It wasn’t much of a contest: Netgear’s WNDR3700 V1 retained its crown as our Best of the Best router with spectacular TCP through-put, a strong feature set, and an even stronger price/performance ratio. It’s the second-most expensive router we tested, but it’s worth every penny.
The WNDR3700’s 2.4GHz radio delivered the best performance at every client location except one (where it placed second), and its 5GHz radio finished first in six of our seven locations. D-Link’s DIR-855 firmware is more customizable, but Netgear’s router offers several important features D-Link can’t match, including a DLNA-compliant media server, the ability to configure either radio as a wireless bridge/repeater, and NAS functionality that doesn’t require a client-side utility.
Supremely fast, feature-rich, and relatively inexpensive: There's little we don't like about Netgear's WNDR3700.
If your ISP subjects you to download limits and penalizes you for overages, you’ll appreciate the WNDR3700’s traffic meter. This tool measures both online time and download volume and can be configured to prevent you from exceeding either quota. Unfortunately, the meter measures in aggregate, so you can’t establish limits on a per-client basis. We also find it odd that Netgear doesn’t support printer sharing on the WNDR3700’s single USB port.
We suspect the primary reason the WNDR3700’s press-time street price was so low is because Netgear was clearing inventory to make way for the WNDR3700 V2. Netgear is promising to double the router’s memory, deliver a 50 percent performance boost on the 5GHz band, and provide full support for IPv6. We can’t wait.
Awesome price/performance ratio; DLNA-compliant media server; dual guest networks; traffic meter.
No USB printer sharing; traffic meter can't limit on a per-client basis.
| 2.4Ghz | 5GHz | |
|---|---|---|
| Bedroom, 10ft (Mb/s) | 98.7 | 75.9 |
| Kitchen, 20ft (Mb/s) | 96.6 | 94.5 |
| Enclosed Patio, 38ft (Mb/s) | 53.8 | 68.9 |
| Bedroom 2, 60ft (Mb/s) | 27.1 | 34.7 |
| Media Room, 35ft (Mb/s) | 22.8 | 44.3 |
| Outdoors, 85ft (Mb/s) | 4.0 | 4.3 |
| Netgear RangeMax V1 | |
|---|---|
| Radio Frequencies | Dual-band: 2.4- and 5GHz |
| Guest Network | Yes, on both radios |
| DLNA-Compliant Media Server | Yes |
| USB Ports | One (for storage only) |
| NTFS Drive Support | Yes |
| WDS Bridge/Repeater Support | Yes, on both radios |
| Large File Write (min:sec) | 11:41 |
| Small Files Write (min:sec) | 4:15 |
| Large File Read (min:sec) | 3:59 |
| Small Files Read (min:sec) | 1:04 |
bolod
December 23, 2011 at 12:35pm
I love to surf and my initial source for information is the blogs which have always helped me in my education. This blog is one of them.
Justroy
November 18, 2011 at 12:12am
I bought the wndr3700 a while back and have 12mb advertised service...decided to test the speed of my DSL and it came back at 10.25mb...was told by the local carrier that was in range for them and if it dropped below 10mb they would look into it...(windstream) no other choices....but decided to pull the router out of the mix and ran straight to the modem and get 12.8mb.. any ideas how to get this to run up to par....I am useing the router for home network ...and needing the wifi for my cell phone calls as no cell service out in the country...
dan man
August 04, 2011 at 5:59pm
This is great news, thank you. I do not know about other readers, but I would like to know your <a href="http://outlookrepairhelp.com/">outlook</a> on which router from the "N" bunch delivers the best combination of range and speed.
dehalley
May 11, 2011 at 1:14pm
Out of the box to up and running - 20 minutes (including testing with a laptop and adding my Wi-Fi capable TV). Started watching a movie on Netflix at 21 minutes. Picture quality was pretty great. Plugged in a spare USB hard drive and it appeared on the TV and PC immediately. Setup my printer for wireless printing with just a few more keystrokes. Ditto Windows Media Player.
I'm doing all this from the upstairs computer room to the farthest away point in the house and through many walls. Nary an issue, including playing videos from the hard drive (although my PC doesn't have the gas to transcode realtime, so I do it ahead).
I did a lot of homework, so I knew the limitations and capabilties of the router before I purchased it. None of the limitations effect my usage and the capabilties have proved to be as advertised. Given all the new equipment out there, this may no longer be the choice for the very demanding user, but for everyday use and reliable performance, I wouldn't hesitate to recomment the device. I have a pretty good understanding of computer networks, but it turned out that none of that knowledge was required: This would be a good choice for the novice/first time Wi-Fi installer.
