The WNDR3400 N600 Wireless Dual Band Router is a new high-performance wireless n router for gaming and video streaming.
High performance network is designed to support time-sensitive applications including streaming high definition video, voice application and online gaming in large home. These types of time sensitive applications should have the first priority on the network for clean, fast, jitter-free and lag-free experiences. To perform that, you require high performance router to support high performance network for streaming and gaming. See also best wireless routers for gaming.
High performance router should support the high speed, the router that is powered by the latest wireless 802.11n technology and supports the dual band to double your bandwidth demand. With dual band support, the router can operate in 5GHz band, the clear band which is less interference than the crowded 2.4GHz band.
For solid connection the router should support the Quality of Services (QoS) to provide traffic prioritization for high-intensive bandwidth applications including streaming HD media and fast responsive gaming over other data traffic.
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There are many wireless routers that fall into high performance category you can choose out there to support your high performance network environment. One of the affordable high performance routers you can choose is the Netgear WNDR3400 N600 wireless dual band router. Netgear currently introduces several high performance wireless routers including:
- WNDR37-AV wireless dual band gigabit router – replacing WNDR3700
- WNDR4000 N750 dual band gigabit router – the newest version with ideal speeds of up to 450Mbps
- WNDR3800 N600 Premium edition – include USB to share storage or printer
Unlike the three routers above, the WNDR3400 N600 supports only Fast Ethernet 10/100Mbps for LAN/WAN interfaces as opposed to gigabit LAN/WAN interfaces in the three routers above.
Note:
Soon, Netgear is shipping new ultimate performance of WNDR4700 N900 router. This is a new router with integrated storage, share-cloud and USB 3.0 port for faster speed.
What this Product Does
High Speed
The NETGEAR WNDR3400 is powered by the 802.11n standards with simultaneous dual band N600 technology, meaning the router delivers high speeds of up to 300Mbps each band. This is theoretical speeds in ideal conditions; in the real world you will never reach those speeds. The router supports the Video QoS for Jitter-free video and gaming and for reliable Internet connections.
QoS and WMM-based QoS
The NETGEAR WNDR3400 N600 also supports Wireless Multimedia (WMM) based QoS to allow the system to separate video traffic and provide prioritization over wireless connection. With QoS for reliable internet connections, you can enjoy multiplayer (wireless) gaming and streaming HD video smoothly, jitter-free, and lag-free. However, the quality of your broadband internet connection contributes the performance of your Internet connection too. For example, Comcast ‘Performance’ and ‘Blast’ services would be different in speed performance.
USB Port
The NETGEAR WNDR3400 N600 supports one USB port with Ready-Share technology to let you host an external shared storage. This is important for storing your huge HD multimedia files for easy access across the network. Unfortunately, you cannot host a USB printer to share across the network. If you require sharing the printer you need to purchase a separate print server. If your environment is used to play and work, you better consider the wireless routers that support the print-server such as new Asus RT-N56U Black Diamond that includes two USB ports for both shared storage and printer. This is beneficial so you don’t need to purchase separate print-server.
Regarding USB port support, interface and guest network, you can compare WNDR3400 Vs Asus RT-N56U Vs Apple Airport Extreme as shown on the table below.
| Wndr3400 | Asus RT-N56U | Apple Extreme | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethernet Ports | 4xFast Ethernet | 4xGigabit Ethernet | 3xGigabit Ethernet |
| USB Port | 1 port for shared storage | 2 ports for storage and printer built-in media server with DLNA compliant | 1 port for either storage or printer with built-in media server DLNA compliant |
| Guest network | 1 guest network each band | N/A | 1 guest network |
Apple Extreme is very popular with it’s performance, no wonder it receives very positive responses from the customers with averagely 4.4 out of five stars customer ratings in Amazon. Asus RT-N56U begins to receive it’s popularity knowing very positive responses from the users with averagely 4.1 out of five stars customer ratings.
