Sometimes I wonder about companies. I really do. I got a new wireless router this month and decided to try and set it up. It’s a Netgear router, which you’d think would work flawlessly. At least I did. Silly me. Here’s what happened.
1. Buy Netgear wireless router
2. Connect as instructed in documentation
3. Ensure all lights are on as necessary, pings to router are working, etc.
4. Receive a “things aren’t connected right, dumbass, make sure all the lights are on and try again” error from the Netgear software
5. Try again. Same message. Wash, rince, repeat.
6. Try and call Netgear with number on box, but it’s the wrong one.
7. Find number in documentation package.
8. Call Netgear to try and figure out what’s wrong, since all seems to be working properly.
9. Get a “you can’t talk to support until you register your product” (after 15 minutes on hold). Of course, the only way to register is to be online.
10. Disconnect everything, go to http://netgear.com/registration, the address they supplied. It’s a 404 error. Yay.
11. Surf around the Netgear site to find the registration page.
12. Enter details.
13. Have to re-enter the serial, because I used the product number instead of the serial (too many damned numbers).
14. Serial doesn’t work.
15. Enter letters as uppercase. Serial doesn’t work.
16. Enter serials with “*” characters on either side (which is what the sticker has). Doesn’t work.
17. Try nearly infinite variations of the serial, part number, date of purchase, retailer purchased at, etc. No workee.
18. Call Netgear to try and figure out how I can get support for a product I can’t even register. Select the customer service menu option. There’s no option to just talk to a customer service rep (I’m not a reseller, I’m not calling about my “RMA” and I’m not checking on the status of an existing order).
19. Try pressing 0 to get an operator. The system hangs up on me.
20. Throw router at wall.
21 Plug it in, and it works.
Okay, I was kidding about the last two bits. But it’d be nice if that’s all it took. I’ve decided to email “support@netgear.com” to see if they can help. Apparently it can take 4-12 days to receive an answer though. Guess I’m not using this little prezzie anytime soon.
This is sad. I mean, I’m a fairly smart guy (shush). I’ve done this before. But the documentation (online, support forums, knowledge base, etc) was insufficient to answer the “why won’t everything that should work work?” question. And their phone support was useless. And their registration page didn’t work. Hell, they couldn’t even get the number on the box right for CALLING support, and their phone message didn’t know where their registration page actually was.
All in all, a wasted 2 hours.
December 31st, 2005 at 10:51 pm
Yeah I had exactly the same problem, so I ignored the instructions, pointed my browser at the router and configured it manually. I rebooted it and it worked fine.
When I worked at Bay and we owned Netgear things were much better. I don’t know what’s happened to them now.
December 31st, 2005 at 11:23 pm
I got one for christmas, anyways, when I plugged it in, all lights were on, however, i didn’t seem to have any wired connectivity (didn’t check wireless)
I just let it sit there for about 10 minutes, and then all of a sudden it started working. Was a bit odd, but it’s been working fine ever since, alot better than the old ass one I was using.
January 1st, 2006 at 12:23 am
Over 6 years ago (I forget, I was still living in Ohio then…) I bought two Netgear NICs based on the reviews and suggestions that I read on the ‘net at that time. I wanted to get 100mb/s speed over the two computers I had connected (I was still dial-up at the tim) versus the 10mb/s I had with my 3Com 3C509Bs. Plus, I wanted to get out of ISA and into PCI.
I couldn’t get the two cards to even connect with each other. I barely got one to talk to one of my 3C509Bs, but it worked (mostly) only one way. I tested my cables, and regardless of which known good crossover cable I used, no go.
I even bought a networking kit with two more cards, their cable, and tried that. Again, no go. I bought a Netgear hub to get rid of the doub about the crossover cables, and used known good and tested straight Ethernet cables. The hub refused to even acknowledge that there was a card connected. I tried drivers, I called support. Their best advice was to return the cards as defective and try again. I just returned the cards, period. I simply avoid all Netgear products.