I have nothing snarky to say. Sorry.
Jonthomasdesigns
May 03, 2011 at 8:34am
Please review the NETGEAR N750 450 Mbps WNDR4000 .. What is taking so long ?? i want to see it vs. the Cisco-Linksys E4200
burntham77
March 08, 2011 at 8:20pm
The Guest Network feature is very intriguing. I might actually sell my current router and try this one.
KevinTernes
March 06, 2011 at 11:20am
I bought this product based on MaxPC's recommendation.
I could not see all my media files via DLNA (although I could see them with no problems via other protocols). I made the mistake of telling Netgear support that I had attached a WD2001FASS 2 TB. Netgear replied that since this drive was not on their list of approved drives, they would not address my problem.
There is a very short list of approved drives. Check that list before buying a drive if you want support from Netgear.
However, the problem with DLNA probably has nothing to do with the drive. Googling brings up a number of users with the same issue. Only a limited number of files will be made available via DLNA.
MaxPC should probably remove the KickAss! award until Netgear fixes the DLNA problem.
Edit: FYI Formatting the drive as ext3 (if you can) seems to yield better performance.
Garyburse
March 01, 2011 at 8:57pm
Wow! what an idea ! What a concept ! Beautiful
my blogs: cityville cheats | master cleanse
porjos
February 28, 2011 at 7:56pm
Of all the websites I visit...the MaximumPC forums has the highest number of uber-opinionated geeks...I've recently installed the WNDR3700, I've had it running for two weeks now...and it does everything it boasts. End of story. Thanks MaxPC!
Since when does it give you validity to hate on something?
MonkeyShine
February 09, 2011 at 3:17pm
We used to a have linksys, and it did us just fine. Well, at least until ATT fryed it. (Similar to this: http://louderback.com/2009/epic-networking-fail-d-link-2wire-belkin-netgear-att-and-frys-scanpst.exe) Anyway, after that fun we just decided to use the ATT model. It's not too bad. It randomly decides to kill the net now and then, but we don't have too many complaints. Easier than trying to make the router and the ISP behave together.
dabluebt
February 03, 2011 at 3:52pm
Bought this router two weeks ago from Buy.com...ended up with WNDR3700v2. This router's current firmware seems to have a problem with the DOS prevention, causing connection drops for Starcraft 2, Borderlands, (not sure what else). The events are logged as DOS attacks. Turning this off via the check-box in the firmware does nothing to correct this. Since it is the WNDR3700v2, there is only the initial Firmware Version 1.0.0.6. For online gamers, you might want to wait for the update or dig around for the v1 reviewed above.
These disconnects happen using a wired connection.
Nitrowolf
November 16, 2010 at 4:11pm
This is a horrible router. How it's on the best of the best list, much less a 9/Kick Ass rating is beyond me. The external drive functions don't work and it's a known problem that Netgear doesn't care to address. The only drive format that functions as advertised is EXT3. If you try to attach an NTFS or FAT32 drive to the router and copy a large amount of files or data to the drive, the router will crash and disconnect the drive. Known issue with all WNDR3700's and Netgear doesn't care.
Horrible router.
Mike Reed
October 27, 2010 at 12:55pm
MaxPC,
Any ideas on why the Netgear NAS write performance is so slow for this otherwise speedy (per this router review) winner?
csdesign73
July 13, 2010 at 9:29pm
What does no Bit Torrent client mean? I know what a Bit Torrent is but does this mean you cannot download from them at all. Does it have some other meaning. If someone can help and explain what that mean thanks.
xytsrm
July 01, 2010 at 5:16am
I have not been able to find any reference to the frequency band (e.g. 2.4GHz or 5GHz) in which the evaluations are performed?
xytsrm
June 30, 2010 at 4:42pm
Dear Mr. Brown,
In reviewing the test reports for the TrendNet TEW-639GR (posted 1/15/10) and the Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 (posted 4/14/10), both of which were compared to the LinkSys WRT-600N, the performance of the WRT-600N in both tests for the same conditions was significantly different. (See below)
LinkSys WRT-600N 1/15/10 4/14/10
Kitchen 95.2 116.0
Patio 70.0 86.0
Bedroom 29.6 26.7
Media Room 35.4 21.5
Outdoors 1 1.9 0.2
Outdoors 2 0.4 0.4
Given that, as reported, the tests were performed in the same environment, can you explain the divergence in the performance for the WRT-600N?
