Most broadband Internet Service Providers only provide you with one IP for one computer (I have heard of some that offer up to 3 for each account) while the majority require payment up and above your monthly charge for anymore IP’s. We will be dealing with the one IP ISP and show you a great way to share not only the Internet but also your files and other resources like your printer.  

The front of the router is a simple layout yet it tells you what you need to know, Internet activity and connectivity to your PC’s.  In our review unit we had all 4 ports used up; so the front of this box was lit up like a Christmas tree. 

The back of the unit shows the built-in 4-port hub/switch, the power adapter plug-in, the serial port for flashing the firmware (we’ll show you that later) and the Cable/xDSL modem connector.

The Netgear 314 Gateway Router, made the initial set up very simple and easy with its Web-Based Configurator set up wizard. The wizard is entered by typing in the IP of the router into your browser address line (http://192.168.0.1) you are then greeted with a dialog box to enter user name and password, which are factory default set to user: admin and password: 1234. 

Password can be changed later using Telnet (we’ll show you where in a bit). The first page of the wizard is where you will enter the Host Name (computer name) and the Domain Name. The second page allows for PPPoE set up (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) a protocol for connecting to the Internet with an always-on connection by simulating a dial-up connection where a user name and password is required, like Road Runner.  

The third page is the WAN (Wide Area Network) set up. This is where you will either enter your IP and DNS Server (Domain Name Service) or let the Router obtain them automatically depending if your I.S.P. uses Dynamic or Static IP’s.  The RT314 also allows for spoofing your Ethernet MAC address should your I.S.P require it. The last page gives you a link to the Netgear homepage.  If the set up went well you should be able to access the Internet now.

The other way to set up the RT314 is to use Telnet. Simply go to Start/Run and type in telnet and select Connect/Remote System and enter the Router’s IP then the user name and password, if you want to change the password menu 23 can be used. Telnet allows for all types of configurations settings. The Main Menu shows a lot more options than did the web based configurator. Telnet is not  user friendly like the Wizard was for the initial set up, but it has many more settings for the advanced user. The General set up is like the first page on the web based wizard not a step by step process, but it allows you to get more involved and to understand what all the number you enter are for. The SUA/NAT set up for Telnet shows you the same field as the wizard but no copy and pasting can be done here, all entries must be one number at a time. The DNS set up with telnet allowed me to specify a secondary DNS server too, which was not available with the wizard (maybe I won’t have anymore problems surfing now J).

Next page: How does it perform?

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