NETGEAR Centria WNDR4720-100NAS All-in-One Back-up, Media Server, N900 Dual Band Gigabit Wi-Fi Router; 2TB Version (WNDR4720) NETGEAR Centria WNDR4720-100NAS All-in-One Back-up, Media Server, N900 Dual Band Gigabit Wi-Fi Router; 2TB Version (WNDR4720)

Pros: When hardware can connect to the router, it works as advertised.

Cons: If a WiFi link to the router is not maintained more or less continuously, the router regresses to a state where no hardware can make a WiFi connection. Rebooting the router is the only solution.
The problem is independent of hardware type and OS communicating wirelessly to the router. I saw the problem simultaneously and repeatably on a PC running XP, a PC running Windows 7, a Mac (I forget the OS), two separate iPhones running iOS 6, a printer (probably running a form of Linux), and a Blu Ray player (also running a form of Linux).
I was also able to verify that bypassing the router (connecting a LAN cable directly to my cable modem) restored the network connection. This indicates the problem is with the router, not my service provider.

Other Thoughts: I have not found similar issues posted by other users and there are many positive reviews on this site. It is possible that I have an anomalous malfunction or that there is user error involved (although I've been methodical in checking and rechecking for solutions).

Manufacturer Response:

Hi MWOT,

We're certain that you've checked everything with the router and appreciate your patience in working with this problem; you're correct that this seems unusual, in fact it's the first time we've seen a report of this. As such, we want to investigate and determine what's happening (and get you a replacement if necessary) Our engineers have a few questions to start:

- Is the issue the Internet connectivity or wireless disconnection? In other words, when it occus, are those wireless clients still connected to the router but just cannot access the Internet? Or is it that they are disconnected completely from the router's SSID?

- How frequently does it happen?

- Does it also occur with wired Ethernet clients?

Please get in touch with us at newegg@netgear.com so we can assist you further!

Regards,

NETGEAR Team

Pros: Centria has very good range as claimed, My ROKU works
much better than before.(replaced a Buffalo-N)
Easy self guide installation.

Cons: Centria has a very loud fan! Makes a chirp or fan hitting noise too. Net Genie portal to upgrade firmware won't work. Error 410 Denies download.
Net Gear's website to download and you get "NERO" download?
Called for help, .Call taker #1 gathers your info.
He tells you qualify for support.
Transfers you to Call taker #2 He REPEATS #1's script and transfers you to #3 she announces her name very very fast and DROPS the call and never calls you back!
Now you have been "Beat Down" and don't Give a F.
You have waisted 60 minutes of your life you can't get back!
Besides the noise, expect Centria to take occasional "naps" from time to time. You must open the Genie
and perform a RESET. And Centria will go back to work.
My understanding is the recent firmware upgrade will
solve both issues.

Does anyone know a simple way of getting the firmware upgrade?


Can anyone tell me the best way to obtain the upgrade firmware to fix my Centria.

Manufacturer Response:

Hello,

If you are still having trouble with the upgrade, it can be done manually.

First, download the firmware from here: http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/en/product/CENTRIA$20$28WNDR4700$2f4720$29

Then, extract the file. Finally, you can go to the firmware upgrade screen in the router's interface and select the file you extracted to complete a manual update.

If you continue to have problems after the update, please contact us at newegg@netgear.com. We're happy to help!

Regards,

NETGEAR Team

Pros: Very easy to setup. While NetGear recommends not changing the password, I do and doing so was simple. Very fast wireless router.

Cons: The 2TB hard drive is noisier than I'd like. Soooo no biggie there. I just pulled it out and popped it in my desktop and have a nice backup drive.

It is a tad exspensive (hince the minus one egg) so the real clincher is its durability. We'll see how long it will last. That said, all my NetGears have lasted 3 to 6 years.

Pros: At first glance there is the connotation of "oh another plastic router in which the engineers have designed to be an odd quirk". Granted I have seen some rather odd designs /w perhaps some hopes of standing out & apart from the competition. I will say that I like metal & even accept metal /w plastic accents so plastic doesn't ordinarily rank high on my lists of desired equipment now days, /w few exceptions. Enter Netgear's WNDR4700 to the network frontier /w a wide & surprisingly impressive selection of features...

