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Netgear WNDR4500 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router review: Netgear WNDR4500 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router

Netgear WNDR4500 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router

Dong Ngo SF Labs Manager, Editor / Reviews
CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
Dong Ngo
9 min read

Netgear's WNDR4500 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router is the successor to the Netgear WNDR4000 N750 router that we reviewed a while ago. The new router is superior thanks to its dual support for the new 450Mbps standard on both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz bands, as opposed to only on the 5GHz band in the case of its predecessor. And Netgear has upgraded its Netgear Genie software to encompass both the desktop software and the router's Web interface, making the router easy to manage for home users, yet at the same time robust and comprehensive for advanced users.

7.9

Netgear WNDR4500 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router

The Good

The <b>Netgear WNDR4500 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router</b> supports the new 450Mbps standard on both bands, and offers great range and excellent data rates on the 5GHz band. The router comes with the robust and easy-to-use Netgear Genie management software and boasts lots of features.

The Bad

The Netgear WNDR4500's 24.GHz wireless performance is subpar, and its USB storage performance could also use some improvement.

The Bottom Line

The Netgear WNDR4500 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router makes a very good investment for those who want to get the most out of a wireless network, especially when they have clients that support the 5GHz band.

In terms of performance, the WNDR4500, though selectively faster, is very similar to the WNDR4000, with excellent range and throughput speeds on the 5GHz band. Its 2.4GHz band, however, could use some improvement in data rates. The router's built-in support for network storage via its two USB ports didn't provide fast enough bandwidth to be considered as a viable NAS solution. To make up for this, the router's wireless signals are very stable and it also offers lots of features, including robust parental controls, a detailed Network Map, an Internet bandwidth meter, and IPv6.

Priced at around $180, the WNDR4500 makes a very good investment for a high-end home network, especially one with mostly 5GHz wireless clients. Those who just want dual 450Mbps support and don't care for USB ports and other features should also check out the much more affordable Trendnet TEW-692GR.

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Design and setup
The Netgear WNDR4500 N900 router looks very much like recent Netgear routers such as the WNDR4000, with one big exception: it's about 20 percent larger. The router is designed to work in the vertical position and its base is not detachable, meaning you won't be able put it flat on a surface or wall-mount it.

Similar to the WNDR4000, on the back the N900 has one WAN port (to connect to an Internet source, such as a broadband modem) and four LAN ports (for wired clients). All of these ports are Gigabit Ethernet, promising a very fast wired connection. Also on the back, you'll find an on/off button and two USB ports that can be used to host USB storage devices or printers. While these ports are colored blue, suggesting that they are USB 3.0, unfortunately, they only support the USB 2.0 standard.

On the front, the router boasts an array of color-changing LED lights that reflect the status of the Internet connection, the wireless network, and of the ports on the back. On top of these LEDs are a wireless on/off button and a Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button. The former turns the router's wireless network on and off, and the latter is for quickly adding a wireless client to its wireless networks.


The N900's Web interface looks and functions similarly to its Genie desktop software.

It's very easy to set up the router with the included Netgear Genie application, which behaves somewhat like the Cisco Connect software that comes with the Linksys E4200. This is a newer version of Netgear Genie than the one that accompanied the WNDR400, and it offers much more detailed instructions as well as deeper access to the router's settings. The best thing about the new Genie is the fact that the router's firmware is now also part of it. This means if you don't want to use the desktop software and opt for the Web interface--which can be accessed by pointing a connected computer's browser to its default IP address, 192.168.1.1--you'll be presented with similarly easy-to-use wizards and instructions. You can use either the Web interface or the desktop software to manage all the router's settings. The only difference between the two is that the Web interface allows you to set up two separate networks for the two 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands; the desktop software only allows you to make one network for the 2.4GHz band. Savvy users should definitely use the Web interface to get the most out of the router. Unlike Cisco Connect, Genie allows users to use both the desktop application and the Web interface to manage the router.

If you don't want to bother with customizing, the N900 comes preconfigured with a network name and its encryption key printed on a label. If you're OK with these default manufacturer settings, all you have to do is plug the router into an Internet source, turn it on, and you're good to go.

Features
The WNDR4500 is the first dual 450Mbps router from Netgear that offers the 450Mbps ceiling wireless speed on both the 5GHz and the 2.4GHz bands. This is the new three-stream standard (aka 3x3) that's getting more popular in high-end wireless routers. Note that you need wireless clients that support the same standard to take advantage of the new speed, but the router works with any existing clients on the market.

The N900 is capable of simultaneously broadcasting Wireless-N signals in both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz bands. It's also able to broadcast two more guest wireless networks, one for each band. Guest networking is an increasingly popular feature that enables you to create separate wireless networks that offer guests access to the Internet, while separating them from local resources such as files or printers. Users also have options to isolate the two main networks, making connected clients unable to see one another.

The router has a Parental Controls feature, which was first introduced with the WNR2000. To use this, you first need to install the Netgear Live Parental Controls software; the download link is provided via the Netgear Genie application or the Web interface. The software guides you through a few steps of setting up a free online account with OpenDNS and choosing between five overall Web-filtering levels: high, moderate, low, minimum, and none, where high means most traffic will be blocked, and none means nothing will be blocked. From there, you no longer need the software. From anywhere in the world, you can go to the Parental Controls Center site, log in with the account you just created, and further customize the Web-filtering features of the router. This is a nice feature for parents who are on the go, because it helps them make sure they have control over the Internet access of anyone at home.

