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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme Network
I picked up a new Netgear MR814v2 wireless router this weekend and an Airport Extreme card for the iMac. I set the router up with 128 bit WEP and my PC had no problem, but the iMac refused to connect, no matter how I configured the WEP key. It even failed with WEP disabled entirely.

After fighting it for a few hours I found the fix -- upgrade the router to version 5.0.1, and the Airport card will sync up happily with or without WEP.

I hope this saves someone some time!
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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme | 26 comments | Create New Account
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The secret 5.0.2 upgrade and more
Authored by: nevyn on Sep 24, '03 03:44:45PM

I just had this problem myself! How cool.

The problem is that the MR814v2's original firmware is incompatible with Airport Extreme. It works with ordinary Airport. 5.0.1 fixes this, just do a firmware upgrade.

If you're unable to do the firmware upgrade because of it saying it's the wrong version of the file, do a hard reset on the switch on the back of the unit. I had to do that... To hard-reset, hold the reset button down for ten seconds! Until the lamp starts to blink.

On a further note, there actually is a 5.0.2 firmware upgrade! I got it from tech support, but it's not available from the site. Which I find very strange! I'll throw it onto my webserver at http://alastor.mine.nu/files/mr814v2firmware502.img

---
?



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: jscheeres on Sep 30, '03 02:38:39PM

You are right! - the firmware upgrade 5.0.1 did indeed fix the problem connecting to G4 powerbook with an AE card. Warning - The Netgear support techs (outsource call center in India) are clueless - they tried to pass it off as an airport problem and said the upgrade would not help - they obviously are under-educated about their own product. So, thank goddess for this forum!



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: racmac on Oct 10, '03 04:41:01PM

Thank you for the hint.
However, I had problems uploading the firmware with Net scape 7.1 under OSX.
It finally worked with Explorer .....



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: nickc on Feb 13, '04 01:47:03AM

So I just got an iBook with an Airport Extreme card, and was Extremely disappointed that it didn't work with my netgear MR814v2 router which worked successfully with 2 other kinds of wireless cards. The airport extreme card found the wireless signal fine, but was unable to get an IP address. Actually, about 1 in 10 times that I tried it, it WAS able to get an IP address. I upgraded the router firmware to 5.03, but still no good. I fiddled with some of the router settings (on the netgear router web interface), and finally, after making one particular change, it seemed to work! But in order to find out what that change is, you will need to mail me a check for...just kidding. By changing the WEP Authentication Type (in wireless settings) to "Automatic," it seems to work. Give it a try, and maybe you too can avoid shelling out $200 for an Airport base station...



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: shephard on Feb 13, '04 01:28:01PM

hey i have a g5 and i am having the same problem. will it work with a G5? the net gear router is about 30 to 40 feet away. can i get it to work with the upgrade?



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: shephard on Feb 13, '04 01:28:51PM

hey i have a g5 and i am having the same problem. will it work with a G5? the net gear router is about 30 to 40 feet away. can i get it to work with the upgrade?



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: Raoul5 on Mar 03, '04 02:08:54PM

I have an MR814 (not v2) and just bought an Airport Extreme card for my G5. The MR814 has had no problems with the PCs in the house in the past, but my G5 airport extreme is getting no signal on the taskbar at the top. Does anyone know if the an MR814 (notv2) firmware upgrade would help resolve this ??



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: SallyShears on Feb 17, '04 02:57:03PM

The current firmware for Netgear MR814v2 is 5.0.3; I don't know what the differences are.

Also, I had a different problem: unable to enter the wep key in the menu-bar drop-down for airport. I thin the dropdown is broken in Airport software 3.3; the solution is to open internet connect where the same dialogue box seems to work as expected.

I've posted a separate HINT about this.

-- Sally

---
Sally Shears, a.k.a. "Molly"



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: sjk on Feb 17, '04 04:42:17PM
5.01 firmware is installed on my brother's new MR814v2. The MR814v2 firmware download page lists changes for 5.03 but no previous versions and we'd like to know what was changed in 5.02. Step #9 of the upgrade instructions says "Reset router to factory defaults", which is a hassle if that needs to be done with every firmware upgrade. Also looks like there's no WAP support, unless that was added in 5.02.

