[section_title title=Setup & Installation]Setup & Installation
Installation of the Netgear R6300 couldn’t be any simpler and given that it is considered a high end consumer product, I would have expected it to be a somewhat complex process. To give you an indication of what the back-end menus looks like and the kind of options you can expect, I have illustrated the main displays.
Starting with setting up the R6300, it is simply a case of plugging it in, connecting it up and in my case; I started by plugging it in wired just to initialise it (not needed though!)
These are the screens I got after connected it via Ethernet.
Next, you need to access the router itself via a browser which in this case, I used Google chrome. 192.168.1.1 is the default IP to connect to this router and once you enter this, you are greeted with a login screen (User is admin and password is…..password; how original!
After logging in, you will be greeted with the routers main hub, which provides various information about connection and attached devices.
Here we have a look at the basic options regarding the wireless functions/settings. Here you can change variables like the security settings required to connect wirelessly, the network’s name and even the type of security you would like; this depends on your personal preference and device compatibility.
Taking a little look at how the parental controls work, Netgear have taken great care in how they wanted it to work. To use parental controls on the R6300, you need to download a zip file which opens up allowing you to go through it; I personally would have preferred it to be done on router but Netgear seem to know what they are doing. This is compatible with Windows and Mac users but no word on Linux users etc.
The Netgear R6300 has ready share capability which allows you to print wirelessly on your network as well as supported external USB devices for storage. I really like this feature and is something worth considering if you have a HTPC or want to store files over a home network.
Taking a look at the advanced panel of the R6300, there are more options available such as statistics, an overview of each wireless setting (2.4GHz/5GHz) and even guest network information.
As you can see here, the wireless setup is quite customisable to your specifications although for the general home user, the basic panel would be a much better option to avoid confusion/changing the wrong setting needlessly.