Sleek & glossy design /w a slight backwards tilt, this router is designed to be somewhat of a center piece of equipment though it is an interesting design.

For those who put merit on weight, this router / AP feels like you are actually holding something & after putting in the 3.5 inch hard drive you will actually feel some weight to it unlike some of the competition's offerings. There is also an SD card slot which hits home /w me as I had a USB card reader hanging off my other router for small can to PFD FTP shares, the WNDR4700 had that option built in, just add you SD card & you are good.

Customers have sounded off about the designs & complaints of their routers not being field / user serviceable. Netgear has heard the call, the WNDR4700is one of the first, & I hope more to come, that I've seen a company try to do something about. A functional solution has been presented by Netgear to provide customers /w options on capacity & serviceability for a router /w internal file storage.

As seems the growing fad of NAS & for the quest for "affordable" end-user NAS solutions Netgear has not only provided a way for customers to add their own hard drives but to also replace or swap them out along /w providing USB 3.0 ports, (which in my opinion is great but slightly baffling as the LAN only provides 1Gbit, but better too much than to little /w multiple connections. ) Along /w the hard drive the file backup software was surprisingly aggressive & vigilant in its attempts to ensure backups were sent to the router's drive(s).

The crown jewel would be , I believe, the ReadySHARE feature for FTP & files sharing, similar to a file server much like AD file permissions. WND4700R seems much better than most offerings of home user products, but at the price the WNDR4700 retails at, users should expect & get configurability (and maybe someday some blue/grey Netgear metal) to go /w their product. I can honestly say that I've tried to poke criticism at the offerings & have found everything pretty much well rounded, intuitive, versatile & useful - you get features & options.

Where most routers stop /w a firewall & DHCP this one even offers wireless repeating functions in the 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz bands to extend your network & the ability to regulate power of the Wi-Fi radio. Media Server functionality is thrown in (also /w TiVo support) all just a WPS away ( /w WPS supported devices else the conventional way of connecting applies).

Cons: Fingerprint, dust & scratch exhibition magnet. Think PS3 gloss & you're right on, perhaps a mat finish is better option?

There is no low-profile desktop solution to this router nor is there a rack mount configuration for it. There is no way I would trust in mounting this that I would feel comfortable /w given its unusual physical configuration so make sure you have a clear space on your desk, cabinet or shelf.

It is unfortunate that this particular device was never meant to add external antennas to as it would be a real killer on the network front giving ability for extended coverage options.

The plastic drive door on the side feels like one day it will snap off.

The Router itself has a vertical desktop foot print so space may be of some concern to some people.

any my pet peeve The engineering of the WAN & LAN port are in an extremely tight spot & provide come difficulty in removing you network cables. It is really hard to get Ca6 patch cables undone with protective boots once plugged into these LAN and Wan ports.

Other Thoughts: The on-board OS appears clean & crisp /w icons well tailored to represent their intended topics. Under the home key users/admins are greeted /w a quick status screen covering Internet, Wireless, Attaches Devices, Parental Controls, ReadySHARE & Guest network /w real-time updates.
The Wi-fi access, capabilities & performance of this router were above normal for what I have been seeing /w competing brands hand the guest network provided & nice option to hand off to visitors when needed.. I've had solid performance
Additionally, the security, scheduling & parental options allow for even finer tuning if needed in a SOHO / Public / Family or Dorm setting.

Pros: Anywhere you shop, this thing will be on the shelf next to the routers. That is such a disservice to this amazing piece of hardware because it is so much more. I won't waste more words and time here than to say that it is among the best routers out there in features and performance with an easy and intuitive GUI and stellar signal strength. More detail about the router portion can be found in the other EggXpert reviews.

I put extra effort in to testing the other features of the Centria for this review.

The SD card slot was nothing short of painless and fast. I installed a microSD card into an SD adapter, put it into the slot (which isn't labelled as to card orientation, so be careful) and pushed the button. By the time I walked to the nearest workstation, the contents of the card were on the Centria's internal hard drive and available for browsing. This is better (in my mind) than fumbling with a USB cable between your desktop and your camera, or mucking with PC-mounted card slots and the accompanying plethora of drive letters.