Green technology
To help the green environment in conserving the energy, you can select the eco-friendly product. The WNDR3400 supports the Green technology for better environment including Wi-Fi and Power On/Off buttons you can switch when they are not in used, Energy Star-compliant power adapter and 80% recycled packaging. See also Green routers.
Advanced Security
When you are worried if your kids are visiting the sites that are not appropriate for their age, you can control the way they visit the sites by Live parental control. Live parental control in WNDR3400 helps you control the sites for clean and safe contents. You can control by blocking the unsafe Internet content and applications. It can also help you protect connected devices through the router such as PCs, gaming consoles, and iPod touch.
WNDR3400 supports Guest network, the feature that allows you create separate SSID (network name) each bands for providing your guest internet access with limited access rights. You can protect your local network from being accessed by public users with guest network.
By default the router provides NETGEAR as the SSID name for 2.4GHz b/g/n SSID and the default NETGEAR-5G for 5GHz a/n SSID. You can configure the router and change the SSID default names for security reasons.
You can easily connect the clients to the network with the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPS) feature by just pressing a button for secured connection using wireless security encryption WPA/WPA2.
The WNDR3400 supports the dual firewall feature (NAT and SPI) as well as DoS (Denial of Service) attack prevention. NAT (network address translation) helps you hide the private network from the public network and allows you to share a single broadband internet connection. Stateful packet inspection (SPI) inspects the incoming traffic thoroughly for false positive packets. This is the protection standard which is enough for home network, and off course you still need anti-virus software installed in your computers.
Connection Diagram
The figure below shows WNDR3400 router in home wireless networking diagram. Connect the Ethernet port of the modem to the WAN port of the router for connecting the network to the internet. Use the UTP cross cable (network cable that comes with the modem / router) and connect each ends of the cable to each of the Ethernet port of the modem and the WAN port of the router.
Other technical notes:
Default user-name “admin”; password is “password”
Default IP address 192.168.1.1 or configure by typing http://www.routerlogin.net from your web browser
Gaming and HD media streaming demand high-performance router including high-speed, QoS, and clear network. The NETGEAR WNDR3400 N600 Wireless Dual Band Router is a high-performance full-featured router that is ideal solution for bandwidth intensive applications such as for smooth gaming and streaming experience. Check more detail manufacturer specs and Amazon reviews here.
Pros:
- Simultaneous dual band for mix clients environment
- Guest network feature
- USB port for shared storage
- Amazon customer reviews: averagely (-) five star customer ratings for range, speed and security features. Averagely four star customer ratings for software feature.
Cons:
- Doesn’t support Gigabit Ethernet ports
- Supports one USB port for shared storage but not for shared printer
For small and compact design, you consider new generation of Apple airport express base station. It can also be configured as the wireless repeater for expanding your network. For travellers, you may consider new Asus WL330N3G with failover broadband to 3G. See Asus WL330N3G Vs Apple express.
You may also like the following articles:
- DWL-G820 D-Link wireless gaming adapter – old fashion G gaming adapter
- DWL-7100 Dlink Access Point – a Dual Band WLAN Access Point 802.11a/G, 108Mbps
- How to troubleshoot the wireless networks in home – best practice troubleshooting
- Best wireless router for gaming – features required for gaming
- Popular wireless mobile routers
only 2.4 works not 5.0 on dual ban 3400. how to get 5.0 to perform
Hi Mann,
how do you find that the 5GHz doesn’t work, do you test with both wireless adapter clients with 2,4 and 5 GHz bands?