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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: andyvota on Mar 28, '04 07:45:55PM

Using airport extreme card and 10.3 and after upgrading NETGEAR router to 5.03 was able to access it OK. However, just upgraded system to 10.3.3 and now am unable to log on to router again...although no changes have been made on router. Has anyone else experienced this and figured out a workaround?



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: smmx on Apr 19, '04 03:01:07PM

same problem here 10.3.3 seems to have broken the connection, if I plug in an ethernet cable I get an airport connection and if I unplug it it's gone. (i'm not connecting through ethernet though) don't think upgrading the router firmware is going to help :(



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: tito316 on May 16, '04 07:56:14PM

Same problem here...I have Mac OS X 10.3.3 and firmware version 5.0.3 for my Netgear MR814v2. Has anyone been able to get these working together?

---
Kyle Freeman
http://www.kylefreeman.com



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: itinerant on Jun 07, '04 03:00:17PM

I too am having trouble with the Netgear MR814v2 with Mac OS X 10.3.4 whereby I cannot get an IP address with Airport Extreme unless I've got an Ethernet cable connected. Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Do you have any solution found as yet? I've upgraded the router firmware to the latest available on the Negear website 5.0.3, but it hasn't fixed the problem. I'm using a new Powerbook 12". Any ideas?

Scott



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: szrc on Jun 13, '04 02:57:00PM

I had the same problem: my new Powerbook came with 10.3.3 and I upgraded to 10.3.4, but neither would work with my MR814v2. If I plugged in an ethernet cable, the AirPort could get an IP; otherwise it could not.

What seems to have fixed it is turning on UPnP in the Netgear config page (although I've since turned it off and things continue to work). Not too sure what UPnP does (i.e., if the solution even makes sense), but it worked for me.



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: phasby on Jul 13, '04 04:11:07AM

I have a 17 inch Powerbook G4 running 10.3.3 initially, now 10.3.4, with an Airport Extreme recently upgraded to firmware 3.4.2b. The initial purchase firmware on my MR814v2 was 5.0.3, and it did plug and play... however, the connection dropped every 12 to 24 hours, to be regained by rebooting the router. (My friend who got a 15 inch Powerbook, same Airport Extreme and MR814v2, has the same experience.) After updating the Airport firmware, and the operating system, it's worse not better, requiring combinations of rebooting the router or running the AirPort Setup Assistant over again, to reconnect. I just tried the UPnP turn-on recommended above... any other ideas? A couple of e-mails to Netgear yield no help so far.



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: phasby on Jul 18, '04 12:23:43PM

Continuing after my July 13 post... after turning on UPnP, wireless connection to the MR814v2 remains erratic. Sometimes the Powerbook emerges from sleep or a cold start and connects to NETGEAR pain-free; the new event after UPnP is that it intermittently offers a start-up window "none of your trusted networks can be found. Would you like to connect to Netgear? Would you like to remember this decision?" Clicking yes brings changes the previous "no signal" indicator in Internet Connect to read "connected to Netgear" wth good signal strength, but regardless, the browser still " can't find the server" until I re-run Airport SetUp Assistant.

Any indication that Netgear or Apple are planning further firmwear releases to allow them to work together normally?



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: phasby on Sep 04, '04 10:40:30PM

High hopes this weekend, with Apple offering an Airport Extreme firmware upgrade to 3.4.3, specifically advertised to fix problems in mixed 802.11b and 802.11g networks, like this one. The Airport Extreme booted right up and detected the Netgear signal right away... then took two runs through Airport Setup Assistant to connect to the Internet... and has continued to lose the Internet every couple of hours (or quicker), requiring a Netgear reboot to lose the error message "Airport is connected to network NETGEAR. Airport has a self-assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the Internet" in the Network window of System Preferences. Turns out Netgear has an upgrade for the MR814v2 as well, firmware v5.3_05. That loaded easily, didn't break anything, and doesn't change the above described pain in the tail.

Is anybody from Apple or Netgear monitoring this forum?

Peter Hasby



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: riversnakejim on Apr 24, '05 10:19:41AM

I followed the advice to turn on universal plug and play a few weeks ago and it worked great. This weekend, my mac could no-longer connect. I reread your post and noted that turning it off didn't cause a problem for you. I decided to try turning of universal plug and play on my MR814v2 router and my mac was able to connect again.

It appears that simply *changing setting* is what is required to get things working.

Weird.