The DLNA server is extremely simple to use, but totally lacks any advanced options. It can not share any media from the internal hard drive or another network computer (such as a server with a RAID volume). The DLNA can ONLY work with media files on an external hard drive, but doing this with a USB3 1TB drive outperformed my 6-core server with serviio and a RAID5 array holding the data. Not bad. It also has a Tivo app built in for viewing the media files on an app-enabled Tivo like the one my cable company provides me. Cool!

WDS repeating worked extremely well when piggybacking off of my WNDR6500L, but I was forced to drop my wireless encryption back to WEP to use it, and any experienced wardriver can hack WEP in about 15 seconds (20 seconds one-handed). Not a good idea with such a strong wi-fi radio!

As a NAS, there is nothing to complain about. USB3 sharing as well as sharing the internal drive were a breeze. It helps to have basic networking experience, but it works well. I prefer to have redundancy, so I will probably use the NAS function to back up the RAID volume on my server and that is all. The bundled Seagate hard drive is actually a fairly high-end model and should run trouble-free for years.

The integrated Gigabit switch performs flawlessly.

Cons: Speaking of backup, I never got the ReadyShare Vault software to properly install. It continually reported that it was unabled to find the Centria and the installer errored out. Netgear support was comletely incompetent and full of bad advice, repeatedly demonstrating a lack of product knowledge by telling me wrong information about the Centria. EggXperts were given a special email address to contact Netgear, and my inquiries went unanswered. I will probably be forced to use Microsodt's Synctoy to execute the backups.

The Centria's firmware is Linux-based, after doing an SD card backup, I browsed to the backup by UNC path and it wouldn't let me delete/rename/etc without root privileges. Be sure you get your sharing settings set up right in the GUI and map the drive with the proper permissions.

Other Thoughts: Since this is a Linux machine, I would hope that some day some version of WRT or Tomato makes its way onto the Centria.

While this is certainly no machine to be used in an enterprise or SOHO environment where redundancy and mission-critical functions can never be compromised, it is the perfect center for a digital home, which Netgear bills it as.

It is a great implementation of a lot of good ideas in one unit, and it works extremely well.

Pros: I wanted to add a supplemental review on the very nice, very strong radios in this unit.

I can access this router over one block away from my house...albeit with one bar, with my iPhone 4S. That is pretty extreme wifi.

Cons: No cons to note on this supplemental review.

Other Thoughts: This is just a lovely piece of equipment. Yeah, there are a few minor things that I wish were different, like the link lights, but this is really an incredible router. Strongly, strongly recommended.

Pros: -Extremely stable, even with high traffic load. Transferring a terabyte of movies through ethernet to the built-in drive while watching Netflix and browing on a laptop, never a hitch. Have only had to reset it once, for USB-related reasons listed in cons.

-There is external software if you don't want to go through the browser, but with the robust help section on each page, there's no reason not to use the browser.

-Range and speed are great. on 2.4GHz, every device connected has full 5 bars, and on 5GHz, every device has at least 4, often 5. Best range I've seen on a 5GHz network yet, and every device (even my network-finicky PS3) got full speed.

-Internal 2TB drive is very handy to have. I hate cords.

-SUPPORTS 3TB DRIVES THROUGH USB! That is a huge plus to me. I would imagine 3TB internal is supported too, but I can't confirm.

-Can restrict plugged-in USB devices to only allow "authorized" ones.

-Provides enough USB power for hungry devices. Powers my USB-powered hard drives with ease (at the same time).

-Can set up individual password-protected user shares through the browser, once you've created the folders themselves on the drive. Simply add a user, assign them a password, and assign that user to the folder.

-Can broadcast 4 networks simultaneously. 2 main networks (2.4GHz and 5GHz) and 2 guest networks. Perfect for disabling SSID broadcast on the mains, and only leaving guest networks broadcasting.

-TONS of access controls. Parental features such as site/domain blocking (allowing for permanent block, or based on schedule), port/service blocking (permanent or based on schedule, and can be assigned to IP), and you can set up email alerts for when someone tries to access a blocked site/domain/service.

-Speedy disk transfer speed over gigabit ethernet. a little over 25MB/s write and 50MB/s read for both the internal and USB disks.

