We have been highly impressed with Netgear’s routers of late, and the W4500 continues this trend. This dual band router supports Mbps connections as long as you have a compatible adapter, but even without this it delivers good, consistent speeds.
We found setup to be quick and easy, with clearly labelled connections and the requisite cabling (although putting the spare login details on the pull off plastic wrap seems a bizarre idea). Performance was solid on both wired and wireless connections, and we had little issue using the inbuilt file and printer sharing functions.
We do have to give a disapproving look at Netgear for including blue USB 2 ports, though; trying to trick us into thinking it’s USB 3 is not cool. Overall this is a solid product, although it will be used to its best if you have a ‘3x3’ wireless card to take advantage of the advanced wireless speeds that the router is capable of.