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: Macrobbo on Jun 27, '04 01:08:29AM

Any help on this is much appreciated....
I have a Netgear MR814v2, it works fine connected through ethernet on my G5...... My iBook G4 has an Airport Extreme installed and doesn't even know the Netgear MR814v2 is there. I also can't reach the Netgear web interface from the G5 using IE
Any ideas?



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: dpowers on Jul 19, '04 09:44:18PM

I have some problems with this router as well. I never lost connection to the Internet, that I can see. BUT, I do lose connection in IRC sometimes. Also, after a certain period of time, I can no longer ping the router or any other device on my local network, however internet connection still works just fine.

I have upgraded to 5.30 firmware with no discernable changes. The latest thing I did was try uPnP to see if that works. I doubt it though.

Some settings I have checked on:

Enable Wireless Access point
Allow broadcast of SSID
Setup access list with Airport Extreme Mac address
Security Type: Automatic
Encryption Strength: Disabled



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: howk on Sep 08, '04 01:12:37AM
Okay, tried something that I found...well, somewhere. I've had difficulties connecting my Airport Extreme (v3.4.3) with my Netgear MR814v2 (firmware v5.3_05). The uPnP trick did not work for me at all. I had to unplug the router to get it to assign an IP address for my Powerbook.

A potential key: I've got my router attached via ethernet cable to a Windows machine. Somewhere on this mysterious thing we call the 'internet' someone suggested that it would help if I removed the IPX functionality from my Windows networking. (Found the source of this suggestion: here)

I don't ever use this, so I tried it....Whoa...it actually seems to have worked. The one other thing I've changed is that I've enabled uPnP and changed the 'Advertisement Time to Live' to 25.

This has only been working for a few days, so I'll report back if something else goes wrong.

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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: phasby on Sep 14, '04 12:47:58AM

Now this sounded hopeful. The desktop hardwired by Ethernet to my Netgear router runs OS 9.2.2, and I found MacIPX control panel, and extensions called MacIPX Ethernet and MacIPX Token Ring on it. I turned them all off. The games I play on the desktop still worked.... and the Airport Extreme lost the 'Net due to that darned "self-assigned IP address" within a half hour, as usual. I'll try trashing its preferences folder.



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: Chealion on Sep 15, '04 01:08:09AM

Google is your friend is it not? Glad I could help. It's worked wonders for me, haven't had a problem since turning off IPX.

---
Chealion - The one and only! =)



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: jamiemccarthy on Jul 03, '05 12:43:21PM

We have a Netgear MR814v2, firmware 5.03 (Nov 18 2003), and are trying to connect to it with a pair of Airport Extreme cards for two new (June 2005) computers (one iMac, one iBook).

The MR814v2 is connected to SBC DSL. It was set up with 128-bit WEP encryption and a list of MAC addresses in its Wireless Card Access List. The Macs could see the name of the network. Once the access list and password were in place, the Macs were given IP addresses manually. (If the Macs were set to have a DHCP address assigned, the address they saw was incorrect, not even in the 192.168.0.0/16 netblock. I'm not sure what caused this, it may be related to another open wireless network that is accessible from this location.)

I had turned uPNP on, and after lots of fiddling around, the best I could get was for the Macs to report that they were on the internet, and the MR814 to recognize (in Attached Devices) that the Macs were present. Using Terminal.app, the Macs could ping and be pinged by each other and other devices on the wireless network, and ifconfig reported what looked like a connection -- but they could not ping the router ("no route") and could not send any traffic outside the network.

Setting UPnP's Advertisement Time To Live from the default up to 25 hops seems to have made it work.

I don't know whether that was really the fix or it was just random, and I don't know how long the fix will continue to work. If it breaks again, I'll try to report back here.



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: ctb-y on Apr 21, '06 10:15:39AM

I have a similar problem with my ibook G4, OX 10.4.
I have a Netgear MR814v2, I am connected to the router, I can even ping outside websites with terminal.app, but I cannot get a website onto either Safari or Firefox.
Does anyone have an idea what I can do?

Thanks for great forum.
Chris



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Troubleshooting a Netgear MR814v2 and Airport Extreme
Authored by: rabbijacobs on Dec 17, '07 04:11:17AM

Hi. Saw this article. Any idea how to get a Netgear MR814 (without a version) to work with Airport Extreme? Any idea if they're compatible?

Thanks.



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