Both bands work well. The 2.4 will travel further than the 5ghz will, but both work very well.
how do i connet my ipod to the wifi of this router? i cant find how to. some1 help me please!!!
can you scan the wireless network around with your iPod? basically when you turn-on your iPod wifi, it will detect the available wi-fi around, and you can select the network from the router.
iPod 4th generation supports 2.4GHz n/g/n Wi-Fi, it should be Ok connect to the router, unless you protect / filter base on MAC.
my 5ghz doesnt want to work on my xbox some one help me please
can you please describe more specific, do you use wireless xbox adapter which supports dual-band? which adapter do you use? I think Microsoft introduces 3 adapters and two of them are dual-band.
i m having trouble getting this thing to do anything! i plug it all in and the power light just blinks green. and the connection stays yellow! i have tried several things! idk! lol help
Assuming that you install and configure it correctly, this looks like you have problem with the hardware, or need a firmware update. Try to reset the router see if it helps, locate the reset button in the rear of the router and press it for seconds
i cant huck it up can anyone helpme?
how do you change the frequency to 2.4 for n protocol?
wndr3400 is working for both 2.4 and 5GHz bands. It depends the clients which band they select.
@ Skip-the flashing green light means you have a “runaway” router; the firmware needs to be re-captured; manual resetting may work if there is no corruption. Netgear includes a “Recapture Firmware” option tab in the set up program; do this first and then proceed with the router set up. @ Paul-Ki is correct; you can choose the encryption scheme used as well as the draft specifications under the “wireless set up” section on the router login page.
Well both 2.4 and 5ghz band woek very well for me yall i want it for is xbox live come get some mainebo1
will the netgear wN111 or eVAW111 adapters work with WNDR3400 router?
it should work with all 802.11a/b/g/n adapters. wn111 is 802.11n adapter, it’s compatible with the router.
Hey I can’t seem to get a remote desktop to connect to this router on the 5ghz band. I have a N band network adapter on the desktop and it won’t see the 5ghz band. the desktop is probably 35 to 40 feet away. Need some help on this, because I have a lot of client items and I can’t seem to get the 5ghz band on any of them.
wndr3400 is dual band and it can connect to any types of 2.4GHz or 5GHz based client adapters. If your wireless adapter supports only 2.4GHz, then it can connect to 2.4GH band. If your wireless adapter supports dual band you can select either to connect using the 2.4GH or 5GHz network. Make sure your adapter supports the dual band too to let you select the band.
I just installed the WNDR3400 and I’m very confused and don’t know whether or not it is using the 5GHz band or not. Everything I see seems to indicate that the only thing that can be found is the 2.4GHz band. When I try to connect from various wireless devices, none of them show the 5GHz as an option to select. How can I be sure that I am getting the most out of this dual band router? Thanks for any help you can offer.
Hi Kim, are you that your wireless client adapters support the dual band? The client can select the band either 2.4 or 5 GHz bands only if the client supports the dual band unless you can only see the 2.4GHz band.
Thanks for getting back with me so quickly. Since I’m a bit “technologically challenged” I’m not sure if my wireless client adapters support the dual band? How would I go about finding this out; do I contact my wireless service provider which is ATT?
check what your wireless adapter is, it is USB adapter, PCI, or whatever and browse the internet to see the manufacturer specs and see if it is a dual band type adapter or single band …
I think I understand now. My one desktop has a NetGear G54 Wireless USB Adaptor which from what I understand now is only capable of connecting to a Wireless-G network and the PS3 which I would like to connect to the 5G band isn’t capable of doing so if I’ve understood correctly when trying to do my research. I’m still not sure about the built in wireless adapter in my Sony Vaio laptop or the 1st generation I-pod touch or 2nd generation i-pod touch, but from what I’m reading I don’t think they connect to the n-band either. So, if I’ve understood all of this correctly, I don’t think this new Wireless Dual Band Router is going to offer me anything more than my standard single band router – correct?
Your clients mostly operate in 2.4ghz band and wireless G which deliver maximum 54mbps (ideally). only iPod 4g supports 2.4gh wireless N, the previous versions are still wireless G. I have no idea which Vaio version you have.
