Netgear DGN2000: Initial Thoughts and Review

[arobertson676]

I have been using the Netgear DGN2000 for over a day now and I am happy to give some initial thoughts. The router has a stealthy black look which looks very nice. It has the same dimensions as a Netgear DG834. It does get very hot so I have been using some Netgear feet to raise it up so it doesn't overheat. I believe overheating is a common issue.

It holds the connection very well, it held the connection last night going right down to 1dB! The throughput was fine until it went down to 1dB but any higher and it was perfectly fine. It seems to hold the connection better than a Netgear DG834v4 and a Billion 7800 (non N) as well.

It can be flashed with the DGTeam firmware, but it seems to have some problems with WiFi so I am sticking with the default Netgear firmware for now.

A full review is coming soon.

[arobertson676]

An update on the WiFi issues: to get wireless N you need to enable WPA2 encryption. The router will then broadcast wireless N. This only happens in the DGTeam firmware.

My stats:
Noise Margin:     1.6   dB
Connection Rate:  7616  Kbps
Line Attenuation: 42.0  dB
Power:            19.7  dBm
Max Rate:         8832  Kbps

SuperFrames:      121539
SF (CRC) Errors:  23
Reed Solomon:     8264698
RS Corrected:     2887644
RS Un-Corrected:  80
HEC:              19
Errored Seconds:  23
Severe ES:        0

Interleave Depth: 16
Bitswaps:         0

Total Uptimes (From SF counts):
WAN:   0 days, 00:34:46

[arobertson676]

My Ip profile should increase to 6.5Mb if this holds. I'll let you know if it does!

[Simon]

 

[cavillas]

I have had a 2200 for quite a while now and the snr always seems to be about 17-19 whereas the 2700hgv is always at 14-15 and the attenuation is about 58 or so whillst the 2700 hgv is about 47-48.  Not sure why there is such a large discrepency between the two.

[Niall]

I had the 1000 to replace the old 834v4 as apparently this is the new model that replaced it. They are incredibly hot, and during all my ADSL problems that turned out to be a line fault, I got a Billion 7800N which whilst it looks cheap, it is £120 and VERY well ventilated, to replace that as I was told the router was the issue (grr!). The wireless signal seems stronger on this too, over any of the Netgears I've used over the last 9 years.

I very much doubt I'll ever be buying a Netgear router again. Cheap build quality, poor firmware, lots of errors with logging and holding a date, amongst other problems they have. I've had two Netgears in the last 6 months, and both had issues with logging with certain Firmware updates.

[arobertson676]

My speed has increased to 6.5Mb so I am very happy! Pretty good on a 40dB line!

[arobertson676]

Holding steady!

ADSL Link         Downstream   Upstream
Connection Speed    7424 kbps   448 kbps
Line Attenuation   42.0 db   24.0 db
Noise Margin   0.8 db   23.0 db

[Rik]

That's one very low noise margin. 

[arobertson676]

It didn't hold. I am actually considering sending back this router as the WiFi is really poor.

[JohnH]

My speed has increased to 6.5Mb so I am very happy! Pretty good on a 40dB line!

What was your speed before you flashed it with DG Team software?

[arobertson676]

After giving this router another try, my connection successfully held last night. The SNR went all the way down to about 0.5dB but it held and there was no noticeable loss of throughput either. Since my IP profile was 4Mb before, it only took 12 hours to go up to 6.5Mb. For anybody interested, here are my stats and a speed test:





Hopefully it holds again tonight.

[Rik]

Have Plusnet got you on a target 3db noise margin?

[arobertson676]

Nope, tweaked it down myself. I think my target is 9dB at the moment.

[Rik]

You may have to make a decision between speed and stability at some point...

[arobertson676]

Synced at 7616kbps and SNR down to 0.0db. Still going...