-Adequate disk transfer speed over WiFi. On the 2.4GHz band, my devices were able to eek out roughly 3.5MB/s read/write, which is certainly not fantastic, but is enough for sequential backups, and watching bluray rips. It handled a 20GB video file I have with ease (15.8Mbit overall bitrate). My 5GHz devices got roughly 8-10MB/s read/write. If you're doing large backups or transfers, make sure it's via LAN.

-All the standard bells and whistles of routers. All the 2.4 and 5.0GHz configurations, port forwarding/triggering, wireless repeating, static routers, etc.

-There are also some features you don't always see, such as remote management, ftp/http access to files, ability to backup/restore router configuration in case you want to tinker, dynamic DNS (DynDNS is the only listed, but you can type in whichever service you want), and you can check the hard drive's SMART status through the browser.

-Has a built-in traffic meter, with the ability to shut off internet completely (or flash a warning LED) when a bandwidth cap is reached. Also will alert you when you approach a certain

Cons: -Somewhat noisy. If you have any sort of background noise where you install this router, you won't hear it. My office is totally silent, however, and this router was very noticeable.

-Disappointing guest network features. You can set them in wireless isolation so that guest network users can't access anything at all on the network (even other guest users), but there's no way to set bandwidth caps, or base access on schedules. I imagine you could assign guest IPs to the schedule too, but that's a bit of work every time a guest visits.

-Somewhat disappointing wireless disk access speeds. Not worth an egg deduction though, since it didn't limit me in any practical sense. Large file transfers should be done via ethernet, unsurprisingly.

-When attaching USB devices, I wrestled with this thing for hours. I tried 3 different devices (thumb drive, 1TB USB-powered drive, and 3TB hard drive), and none of them would work no matter what I tried. However, after simply restarting the router, they were instantly recognized. If you are having trouble getting a USB device to show up (the LED should light up within 15 seconds), try restarting the router.

-No way of backing up the internal hard drive through the router software. 2TB of data is a TON to lose, so make sure that you have an attached computer backing up the internal disk (do this through ethernet).

-Mapping network drives in Windows was more complicated than I hoped. The built-in network browser couldn't see the drives, so I had to manually type in //readyshare/blahblahblah. Not a huge deal, but I haven't had to do that with other routers.

Other Thoughts: Overall, I think this is a fantastic router. Extremely stable, fast, robust, and long-range. I'm not sure how necessary the internal 2TB drive is, though, as most people have more than 2TB of media, and access speeds were no different internal than through USB.

I can certainly see the appeal of integrating everything into one, though, and in that regard, this device is near perfect.

It has more features than any other home router I've personally used, and I have a feeling it will be my main router for a long time to come.

Pros: This router is a powerhouse of features, they can’t even list them all on the box! Also, this router is more than just a piece of networking hardware, it comes with the option of software to take advantage of the router features.

Reliability
Testing this was fun, just get a large family + lots of house guests and have them all use the internet. Multiple instances of Netflix, Xbox 360 or PC gaming, generic web browsing, or many huge, concurrent downloads: you name it, this router saw action with it. Not once was there a bump, the Centria handled everything beautifully.

Range/Coverage
The 2.4GHz range was superb, it covers the entire house with no problems. If I didn’t put a password on my network, I imagine the neighbors on both sides would also be able to use my signal. There were no dead spots I could find throughout the house.

The 5GHz range was so-so. It did cover my entire house, but barely. However, this is normal from my experience (higher frequency = shorter range).

Security/Access Controls
The Centria has some standard features that most routers include these days. DoS protection and port scanning prevention are two of these. DoS protection works well enough from my own resources (another connection elsewhere), though anything large scale might knock it out. Not something most people should be worried about. For port scanning, see cons.

One neat feature Netgear bundled with this router is a specialized version of OpenDNS. While this feature seems to be something new for both OpenDNS and Netgear, it does contain some basic functionality of OpenDNS plus a couple of extras. One of these is time-based content filtering, which allows for certain content types to be blocked at certain times. Another is bypass accounts, which allow for certain computers, after installing a piece of software, to not be limited by the overall content filtering scheme or to have their own content filtering plan. Overall, this seems like a great move by both OpenDNS and Netgear, with very few shortcomings (see cons).

