

Westyfield2 · 26 Aug 2011 at 15:45

What are the "known wireless signal issues" with the WNDR3700? I've bought four of them by now (all for use in different places) and haven't had any problems...

Locky · 26 Aug 2011 at 17:12

I bought the neatgear WNDR37AV, get zero wireless issues, I get full signal even with a 3 story house, all of the dongle connect at 300mbs apart from the one of the top floor which is at 270mbs. All seem to max out my Infinity connection.

mmj_uk · 26 Aug 2011 at 18:31

Westyfield2 said:
What are the "known wireless signal issues" with the WNDR3700? I've bought four of them by now (all for use in different places) and haven't had any problems...

It's more of a DD-WRT problem due to the drivers they use from what I've found.

The stock firmware and OpenWRT don't seem to have any problem with wireless signal but when you flash DD-WRT it becomes poor which is widely believed to be due to their proprietary Madwifi(?) driver, I think the DD-WRT developers took the easy route and just blamed it on faulty units. OpenWRT uses an open source (ath9k) driver which works brilliantly but DD-WRT can't (or won't) change to it.

The stock Netgear firmware is supposedly based on OpenWRT too btw.

mmj_uk · 26 Aug 2011 at 18:38

Mujja said:
I read somewhere on this forum last month there is a newer revision where the wireless issue has been fixed.

Oh I've not tried recently so my information above might be out of date then.

mrk · 26 Aug 2011 at 21:26

Stock firmware here too and not really any problems to note. All my QOS/Port forwards etc all work fine and I use it inline with an 8port Gigabit hub with no real issues. Speed is also fine all over the board.

The interface has all the options I would want and layout is straight forward.

BloodyL · 26 Aug 2011 at 22:11

Okey dokey, I had read comments about the wireless being subpar in some situations, no real worries there for me as I only have 1 wireless client anyway.
Thanks for the input peeps, appreciated.

Westyfield2 · 29 Aug 2011 at 12:58

mmj_uk said:
It's more of a DD-WRT problem due to the drivers they use from what I've found.

The stock firmware and OpenWRT don't seem to have any problem with wireless signal but when you flash DD-WRT it becomes poor which is widely believed to be due to their proprietary Madwifi(?) driver, I think the DD-WRT developers took the easy route and just blamed it on faulty units. OpenWRT uses an open source (ath9k) driver which works brilliantly but DD-WRT can't (or won't) change to it.

The stock Netgear firmware is supposedly based on OpenWRT too btw.

Ah right. I'm on stock firmware, so that'd be why I've had no problems

.

One tip I have read (don't have a clue if it's true) is that changing the region location setting to United States increases the power that the radios transmit at.

Locky · 29 Aug 2011 at 13:00

Westyfield2 said:
Ah right. I'm on stock firmware, so that'd be why I've had no problems .

One tip I have read (don't have a clue if it's true) is that changing the region location setting to United States increases the power that the radios transmit at.

Setting the it to Mexico and chan 5 gives me the best results on my wireless.

BloodyL · 1 Sep 2011 at 20:13

Well, the router arrived, only for me to find it is has been used and appears to have been returned.
Just contacted in2digital at amazon to sort it all out now.

[necro-edit]
Well, I have to give some credit to in2digital, their customer support has been great, they have arranged a collection of the used router and will send out a new unit to me without so much as a hint of a fuss.
Fair dos.

[/necro-edit]