You will not get the maximum data throughput from your dual-band router if all the clients are still legacy 802.11b/g devices even though they are compatible with wireless n. Well your option is to upgrade your clients with dual band adapters if you want for example Netgear wnda3100
i cant get it to work with 5g on my ps3 please help?
does your ps3 adapter support dual band (2.4 / 4GHz)?
hi, I’m using a machine which runs on windows seven and has an ASUS PCE-N13 802.11b/g/n Wireless PCI-Express Adapter card installed. I just recently set up a wireless network with the wndr3400 and am unable to connect to the 5g network, only the 2.4g network is visible when I go to connect with the desktop. however the 5g network is available to connect when I use airport on my mac running on os-x, where it wouldn’t even be beneficial I don’t believe as it is fairly old and probably doesn’t have an n compatible card. Please help connect to this network with my desktop! please!
Hi Christian,
It is understandable that you cannot see the 5GHz band on your Windows 7 machine because ASUS PCE-N13 is a wireless N device but it doesn’t support dual band. The adapter is 802.11b/g/n based device, no 802.11a (5GHz standards) available. Both router and client must support the same wireless standard to be be able to make connection. WNDR3400 supports 5GHz but your PCI doesn’t.
Ki
What does it mean when I can’t detect the signal from two rooms away
Assure that the other computer can detect and connect to the network, means the router is fuctional.
If you cannot detect the signal at all even when you bring the computer closer to the router, check if your Wi-Fi adapter is enabled. If you can detect, reposition your router in an open area with less obstacles …there must be too many obstacles that attenuate the signal such as the thick walls, metal cabinet.
@julio: by default the built-in wifi for ps3 is 802.11b/g standard, means it works only in 2.4GHz band – it doen’st support 5GHz band.
You can upgrade by connecting the Ethenet port to a dual-band gaming adapter to support the 5GHz band such as linksts wga600n or you can upgrade with the 4-port Buffalo Wireless-N Dual Band Ethernet Converter WLI-TX4-AG300N
Hey folks, if you want to know whether or not you are connecting via the 2.4 or 5 ghz band, give them different names (ssid). For example, you could call the 2.4 ghz network net24 and call the 5ghx one (you guessed it) net50.
Then it is easy to see if your card is seeing which network because they have different (and descriptive) names.
The documentation recommends using the same authentication, preferably WPA2, as that makes it easier for the adapter to grab them when they wake up from sleep (some bug, I think).
Anyway, give them descriptive SSIDs and you should be well on the way to figuring things out.
My NEW PS3 cannot find the access point on my 3400. Why?
@dave:
PS3 typically includes 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. As general, configure your PS3 from the “network setting” under “setting” option in the main menu.
Make sure that the router is operational, your laptop can detect the Wi-Fi. When you click scan from your PS3 the Wifi name should be detected unless you disable ssid broadcast from the router setting.
Hello all, I recently purchased a Netgear N600, WNDR 3400 dual band router and I am having issues with the internet connection at the moment. The first few days, the connection was great but all of a sudden this morning, it was super slow. It shows as being connected and pages will load but just very, very slowly. I’m not really sure what the issue is; I ran into this same problem upon setting it up and called my ISP, Comcast, and they did a modem reset which cleared the problem but I think the problem is probably more related to the router after experiencing this for a second time. I’m posting this from a work computer due to the connection issue at the moment. All of the modem lights are on and show it as correctly operating and my network on the computer shows connection to internet as well. Any advice on how to set it up to perform optimally all the time? I can’t seem to figure out the issue on my own and need assistance. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
@steve: did you try to change the channel setting differently …say channel 1, 6 or 11? with different channel, did it make any improvement?
Hi All,
I just bought this router and I am trying to use my Seagate Replica external hard drive kind of like a network hard drive. I am able to see it on my network, but I am unable to access any of the drives/files I have backed up onto it. Does anyone have any thoughts? I had read somewhere that external hard drives that require software downloads won’t work in this manner (of course after I had it all hooked up). Was wondering if this was true.
