Netgear Rangemax NEXT Dual Band Wireless Router

When you look at the technical details for this product, please note that it is just an Ethernet Router.... that is, it connects network devices together that use the Ethernet Protocol.

If you use Cable, then the interface that Virgin Media provide you with is an RJ45 Ethernet Connection, so at the other end of the wire there is another Ethernet device that will talk to your Router.

If you use BT/Talk Talk etc... - anything that comes in via a standard telephone line, it is known as ADSL, (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) and you are NOT using an Ethernet connection, it is invariably a PPoA connection.... which talks to something known as a DSLAM (Digital Subsciber Line Access Multiplexer) in the telephone exchange. So you can not plug this ADSL sort of connection into this box directly, because it will not work.

The BT phone network had to be "modified" to allow us to use very old telephone lines that ran over long distances to access the Internet, so they could not use Ethernet point to point.

Without being overly simplistic, it is like wiring up your toaster to an RJ45 connector, and plugging it into your Router..... or like putting a DVD into a car CD player .... it fits, but it won't work. Ethernet and PPoa are not the same, and they send different signals down the wires.

If you want to connect your network to a BT/etc.. telephone Broadband connection, then you need to buy..... you guessed it, an "ADSL Broadband Router" or "ADSL Modem".

I hope this clears up previous reviewer comments and stops anyone else from making the same mistake.

Ordered and product arrived really promptly. Box was slightly bashed but did not affect product nor delivery at all.

My mind problem with this is that it hasn't been thought out as well as previous routers by any means. Our previous router had been a NETGEAR which had lasted us around five years but died a pretty sudden death when all wireless signals just stopped working, so without question we went for this one, just presuming that as this one was a similar price it would be just as good.

It isn't.

There's been 270Mbps of bandwidth to the N network given, and a tiny 54 to the G network. This means that, try as you might, to stream two things at once on the G network (we have very fast virgin cable internet) and it'll just drop, this is not my internet. I once tried to stream a BBC iPlayer radio programme and a VEVO HD video on two different iPhones and the HD video just couldn't keep up, it was constantly buffering. On top of that, areas of our house which have never been deadspots before to the old router (the new one is placed in the exact same position) are now just completely dead. Certain areas of our kitchen (which is only, really, just downstairs and diagonal from the study, where the router is situated) our iPad cannot find, yet the iPhones work well. the iPad works on the N network, as does my MacBook Pro, yet the N network will even drop out upstairs. When I'm in a bedroom, I often have to connect to the G network just to get reliable signal. The N network is hopeless near the back of the house, where the conservatory is. I just get endless messages on my Mac saying 'the network connection timed out'. I end up having to use the G network and all of it's bandwidth issues.

It also doesn't work that well with AirPlay on Apple TV, as after about 45 minutes it'll just drop out when playing music, but never video, even HD video, which makes absolutely no sense.

The router software constantly thinks that another device is logged into it (impossible as the network is secured), even if I sign out when I've finished trying to tweak it. As a result, I have to reset it and go through the set up process every time I need to make a settings change. This was particularly bad as yesterday it decided it didn't know how to connect to the Virgin modem, after being connected for months, the modem was fine but it decided there was no internet (just the orange light on the internet status light) and I could't get it going. I discovered after much fiddling that this was a problem with the fact that it thought it needed a static IP from the modem, not a dynamic one. Don't know why it forgot that, but it did. Anyway, took me three hours of resetting it and going through the set up process again and again in order for it to find the dynamic settings it needed, it couldn't even find the settings itself first few times, and being dynamic it has to do this itself.

I don't know how long I'll keep this one for, as we've now got so many Apple products (a more recent development) I'll probably get an AirPort extreme next time, although we're about to have the Virgin speed doubled so we might get a shiny SuperHub, although they seem to be being slated as well.

Overall, not NETGEARs best by far. If you've only got G devices and you're a couple, fine, but as a family, as we are, I really wouldn't. Then again I don't know why you'd buy a G and N router if you only had G devices...

Our old Netgear router (about 4 years old) packed up recently so I bought this partly on the basis of looks and partly on the basis of price (it was about the price I was looking to pay). I assumed that as technology moves on it would be a lot better. It was OK to set up (not quite as easy as it claims but not too exasperating). It seems reasonably fast to download things (mostly just web surfing). I can't comment on the effectiveness of the dual band. I have my laptop on the N and various smartphones and the PS3 linked to the G. It seems to work but I don't know whether this arrangement speeds things up or not. The range seems poor to me, certainly compared the my old one. We do have it in a poor location (in the corner of the room, on the floor behind a metal legged desk) but so was the old one. It's a bit galling when you go into the conservatory and you can see all your neighbours wireless systems listed but not your own.