The second big feature of the N900 is its two USB ports that can be used to host external hard drives and printers. We tried these ports with a few external hard drives and they work well. The router can handle hard drives formatted in FAT32 or NTFS, and its USB ports provide enough juice to power portable bus-powered external drives. Once a drive is plugged in, its contents will be immediately shared across the network, with everybody having full access to it. The router supports the SMB protocol, meaning any computer in the network can browse for the shares using a network browser such as Windows Explorer or Finder. Share folders can also be turned into an FTP site for those who want to access them over the Internet. Via the Web interface, you then can restrict this access to certain folders via the router's admin log-in account. This is a rather simple yet effective way to quickly share content.

The router also allows users to stream digital content stored on the hard drive to DNLA-compliant network media players, such as the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. This feature automatically scans the attached external hard drive for digital content, making it available to devices within the network. The router can also automatically scan for new content when new files are added or repeatedly over a period time. We tried this out and it worked as intended.

The coolest features of the WNDR4500 are its Network Map, which shows an illustration of connected clients, and the Traffic Meter, which allows you to control the router's Internet connection. For example, you can set the router to disconnect from the Internet if a certain amount of data has been downloaded (or uploaded, or both) over a certain period of time. This is useful when you have a limited quota and don't want to go over. Unfortunately, the Traffic Meter doesn't offer bandwidth control for specific computers, so you can't use it to restrict one individual from downloading too much.

For security, the router supports all existing wireless-encryption methods including WEP, WPA, and WPA2. It also comes with Wi-Fi Protected Setup so you can add a new client to the network at the press of a button instead of having to type in the encryption key manually. The router also supports IPv6, which is the new version of the Internet protocol that replaces IPv4 because it's running out of addressing space.

Performance
The WNDR4500 N900 router offered mixed performance in our testing. On one hand, its 5GHz band's performance is superb, with great range and high data rate. On the other hand, the 2.4GHz band was really slow, but it still offers great range.

On the 5GHz band, when used with 450Mbps clients, the router averaged 152.8Mbps in close-range (15-feet) tests and 106.6Mbps in the long-range (100-feet) tests. These are among the highest numbers we've seen. When tested with regular 300Mbps clients, the router also did very well.

On the 2.4GHz band, even when tested with 450Mbps clients, the router registered only 45.3Mbps and 31.1Mbps for close- and long-range tests, respectively. These scores were significantly lower than even regular 300Mbps Wireless-N routers.

The WNDR4500 N900 router does, however, offer incredibly long range for both bands, more than 300 feet in our testing, the longest we've seen. Note that the router works best around 200 feet or shorter, and if you want to stream HD content, we'd recommend having the clients no farther than 150 feet from it.

The router also passed our 48-hour stress test, during which it didn't disconnect once. The stress test was conducted within a range of just around 15 feet. As the range gets longer, the stability of the signals might be reduced.

Similar to all routers with built-in support for network storage via its USB ports, the N900's data rate for the connected USB external drive, via Gigabit Ethernet, averaged around 65Mbps. This, while faster than some others, isn't fast enough to be considered a viable network storage solution and is only good enough for light document sharing. If you want to do lots of data sharing or media streaming to multiple clients, it's recommended that you get a dedicated NAS server.

CNET Labs' NAS performance test (in Mbps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Read
Write
Netgear WNDR4500
65.6
63.2

CNET Labs' 2.4GHz Wireless-N performance scores (in Mbps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Range
Throughput
D-Link DIR-825
38.8
61.3
Asus RT-N56U
34.4
57.2
Netgear WNDR3700
29.44
55.44
Netgear WNDR4500 (with 450Mbps clients)
31.1
45.3
Linksys E2500
10.7
36.5
Linksys WRT610n
28.8
35.76
Netgear WNDR4500
12.5
28.6

CNET Labs' 5GHz Wireless-N performance scores (in Mbps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Range
Throughput
Netgear WNDR4500 (with 450Mbps clients)
106.6
152.8
Asus RT-N56U
76.2
112.6
Belkin N750 DB
74.64
92.32
Linksys E2500
70.2
77.2
Linksys WRT610n
54.8
64.8
Netgear WNDR4500
41
109.4
D-Link DIR-825
36.48
80.96

Service and support
In the U.S., Netgear backs the WNDR4500 N900 with a limited lifetime warranty. The router also comes with 90 days of free technical support. Netgear's site offers lots of support information, including troubleshooting, a knowledge base, firmware, drivers, and manual downloads.

Conclusions
We liked the Netgear WNDR4500 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit router for its superb range, stability, and great data rates on the 5GHz band. The router let us down a bit with slow performance on the 2.4GHz band, however. Hopefully this will improve via firmware updates. In its current state, the N900 will still make a very good router for homes and small offices, especially those where most wireless clients support the 5GHz band.

7.9

Netgear WNDR4500 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router

Score Breakdown

Design 8Features 9Performance 7Support 7