Media Server
As you may notice, the Centria can have its own internal hard drive, which makes for an interesting media server. Given a little setup time for adding shared folders, gaming consoles and PCs will be able to stream straight from the router. No hiccups either!

Extras
There are some things that the Centria surprised me with. This router also has the options for being a “cascading router” (a wireless access point that extends DHCP from a wired-only router) and a wireless repeater. Both of these are fine options to have around, though I feel like the Centria shouldn’t ever be a repeater, only repeated (if need be).

Another interesting feature is a traffic meter/monitor that can warn network users that they are reaching a daily or monthly data limit, or even shut the connection off to prevent data use. For those who have limited data plans, this would be a very welcome addition I imagine.

Cons: There are just some odd quirks about this router that keep me from giving it 5 eggs. One of the biggest factors in this is the amount of software that this router comes with. Off the top of my head, it comes with or has software for:
- backup
- Netgear Genie (router management -- if you didn’t want to open a web browser to manage the router)
- parental controls
- printer hosting

None of the software is particularly useful either. The backup software isn’t speedy (although it does have some good features), the router management software feels bloated and slow, and the specialized OpenDNS controls require not only activation through Netgear Genie, but the bypass accounts require a separate piece of software. Overall, you don’t really miss out by not installing, it just seems like there was misguided effort into putting work into a desktop application when a great router interface through a web browser would work just fine.

Speaking of the router management UI, it probably could use a little work too. The “Help” blurb at the bottom of the screen shows only a small fraction of content. Various features seem miscategorized; the router time, for example, is bundled in with the “Schedules” section of Security. There are two forms of UI as well, one is “Basic” and the other “Advanced.” The only real difference between the two is that there are no sub-menus to browse with Basic, you usually get the main feature of a category and that’s it. The Advanced section isn’t even complicated either; in fact, I’d argue that it’s easy to navigate than the Basic section.

Just a couple more odds and ends that had me scratching my head:
- no option to set your own time or an NTP time server. If your router clock is wrong, it will probably stay that way.
- DDNS seems to work with any service, but the settings only list DynDNS as the only service that the router can handle. It handles No-IP or dlinkddns, just put in the login information.
- if using READYShare (to share either the internal or an external drive), at least 1 folder must be all-read. It doesn’t actually matter what’s in the folder, there just always has to be one folder that everyone can read.

I hate having to wade through software, especially if installing it is part of initial setup.

Other Thoughts: Such an interesting router! I feel like it is being marketed as a media server, but I think if it could be used toward home security, this would be a great use!

One of the coolest features of the Centria is the “video network” feature of 5GHz networks. Like I said, the 5GHz range wasn’t as impressive as the 2.4GHz range, so in one part of my house signal was kind of low. When I was watching Netflix on my tablet, I would get a little blurring/artifacts. However, after setting the 5GHz network as a “video network”, the stream cleared up and looked great!

As a whole, this a great router for large house or houses with lots of people. There are too many options for one person to even use, but a family or even a small business could benefit from this router.

Some technical/random information:
- 2.4GHz channel: Auto, it seemed to prefer Ch. 1
- 5GHz channel: 48, my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is very pick on the 5GHz spectrum
- ISP is Comcast, with an average download speed of 20 mbps / upload speed of 3 mbps
- coverage in my house may be better due to the fact that it is a new house; no foil-lined insulation
- media streaming was testing on PCs with a wired or wireless connection, an Xbox 360, and various phones and tablets

Pros: The Centria is one of those few products that's good enough to make you forget about being thankful for the merely adequate. Rather, because it actually works well you get lost in what more it might be.

You will find nothing lacking when it comes to ease of use and basic functionality with this wireless router though it might rouse your appetite for a missing feature or two.

It has by far the simplest procedure for creating a very basic and relatively secure setup of any router I've used previously. I plugged it in and fired up a browser, which then redirected to the https (no insecure admin access for you!) admin page where I logged in with the default credentials. I clicked the auto configure button and it asked me for the user name and password for my VDSL2 connection. After putting them in it sat there for 2 or 3 minutes and then started working.

Never before have I had a router that could auto-detect and configure a bridged VDSL Internet connection. Obviously they exist since this one does it, but I haven't had one before and it impressed me.

