Netgear Rangemax Next has a way to go

NETGEAR'S RangeMax Next product line just launched in the last few weeks and it already has product shipping and on retail store shelves along with most of the other major networking players.

I have been lucky enough to play with one of Netgear's latest wireless routers, the WNR854T RangeMax Next Router. The router uses Marvell's TopDog chipset and is draft 802.11n compliant. TopDog solutions include Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology.

The chipset supports the 2.4 GHz and the 5GHz bands, as well as 20MHz and 40MHz channelisation. Peak performance of the wireless is 300Mbp, but is still backwards compatible with existing 802.11b/g solutions.

The high performance of the chipset like other 802.11n solutions enables the transmission of multiple high-definition video streams to clients. On the LAN side, the router also features a built-in 5-port Gigabit Switch which can be useful if you are using a network attached storage device.

For those familar with Netgear router products the interface is familar, and is configurable through a web browser. All of the standard features of modern consumer wireless routers are available, and in addition the router will automatically check for a firmware update if the feature is enabled.

Although the wireless and LAN performance is great, I would hold off on purchasing their WNR854T RangeMax Next Router for the time being. There are still some firmware flaws that caught my eye when I checked out Netgear's website for the firmware history. Probs that are in the process of being fixed are:

Light status is not correct in various situations
Port triggering does not work under certain circumstances
SPI firewall does not work
WEP, WPA and WPA2 do not work under certain circumstances
Some values that you change are not reported correctly
UPnP settings cannot be changed
MTU handling does not work
Various issues with site blocking
Remote management does not work

Now although some of these features would not matter to the average consumer, problems such as the SPI firewall not working as well as wireless security encryption features not working raise valid concerns with me on a shipping product. Netgear however always does a great job in detailing what revisions have been made on their products. When I contacted Netgear technical support, I was told that these problems should be resolved shortly. Once the major bugs are fixed, this RangeMax Next product will make for a stable high performance router for homes and small businesses.

Full Specifications are in this PDF. ?