Thanks
Hi Brandon, can you view the disk from the router main menu? Or can you access it from the browser \\readyshare
Hi Jack,
I am using Windows 7 and I can see my Seagate under my networks. It shows up as USB Storage. However, none of my other computers that I have backed up onto the hard drive show up. It looks like there is just some startup files from Seagate. I was able to look at some of the information in my browser last night, but I think it was pretty much the same as what I am seeing under my folder display. Thanks for your thoughts.
My 3400 works for my computers and Xbox 360, yet it drops connection after 20 minutes of use. Is there any fixes?
I just purchased this router hoping to use it with my 2 laptops, Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, Wireless printer and 2 HTC EVO’s. I do not seem to have a problem with my Win7 laptop which can connect to the 5ghz band. But the second laptop and the Xbox which are both on the 2.4ghz band both seem to drop connection frequently. Can anyone help me with this if not I am going to have to return it and go back to my old router.
David, Kyle: 5Ghz band is relatively clean, less interference, so that’s why the connection is stable. 2.4ghz band is prone to signal interference with other 2.4ghz-based devices …try to change the channel to 1,6 or 11 – do not set to ‘auto’.
I have had a G router working with little issues I mainly upgraded to take advantage of the of the N capabilities of some of my devices. I was getting a more stable signal with my G router than with this new N router so the interference issue does not really make sense to me. I have set my router on channel 11 though, to see if that makes a difference. But I know I have lost connection at least once on my Xbox since I changed it to Channel 11.
@Kyle,you better return it or replace with another good one. Consider in purchasing the unpopular one Medialink N150 … it becomes best seller in Amazon in router category …it’s under 40$ and have solid connection, unfortunately no 5ghz band support.
I opened my ports but still have a strict nat how can I open it
@Adam: do you mean exposing your computer to the public? have you tried enabling the DMZ by registering your computer ip address as the “default dmz server” in your WAN menu? You should configure the exposed host with static ip address, do not configure it as the dhcp client – this will assign the dynamic ip address to the computer.
Bought and installed the WNDR3400. Now I need a range extender to reach a remote office on another floor. Any idea what will work with this router?
Netgear has Wn2000rpt universal wifi range extender. Unfortunately you cannot extend the 5ghz band. It has 4-ethernet port so you can configure it as the wireless bridge connecting up to 4-ethernet devices.
I have had the netgear 3400 for about a year now. Today while browsing on my iPad I lost connection. This has happened before all I had to do was power down the router and lower it back up. Today that did not work. I tried a wired connection with my computer to see what I could do and I wasn’t even able to access a web site. I have no connection to the Internet at all. Though I do have a wireless connection to the router I have nothing in form of an Internet connection. I disconnected the router from my network and connected my ps3 directly to my broadband router and I have an Internet connection. My problem, I think exists in the router but I don’t know what to do to fix it. Any help would be great! Thanks.
Hi Jason,
First thing you need to do is to make sure that you can connect to the router. Assuming your router is set to default settings with ip address = 192.168.1.1, Try this way:
1. from your computer with wireless connection, check your ip address by typing “ipconfig /all” from the dos command line (type “windows” and “R” buttons at the same time and type cmd, clik OK). If the ip address of the computer is not in the same subnet (192.168.1.xxx) as the router (for example 169.254.0.XX, there must be something wrong with the dhcp, it must be disabled.
2. connect the computer using network cable to one of the Ethernet ports of the router.
3. from your computer browser, type http://www.routerlogin.net or http://www.routerlogin.com can you access this? Or from Dos command line type “ping 192.168.1.1″ and then enter …see if you get the 0% packet loss.
4. if no luck, then you need to get into the menu in other ways. You need to configure the ip address of the computer using static ip address for example 192.168.1.25
Do these steps first and see what happen! See also wireless troubleshooting