Out of the box it defaults to a WPA2 network with a half-decent pass-phrase, which is nice. You'll want to change the password for the admin account on the router itself, though.

Outside of that, all the more advanced features I tried worked quite well. Configuring and adding a guest network with wireless isolation was easy. So was configuring a share with the included disk. I installed the disk and clicked format, which took a few minutes. Creating shares with different users and folder access levels was easy, though not being able to create folders from the ReadySHARE UI made it a little more complex than completely necessary.

Doing the same thing with an attached USB 3.0 hard disk worked just as well.

With the internal self-formatted 2 TB disk I was able to get speeds of about 26 MB/s write and 46 MB/s read across the gigabit LAN. With the external NTFS disk I was able to get 28 MB/s write and 55 MB/s read. Both numbers are adequate and a bit faster than you'd likely get with USB 2.0 devices, but not impressive. Gigabit ethernet is capable of over 100 MB/s, and the USB 3.0 drive I attached can sustain reads between 90 and 120 MB/s.

I haven't benchmarked what happens if lots of parallel requests are made, but I don't expect it to be a problem for my usage or most homes.

The UI is generally quite easy to use and navigate and for the most part skips the hordes of i-frames and popups that have traditionally been common in router UIs, though there are still a few popups and a couple unnecessary scroll areas.

Wireless speeds were within the bounds of what I expect from my hardware and close to rated spec. Reception was fine everywhere in my apartment despite there being ~ 40 networks in the area.

It can self-update the firmware, which is good so long as the firmware continues to be updated.

Cons: I had to reboot it once because of a lockup. It seems like that was the exception, rather than the rule. It was early on and I haven't had to do it since, so it might have just been some kind of configuration hiccup.

The biggest complaint I have with this thing is a lack of features for managing the guest network. There basically aren't any. I couldn't find any menu or page where I can monitor what users of the guest network are doing in real or near real time and ban them by MAC. You can set up a MAC-based whitelist, but it seems to apply to ALL wireless networks. I also couldn't find a way to set bandwidth limits on the guest network only. There is a setting to control uplink bandwidth overall, but there's no way to, say, limit the guest network to 5 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up or some such so you can protect yourself from Internet abusing guests or neighbors.

The next biggest complaint I have is that it displays passwords in clear text on the user setup page. This means that the user passwords for your shares (and router login) are not correctly stored on disk in some sort of one-way hash. You should be careful not to open said admin page while on camera, and you should make all passwords for router login and file shares unique to the box, as a remote intrusion into the router would likely compromise all passwords. So do don't go making the admin password the same as your bank PIN or little Johnny's share password the same as his computer's login password or anything.

Since this thing has a hard drive and a fan as well as a fairly bright white illuminate Netgear logo I'd skip putting it in the bedroom. I'd say it's pretty quite, but you can hear the fan if you listen. It's fine for the living room or office.

Other Thoughts: That the Centria provides offsite access options for files is nice, but lacking Google Internet I don't really have the upload bandwidth for it be useful, curse my ISP.

I think this thing is really missing two features that would make it brilliant:
RAID 1 and remote mirroring via a service like SpiderOak.

Considering how the Centria is oriented as a home media and backup server, that extra layer of redundancy from mirrored disks would be nice and, considering that this thing seems to be based on some kind of Linux, there's no technical barrier to mirroring a disk across USB 3.0 and the internal SATA. Mdadm is very reliable and more than good enough for home use. You could then use SpiderOak to provide the offsite mirror of backups securely and without any privacy issues and have a complete backup solution with proper redundancy.

This device really suggests the direction home network appliances will probably take in the future: the wireless router will merge with the NAS box into a small little easy to configure rectangle that provides for all of a household's storage needs, while mirroring it remotely for data security and speedier remote access and providing a tightly monitored and bandwidth limited guest network.

