NetGear SuperG Wireless Router and Wireless PC Card Review - Security and Parental Control

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Security-wise, the DG834GT seems to be holding out. I use Norton Internet Security 2003 on my desktop machine and prior to using the router I used to get a couple of security alerts a day on average, sometimes more, sometimes less. Since installing the router however, I have had just one Norton Alert. Now I know that this doesn’t mean that less people are attacking, but it does mean that the built-in firewall provides an added layer of security between my computer and other people’s computers. The default setup of the firewall is very similar to the Windows firewall – all incoming traffic is blocked, but no outgoing traffic is blocked. This can be changed, naturally, but although the sidebar provides help on how to setup firewall rules to block outgoing traffic, it doesn’t tell you which traffic you should actually block, so the average home user is going to have to do quite a bit of research into what they should block. It is very easy to create your own services that can then be used in firewall rules, but again, you need to know what you are doing in order to do it effectively.

For the home user concerned about the nature of websites that children may have access to, it is possible to block certain sites based both on keywords and domain names. The logging of either attempted intrusion or attempted blocked-site access is also simple to setup, and the logs can even be emailed to you.

Additionally, because it was so easy to set up the WPA-PSK (WiFi Protected Access – Pre-Shared Key) protection, I also feel confident that anyone in close proximity to my home will not be able to access either my devices or my Internet connection.

Once you have tweaked the router to perfection and have all the options relating to your specific needs set, you can easily save a back-up of these settings so that your customisations are not lost. It is equally as simple to restore settings using the back up file.

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