The hub did work with 3Com cards, and it worked quite satisfactorily. But I haven’t used it since I’ve switched to a wireless router (I’ve gone through some of those, although that’s more from getting struck by lightning here in Florida)
January 1st, 2006 at 1:23 am
sue ‘em. That always works
January 1st, 2006 at 3:33 am
Well…I found your site on Digg.com and by quite a coincidence I’m actually a Netgear Level 2 Tech. Support Technician, who, yes, is working New Years Eve. Sounds to me like you never actually spoke to anyone. So therefore, nobody actually got a chance to troubleshoot your unit. Did you check your modem to make sure it’s not a modem/router? Maybe your try to double nat on the same network…Our website was down for a day briefly, and we are always inundated with e-mails (believe me I read them and mail back) but sometimes are just flooded. Especially around this holiday season. 800-Netgear is the support line, give it a call and ask to be transfered to Level 2. You can even ask for me and I’ll help you out.
-Joe
January 1st, 2006 at 4:44 am
What model was it? I’ve set up and used several Netgear routers and only had a bit of trouble with the wireless model, nothing that a couple of hours poking around didn’t solve. I can understand your frustration though, I had the same problems trying to find information when I did have a problem.
Give ‘em hell! Customer service to make the damn things work shouldn’t be optional.
January 1st, 2006 at 6:07 am
Hi jeremy. Sorry to hear about your netgear woe’s. Sadly Netgear lost the plot a long time ago, both with regards to thier support and products. I have been down the same road your traveling with Netgear. I have to say the outlook is not good. Read some of my experiences with Netgear here. Good luck.
January 1st, 2006 at 10:14 am
I have several clients and they all used to be on NetGear routers, switches, and hubs.
After several instances like that, I’ve steered my clients away.
I can’t make any recommendations, but I’ve got two RP614’s behind me that NG won’t warranty because they require that I flash the ROM and “re-test” to see if the problem goes away. The problem was infrequent before – I don’t have the time to bother. It’s “cheaper” to just replace it with something else.
Apparently, they don’t understand that.
January 1st, 2006 at 11:13 am
Eric: I might try that
jesse: Naw, it’s really not worth the time. I just want a decent, working, router.
Joe: Wow, thanks for the offer. I might just do that. I didn’t actually talk to tech support, because the IVR system said I couldnt’ without a registered product. Which is where I got stuck
I’ll likely try calling early next week 
January 1st, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Pretty funny – two of the Yahoo ads being served to your page while I read this are for Netgear routers. It is obvious why – triggered by the Netgear mention in the post – but you’d think that Yahoo could “contextualize” a bit with their ad delivery software these days and not deliver ads to posts that are somewhat negative about the product they are pitching.
Good luck with the router, Jeremy. I just make it a general practice to never call customer support lines unless there is no other option at all. Using the browser-based setup sounds like a good idea to me – I have had problems with Linksys products before that were solved by blowing off the wizard and using the web setup. Anyway, probably not telling you anything you don’t already know! Happy 2006!
January 1st, 2006 at 1:27 pm
I’ve had mine for about 18 months and it worked fine up until I downloaded a firmware upgrade. Now I have to unplug it a let it reset every 2 days or so. They certainly do seem to treat them as disposable.
Tried helping my brother in law set up his Linsys the other day. Nearly identical scenario. We need more user centered thinkers in positions of power.
January 1st, 2006 at 2:00 pm
i hate netgear! i go for linksys
January 2nd, 2006 at 7:15 pm
I started my LAN with an Asanté wired router, plug-and-play on my Mac, couldn’t be simpler… Now, additionally I have the Airport Extreme/Express combo for total wireless and wired connections around the house, again strictly plug-and-play. Great stuff ! Give both of them a try…
January 3rd, 2006 at 3:22 am
I just wrote about something similar w/ Linksys devices. It seems to me these SOHO routers/switches have really degraded in quality over the past couple of years. I guess the price wars drove down quality severely. I really don’t know where to steer clients anymore, as Netgear and Linksys dominated the SOHO networking market for some time… Recommendations?
http://howradical.com/articles/read/10
January 5th, 2006 at 8:57 am
Never had an issue with Netgear products, had a 4 port wired router, then wanted to go wireless, bought an ASUS wireless router and couldn’t get it to work, so reverted to a Netgear Wireless router and had it working within 10 minutes.