View the image gallery

Netgear WGT634U

By David McAmis on 30 July 2004

Wireless routers are nothing new under the sun, but with an innovative feature set aimed at sharing media and other files over a wireless network connection, this particular offering shines bright.

2.7
  • Good: Easy setup
    Host of features • Built-in USB port for file sharing from USB hard drive and other devices
  • Bad: ISP Setup List provides is for US providers only
  • Specs: 802.11b, 802.11g • See more specifications
  • RRP: AU$349.00
Since the introduction of wireless devices, vendors have been looking for ways to add value to wireless routers and hubs and Netgear has come up with a winner -- a USB port on the back that you can plug a hard drive or other wireless device into to share files among wireless users. It is a simple solution for network storage that does not require any additional setup and when comparing two similar routers, could be the feature that pushes this on into the winner's circle.

Design
The router itself is a small sleek unit and looks similiar to just about every other router you may have seen. The LEDs and status indicators on the front of the unit are bright and easy to read and the unit itself is compact enough to fit on the desk or could be hidden away on top of a filing cabinet or bookshelf and would not look out of place.

Features
First and foremost, the WGT634U is a great little 802.11g wireless router. From unpacking and plugging everything in to configuring the unit you are looking at 5 minutes, tops. The one down-side is that the setup documentation includes commonly used ISP settings, but for US-based ISP's only. But with that said, the documentation is good and you should be able to find all of the information you need from your existing ISP.

The unit offers WEP encryption and you can create WEP keys manually or through a pass-phrase (which is generally much easier). You can also restrict access by MAC address and you can turn off the wireless network name broadcast so other wireless users can not "see" your wireless network and will need the full SSID name to connect. There is also a built-in firewall and you can configure the router to work in a DMZ (demilitarised zone) configuration to where there is only one "host" on your network is connected to the Internet, limiting your exposure.

There is also browser-based administration and wide protocol support and firmware update to ensure that you will always have the latest and greatest software on your router. And there are wizards to make common setup tasks easier -- but the real star feature of this particular unit has to be the USB port on the back. You can plug in a hard drive or other USB device and then share files on the wireless network, either through a web-based interface or through common networking protocols.

Performance
This little box just hums along and in testing over a number of days, provided consistent performance for both the wireless networking and file sharing aspects.

So if you are looking for a wireless router with a little "something more" or if you have ever pondered how to share files across your network, this router is definitely tops. And it's so easy to install and configure, your wireless network, Internet connection and shared files are minutes away from when you first open the box.

Topics: network, wireless, media, netgear, router, 108mbs, wgt634u, route, unit, wireless network

Related Articles

Other NETGEAR products

Comments (19)

  • Jacob gave 8/10 on 20/08/2008 20:30 Report abuse

    Great router with extra ordinary quality functions. I use it in my home for muti player games and i also run my own seo companyseo company. I like its compact design and prefer to others that use this gem for your small business.

    • Good: Stable uptime
      Internal antenna is suprisingly powerful
      Solid signal strength
      Compact design
      Zippy performance
    • Bad: Pricey.

  • beetlejuice gave 3/10 on 25/11/2007 09:01 Report abuse

    This product is a waste of money , not compatable with some 802.11 casrds and not Mac savy at all.

    Can't comfigure on MAC computers

    • Good: Cheap
    • Bad: Only does half the computers for communications. Must be very close to get the G bandwidth performance

  • mantis3dfx gave 4/10 on 30/08/2007 18:45 Report abuse

    Wireless Connection Drops whenever a serious or consistent download is taking place (Under Heavy Load). Must be rebooted and it drops again within a few minutes, seems ok for general web browsing, (Under Light Load) only.

    • Good: Easy setup regarding all features
    • Bad: Doesn't like downloading large files for any length of time without dropping out and requiring reboot consistently.

  • crazykrispy gave 3/10 on 25/06/2007 19:09 Report abuse

    i have had 3 netgear modem/wireless router to my stupoidity to keep buying them ugh

    • Good: easy of connection
    • Bad: stability of connection drops out very often even tho its 3 metres away

  • crazykrispy gave 3/10 on 25/06/2007 19:05 Report abuse

    i have had 3 netgear modem/wireless router to my stupoidity to keep buying them ugh

    • Good: easy of connection
    • Bad: stability of connection drops out very often even tho its 3 metres away

  • tret gave 10/10 on 11/12/2006 13:35 Report abuse

    you people are being stupid. this is a good router, if you can't work netgear products there's something wrong with you

  • Bob Kingston gave 6/10 on 09/12/2006 11:25 Report abuse

    Have similar issues as other posted comments. Netgear does not provide adequate support documentation. Auto upgrade works only if firmware has been upgraded for each release. Router does not appear to be able to handle VPN without dropping ISP connection.

    • Good: Signal strength good. Connection good anywhere within house or yard
    • Bad: Drops ISP connection when using VPN
      Accessing large files on USB drives is not practical. Transfer from USB drive to client machine is slower than downloading from internet connection.

  • FrustatedUser gave 2/10 on 05/11/2006 16:11 Report abuse

    I'll Never Buy a Netgear product After this

    • Bad: The Wireless Connection drops every 5 Minitus and only remidy is to restart router. (I had to restart the router to post this message too.)

  • oliflower gave 3/10 on 29/09/2006 09:38 Report abuse

    Drop out, read only, slow

    • Good: Can't really say, this is my first ouer and all I know is I'm not happy with it.
      It does seem to ba fast connection when it's working
    • Bad: I have 3 pcs and a psp set up on it. One of my pcs the connection drops every 2 minutes. Can't figure out why. The router is never to be able to connect to the Netgear server to upgrade he firmwar, and there's no instructions anywhere on how to upgrade without using the router's "assistant"
      For connecting hard disks, if it is FAT32 you can read/wite, if youhave NTFS it is read only. Was very disappointed that it didn't say this on the box before I purchased it!
      Have also read elsewhere on the net that there is a hardware limitation that means file transfers are really slow across the network. In my experience it can take a long time to even examine the contents of a large folder let alone transfer files.
      Overall I wish I had bought a different rouner

  • Anonymous gave 2/10 on 13/09/2006 09:17 Report abuse

    Port forwarding flakey, needs regular reboots Rubbish Support

Post your own

Submit

Enter your personal information to the left, or sign in with your Facebook account by clicking the button below.

Connect
Nokia E75 Email made easy. Find out why.
Your iPhone will be happier with Optus.

Where to buy Netgear WGT634U

See all options »

Must read

Advanced search

Product finder