Netgear routers can be a bit hit and miss, I had one a few years ago that was amazingly bad, stupid thing would overheat once it got busy with lots of devices hitting it at the same time, you could almost set your watch by it falling over once the network got busy. (A lot of people retrofitted a fan to keep it cool.) But then again my last router was a Netgear too (recommended by my ISP) and it was flawless, would sit there for months on end and just work, and this is on a busy network with some seven wired devices (I had a couple of hubs hanging off it) and fuck knows how many wireless devices. Only changed it because it wasn't VDSL compatible.
My very unscientific approach with Netgear routers is that the swizzier they look, the worse they'll be.
My current router is a Fritz Box 7360, which despite looking like a rejected Thunderbirds model (it's comically bad looking) is possibly one of the most solid routers I've ever owned.
My ISP gave it to me for free when we upgraded to VDSL as long as we signed up for another 18 months (I've been with them for years so that was a no-brainer).
Quite a few of the guys at work have the same model via the same route that I got mine, and we're all seriously impressed with it, although we can't resist referring to them as Fritzl Boxes. Lots of configurability on the backend too in terms of monitoring, blacklisting, timetables for when devices can and can't connect and so on - handy for children.
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