While things aren't quite perfect yet, this thing is still several steps above any consumer oriented wireless router I've used previously in terms of ease of use and features. That it makes you ask 'oh man, what if they added this feature' instead of making you whine about barely being able to do the basics is a good sign. It's probably the 2nd wireless router I didn't instantly try to figure out how to install alternate firmware on within 5 minutes of messing with. :p

Pros: *Eliminating the need for an external NAS, freeing up ethernet and USB ports, is just one of the many great features of the Centria.*
- The Centria's packaging is top of the line. You can tell you bought a high-end product when opening this box. The manual has clear English with diagrams that are easy to follow. The included 2TB Seagate Barracuda drive (see Other Thoughts for drive benchmark) slides into the router. It is held firmly inside with a locking mechanism and an easy latch design. The inclusion of a bracket allows smaller drives (.75)" to be inserted as well. The fact that 2TBs of storage is now inside the router, not taking up space or a port, is convenient.
- The front surface is a glossy, sleek black but prone to fingerprints. Two USB 3.0 ports allows even more storage or a printer to be connected. A dedicated "Backup" button on the device initiates a backup onto the internal HDD. The added SD card slot is a nice touch, if per say, you wanted to share your photos from your camera to everyone on your network.
- The indicator LEDs are crisp but not too bright. An HDD LED indicates how the internal drive is doing, or what it is doing, or if something is wrong; all scenarios will change how the LED looks. Around its side are plenty of ventilation holes, which is good considering most manufacturers seem to forget routers tend to heat up. This router remains cool.
- The setup is so simple that it took a matter of minutes to get wifi and internet functioning. Within the browser page, there are a gamut of options, allowing you to change anything to your desire, and an easy to understand Help menu. The Advanced section offers all the goodies tech-savvy people like to play with, and the Standard page is easy enough for most people to comprehend. Changing settings, adding printers or other devices is quick and simple.
- The range of the Centria is astoundingly powerful. In a place where 1/5 bars was normal, the Centria broadcasts 4/5. It seems the signal penetrates walls without a problem and remains strong. The strength is just as powerful. Download and upload speeds are terrific. With the addition of this router my average ping dropped 5ms.
- Gigabit Ethernet is extremely fast. You will notice the difference if upgrading from a 10/100 device.
- The router as of this time comes with the most recent firmware. However, Netgear makes it easy to upgrade down the road; a simple check, download and upload process.
- The ReadyShare feature turns NAS management into a simple task. Managing all your network folders is straightforward and adaptable. You can also set certain security or restrictions. The Centria runs your DLNA media server perfectly as well. Video playback is smooth even from wireless connections.
- The ReadyShare Vault software is a terrific alternative to use for backing up your system or certain data. The interface is simple and easy to configure to your preferences. Being able to backup your entire system onto the network

Cons: *The Centria functions amazingly. Most of my Cons are due to the hardware and physicality of the unit.*
- Because of the way the router stands, it can be placed in only one position. It cannot be manipulated for different mounting positions.
- The device is heavy, but considering there is a full HDD inside, that is to be expected. Because of this, placing it anywhere besides on a flat surface will be very difficult.
- The upright position that the router sits in makes it difficult to reach the ports on the back. Even though I have small fingers, there was hardly any room for me to work freely, unplugging and plugging cables in.
- The stand seems a little flimsy. It's possible that it is merely flexible and not flimsy, but with the heaviness of the unit, I worry the stand might fall under the pressure.
- When turning off the router for any reason, to turn it back on and get the wifi working again, you are forced to reboot your modem. I don't know why this is, but it happened twice.
- The included hard drive is not the best. However, you can change the hard drive at your will. So if you want to put a more durable or industrial type HDD in, Netgear gives you that option.
- When the HDD is inside, the router is rather noisy. It doesn't get loud enough to interrupt or distract, but if placed in an otherwise silent room, it will be heard. The sound is like a grinding sound-- not a familiar, healthy hum--making it kind of disconcerting.

Other Thoughts: Usually when installing a new router, I run into many headaches and "What the …?" moments, but with the Centria, everything was a breeze. At the price point, I believe the router should accommodate AC, but there are plenty of AC routers out there if you need.
The software Netgear has cooked up is intuitive and easy to use. The Genie is pointless for most people unless you constantly check your Network. I prefer the Browser page (routerlogin.net), because it offers access to the Advanced features. ReadyShare, ReadyShare Vault, and the ReadyShare Cloud for mobile devices are fine strides toward making routers the hub of our life.
Below is a single benchmark I ran on the included HDD.
Using AS SSD, the 2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 scored a read speed of 178.92 mbps and a write of 119.97 mbps.