Netgear WNDR3700 review and settings

Recently I've needed to use SIP/VoIP application on my iPhone (iSip and Softphone) only to discover that my D-Link DIR615 doesn't work correctly with SIP traffic. The router has some settings, but no combination would allow the phone to work, so I've had to replace it.

I needed something fast, fairly flexible, with wireless access point. After a quick look at what's avaliable from D-Link, Linksys and Netgear I've picked up Netgear WNDR3700 wireless router.

So far the new router runs like a champ I'm definitely having none of the issues (such as dropped connections) as I've had with the old. This is by far the best and fastest router I've tried, and tried many in my line of work.

So here is what makes WNDR3700 special:
1- Gigabit LAN
2- Dual band wireless - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
3- Dual band wireless guest network (separated from LAN)
4- QoS (quality of service) which allows for traffic proritization
5- USB hard drive sharing

The best place to buy this router and read more reviews is Amazon.com

Setup:
My recommendation is not to use the CD that came with the router, despite what the manual says. Instead - just plugin the ethernet cable and navigate to http://192.168.1.1 and login with user "admin" and password "password".

You can try running the Setup Wizard, but it has an issue detecting WAN connection. So instead just head over to Basic Settings. Select your type of connection and provide some basic info for your network.

Wireless Settings - you want to change the SSID from default to something that is easy for you to recognize but make it obvious that one is 5Ghz and one is 2.4Ghz. If you have 5Ghz devices, you will want to connect to that wireless network for fewer conflicts with other wireless devices. Then enable security and set password for your wireless networks. I recommend using WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES] .

Guest Network allows you to set up wireless internet access for your friends and whoever else comes over to your place, without letting them on your local network and divulging the password to it. Just enable Guest network, name it appropriately (Guest24 and Guest50 for example for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz respectively), set security and set easy to remember password that you won't mind giving to your friends.

(my guest network is disable, and doesn't have security set. You should set security if you enable it though)

QoS - quality of service is a great feature for those high-bandwidth applications. By enabling it the router will give more processing power and priority over the other network traffic. So when you watch hi-def movies online over a wireless connection - turn this on and enjoy fast and smooth sailing.

If you've got IP phone, you may need to disable SIP ALG and Statefull packet inspection (SPI) in order for the phone to work properly. Play around and give it a try.

Website blocking - to block a website open the configration page and enter the keyword that appears in the domain name or URL of any site or page you want to block.Don't forget to set blocking to Always or Schedule (you will need to define it)

Service Blocking - if you want to block a particular service, open the configration page, enable blocking by setting (Always or Schedule and defining schedule). Then click to add a service and pick what you would like to block. Then click Apply and that service (based on TCP/UDP ports) will be blocked.