New high performance wireless routers have been introduced since early 2011 from different manufacturers including Netgear, Linksys and Buffalo. Many of them are simultaneous dual band technology which can double the bandwidth demand for high-intensive bandwidth applications.

Netgear introduced its superior product last Jan 2011 in CES 2011 with its WNDR4000 Wireless N750 router. This is the fastest router with N750 technology delivering the high speeds of up to 450Mbps (for 5GHz band) in ideal conditions. Currently Netgear introduces many wireless routers which are categorized into high performance routers, ideal for streaming and smooth gaming. They include WNDR3400 N600, WNDR3700 N600 and WNDR37AV N600.

If you think WNDR4000 is still very expensive for you, you can consider one of these high performance category routers. Now which one meets your need?

WNDR3700 is likely going to be replaced by the newer WNDR37AV router. Both routers nearly have the same features except WNDR37AV supports free Live parental control and DLNA compliant. The following shows comparison table between WNDR3300, WNDR3400 and WNDR37AV.

Wireless Standards

All the three routers are powered by the latest wireless 802.11n technology with dual band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) support for doubling your bandwidth demand. These are ideal routers for streaming high definition video and smooth online gaming experiences. Dual band support is very advantageous to let you connect with mix wireless devices either 2.4GH or 5GHz based devices at the same time.

LAN / WAN Interface

If you mostly use wireless connection for your wireless devices, you can choose either WNDR3300 or WNDR3400 wireless router which support 10/100Mbps interfaces. WNDR3300 doesn’t support USB port and the price is half as much the price as WNDR3400 with USB port.

If the requirement for Gigabit interfaces exist, the WNDR37Av is your router but the price is almost triple as much the price as WNDR3300 router.

All Ethernet interfaces support autosensing type port means the port can detect the cable type (either cross or straight through) automatically and the system will adjust the system accordingly.

USB Port

Unlike WNDR3300 wireless router, both WNDR3400 and WNDR37Av support one USB port to let you connect an external shared storage with Ready Share technology. With Ready Share technology, the router provides fast and easy shared access to an external USB storage device.

WNDR37Av includes one USB port with built-in media server and is DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) compliant. This will help you easily stream multimedia files from USB storage to any types of home theater devices including Blu-Ray player, XBOX console and HDTV.

Unfortunately with the USB port both routers support, you cannot use them to host a USB printer for sharing. Should you need to share a printer, you need separate print server or share the printer in traditional way via a computer. Or you can consider wireless routers with print server port.

Advanced Security

For security reason, all wireless connection must be protected by the strongest wireless security encryption WPA/WPA2. Luckily, all the three routers support this type of wireless security encryption for secure wireless connection. However, for connecting the legacy clients the routers support WEP (Wired Equivalent Protection) – a wireless security encryption which is less secure than WPA.

Other standard security features including NAT & SPI firewall, all the three routers support. For secure tunneling the three routers support VPN pass-through – means passing the VPN protocol, not natively support VPN.

Unlike WNDR3300, WNDR3400 and 37av support free live parental control and secure guest network. Secure guest network is a feature to let you create multiple SSIDs. You can create guest network each band with different SSID, different password and with limited access right. With live parental control, you can block bad sites for your kids and you can manage remotely from anywhere.

System Requirement

Unlike WNDR3300, the other two routers supports Windows 7 besides Windows Vista, XP, 2000, Mac OS, UNIX®, or Linux. Other requirements are the same.

Netgear Green Technology

The WNDR37Av support eco-friendly environment the green technology to help conserve the energy including 80% recycled packaging, energy star compliant power adapter and power & wireless on-off buttons.

Depends on your need, which one meets your environment? The price of the WNDR3300 is around half as much the price as the WNDR3400. The price of WNDR3400 is around half as much as the price as WNDR37Av. Choose one that meets your requirements.

By Ki Grinsing

See also:

• Top 10 wireless routers – most popular for home networks
• Best seller wireless N150 Medialink router
• Best dual band wireless routers – more values
• Best wireless router for gaming – general guidelines to choose
• SBG6580 Cable Modem Wireless Router
• Home wireless network setup guidelines