Excelent value product. I had a few installation problems, all now resolved using web resources.

Some broadband review sites give the product a thumbs-down for high bandwidth users (games, P2P), but you get what you pay for.

Downloaded and installed the latest firmware without incident.

I now have 512k broadband for less than the cost of a new 56k modem and a contract that costs less per month than my old dial-up and second phone line!

Notes to help installation in a home network:

* Must change the DHCP range and IP address at the same time. IP address must be in the same net, even if DHCP is disabled.

* The LAN lights flash every 2 seconds. It's not a hacker, just IEEE802.1d STP traffic for any other switches or bridges on the local network.

* If you have a local DNS server (bind9) and want to forward root zone queries through the proxy, you need to disable the default Extended DNS protocol. For bind9 add 'server 192.168.0.1 { edns no; };'.

* Directing syslog to a local server is very useful (tail -f /var/log/messages).

* Turn off UPnP unless you are actually going to use it.

* Spend a little time planning your firewalling, IDS and logging. If in doubt, block it and log it.

IMHO a very good product at a VERY good price: GBP 58.61. Chalk up another success for embeded Linux!

P.S. If you like the idea of hacking out your own firmware image for the DG834 family, check out The DG834 Hacking Site at http://dg834.grandou.net/index.php?page=Home

I bought this router back in november 2003. I plugged it in , connected the ethernet cables and I was connected to the internet at no time.My line is a 640 / 256 dsl by telecom italia.I didn't notice any failures even during hours of p2p downloading, or file transfers.The web interface is friendly and easy to configure. I have been using widely the router's dynDNS option and it does a great job keeping my *.homeip.net domain pointed to my IP address.The compatibility with linux 2.4.x / 2.6.x is excellent. I also have an OpenBSD connected to the router works smoothly too. Dg834 itself runs linux.It has a MIPS CPU running an embedded version of Linux on Flash.
nmap -O 192.168.0.1 gave me this output :

Device type: PDA
Running: Linux 2.4.X
OS details: Linux 2.4.6 as on Sharp Zaurus PDA

I have had one problem: every time my ISP renewed my IP address, the router failed to reconnect automaticaly and had to do it manually.It was really annoying since I am running a website behind the router, and this handicap compromised its stability.It turned out to be a firmware bug which was resolved after installing 1.03.07 firmware.A feature I miss is the SNMP support.There is no SNMP support at present for the DG834 nor it is previsted for the forthcoming firmware :( so I had no luck trying to use MRTG.Besides these , minor imho, problems the router is an excellent buy.I reccomend it because for as little as 100 euro's you get a valid product combining : modem / router / 4port switch / firewall.

Simple setup via web browser - can setup "statically" or send info. via DHCP - solid and reliable - nice SPI firewall - easy port forwarding, good p2p, ethernet interface, full compatibility - no problems so far.

Didn't need to configure this or anthing else with Mandrake 10.1. It just worked straight away. I also had Slackware 10.1 installed briefly and that too gave me internet access without any extra legwork. Personally I would recommend this instead of the wireless version because you don't have security issues or connection issues. Wireless can be a bit hit and miss. If you can, 4 computers or printers etc can be hooked up to this. And using LAN instead of USB to connect to the internet is probably quicker and far more convenient. An excellent product.

I didn't had any problem at all

However I suggest to update firmware to (at least) version 2.0 to support high bandwidth ADSL connection.

for any information visit Netgear site
http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/DG834.asp

Has worked perfectly with every distro I've tried, no messing about needed.