X.
ratdock
June 02, 2010 at 1:40pm
you should also review the
D-Link DIR-855 IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11a/g, IEEE802.11n Draft 2 Xtreme N Duo Media Router
ratdock
June 02, 2010 at 1:29pm
you seem to be going for the buget end of the best of the best but you should review the
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833120168
netarc
May 12, 2010 at 11:51pm
Does this router, or the cheaper Buffalo one mentioned, support WINS or DDNS-type name resolution of local clients?
justinx989
May 10, 2010 at 3:28am
Which band were these benchmarks recorded in?
I bought this router for the 5g and the coverage seems to be insanely short for the 5g. Im going to return it because even at 40' the signal drops too often and max speed i get is 5.6Mbps. Now on the 2ghz i average 53Mbps and no drops so far. Still not to great considering the price of the router and a new adapter.
schneider1492
May 08, 2010 at 4:19am
ya it took a new editor to get them back to work. maybe there having a little too much fun with the podcast.
cocallahan
May 07, 2010 at 1:10pm
Just bought this router per this (and other) reviews. Sadly it seems most newer versions of this router (mine included) has a problem with Guest Networks. When you turn them on, the WiFi radios simply stop broadcasting. All the LEDs are still on and logging in to the admin page shows them as active, but they don't boradcast. Turning off Guest network access fixes the problem.
According to a Netgear forum thread (http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=49720), the issue is known and there is even a beta firmware that seems to fix it. You must open a ticket or call support to get access to it via signing an NDA.
Just a heads up for anyone considering this router. It does seem to perform well other than the Guest network snafu.
lostcause64
May 16, 2010 at 2:46pm
Just bought this router from BB and set everything up without issue, but as soon as I turned on the Guest network - which wouldn't work at all - I started getting connectivity errors on the other 2 if they were detectable at all. Going to Netgear for a fix today, but tomorrow it goes back if I have to waste my day off dealing with this.
John
Have you ever wondered why intelligence can normally be found in an individual, but runs screaming in terror from a group? Though, there are exceptions...
eugeneeg
April 15, 2010 at 10:09am
This is great news, thank you. I do not know about other readers, but I would like to know which router from the "N" bunch delivers the best combination of range and speed.
cyber75sax
April 15, 2010 at 9:00am
Psst...there are other routers out there now. While you guys are busy reviewing graphics cards that only Bill Gates himself can afford, Cisco and Netgear have totally revamped their entire Wi-Fi lines. Do better.
MrMick
April 15, 2010 at 9:10am
A lot of new routers have been released in the past few months, and I have most of them in hand and have started benchmarking them. We'll be posting more reviews online, as opposed to only the reviews that make it into the magazine, so stay tuned. I have the Play and Play Max from Belkin; the E2000, E3000, E2100L, and the Valet from Linksys now, and I will be obtainining more.
Thanks for your feedback.
Michael Brown, Reviews Editor
Twitter: brownieshq
Craig-g
April 14, 2010 at 4:56pm
People should be aware there is a known issue with the DLNA server where it will lock the router up under certain conditions (which unfortunately I have).
http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12091
Just pointing it out as the issue has existed for the last few firmwares. Can be frustrating if you buy it for that feature (like I did :) )
jmichae3
May 06, 2011 at 1:26am
this is the wiki for the wndr3700 series since yall are havin' so much trouble with the wndr3700 series.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Netgear_WNDR3700
always follow instructions carefully so you don't brick your router. keep a copy of the latest netgear commercial firmware around in case you decide to go back for any reason (I think you can go back). dd-wrt gives enterprise-class features.
eugeneeg
April 14, 2010 at 1:45pm
Thank you for the review, but I am still dissapointed. There are many other routers out there that you have not reviewed for some reason. For example: Cisco-Valet Plus, D-Link DIR-655 Extreme, Cisco-Linksys E3000, Cisco-Linksys WRT610N. Surely, these routers are in direct competition with Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700. I bet at least one of them is better than Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 in terms of range and speed. Are you planning to review any of them?
M-ManLA
April 14, 2010 at 1:22pm
Are you guys going to test this one. Looking to upgrade my router.
Electronically charged
TimberWolf
April 14, 2010 at 11:36am
Ive been using this router for a few months now and havent had a single problem with it. Havent had any wirless connection issues. Not a single drop yet.
bloodgain
April 14, 2010 at 11:25am
There's still no support for this router from DD-WRT yet, although the similar WNDR3300 has support. According to speculation on the DD-WRT forums, it could be just over the horizon, though. If you are set on using more flexible firmware (which *might* even add printer support), you may want to wait a little while or spring for a used WRT600 on the Bay that starts with E.
bloodgain
April 14, 2010 at 11:26am
By the way, MaxPC, the spam filter is a little too touchy. Really, I can't say e-to-the-Bay (minus the -to-the-)?
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