Netgear router = impossible to configure

I wasted another couple prime Friday evening hours this week at my brother's office trying to configure his Internet connection. I set it up once months back but he lost connectivity and called Verizon instead of me. The tech had him wipe out my configuration, and then couldn't help him get back online. Grrrr.

The hassle is his DSL router and his Netgear Wireless router both want to be a DHCP server, and both want to be IP 192.168.1.1. I can configure the DSL router however I want, it's got a nice interface. So I disabled its DHCP and gave it a different IP. So far so good.

The Netgear router has a "configuration wizard" that you cannot escape. After a hard reset, it redirects all requests to 192.168.1.1, and writes a route aliasing the domain "routerconfig" or whatever to that adress. Then it tries to sense the Internet connectivity. If it doesn't have a upstream link, you can't proceed any further in the wizard. Nor can you bypass the wizard, Grrrrr! If it's plugged into the DSL router, it detects that it'll get a dynamic IP and beckons you to continue. But "poof!" it doesn't work. 404 for the next screen in the wizard.

I've concluded that the best way to "solve" the problem is to replace the Netgear wireless router with a different one, form *anyone but Netgear.* I talked to Jeremy, my Senior Systems Administrator, and he said that about a year ago Netgear switched their interface around and now they are total crap spo he's stayed clear.

I recently replaced my Netgear MR814 Wireless Router at home because it no longer allowed wireless connections. Most often it wouln't broadcast anything, not even its SSID. Most I could get out of it was 5 minutes uptime wirelessly. It guess that's a "security feature" since it couldn't do WAP either.

The replacement is a Belkin Wireless G Plus router. WAP, plus an interface I can do anything with. I sense I'll be buying one in the near future for my bro. Much better than losing yet another Friday evening.