I've spent a lifetime in tech and it has resulted in my totally boycotting certain brands.
After the Mac 3200c I didn't touch anything by Apple for over a decade.
I will not ever countenance ever owning a Lexmark printer under any conditions ever again.
And I swore that I would never every buy anything by Netgear after failing to get one of their products to work around twelve years ago, despite putting some of the finest internet brains in the world onto a simple little plastic box.
But I am weak and stupid.
My 802.11g network in Wales needed to be upgraded to 082.11n and so I toddled down to the local PC World.
I also needed a dongle for a very expensive Dell desktop which inexpicably came without WIFi.
So, I toddled off to PC World and bought the only dongle and box available.
I got home and rigged everything up only to find that this Netgear router came without Win 7 support - yes PC World are stocking crap without Win 7 support over a year after its launch. Unbelievable.
So, many searches, downloads and dongles later I get the software, the router is configured and the desktop is connected.
The iPad works great.
But my laptop won't work.
After hours and hours of configuring and reconfiguring nothing works and I reinstall the old Belkin.
I returned to Wales this week and tried again. This time the desktop and the laptop won't see the router at all, under any setting or configuration.
Now, Netgear also sell boxes that receive TV and do OTT things. What a joke.
My only message is to avoid this company and its products at all costs. If I can't get them to work, God help a normal consumer. Netgear is an uh uh...