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8

8.

Administration

Managing your network

This chapter describes the router settings for administering and maintaining your router and

home network. This chapter includes the following sections:

•

Upgrade the Router Firmware

•

View Router Status

•

View Logs of Web Access or Attempted Web Access

•

Manage the Configuration File

•

Set Password

F or information about upgrading or checking the status of your router over the Internet, see

Remote Management

on page

105. For information about monitoring the volume of Internet

traffic passing through your router’s Internet port, see

Traffic Meter

on page

109.

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N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500v2

Upgrade the Router Firmware

The router firmware (routing software) is stored in flash memory. You can update the

firmware from the Administration menu on the Advanced tab. You might see a message at

the top of the NETGEAR genie screens when new firmware is available for your product.

You can use the Check button on the Router Upgrade screen to check and update to the

latest firmware for your product if new firmware is available.



To check for new firmware and update your router:

1.

Select

Advanced > Administration > Router Update

:

Click

Check

2.

Click

Check

.

The router finds new firmware if any is available.

3.

Click

Yes

to update and locate the firmware (the file ends in .img).

WARNING:

When uploading firmware to the router,

do not

interrupt the web

browser by closing the window, clicking a link, or loading a new

page. If the browser is interrupted, it could corrupt the firmware.

When the upload is complete, your router restarts. The upgrade process typically takes

about 1 minute. Read the new firmware release notes to determine whether you need to

reconfigure the router after upgrading.

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N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500v2

View Router Status

To view router status and usage information, select

Advanced Home

or select

Administration > Router Status

to display the following screen:

Router Information

Hardware Version

. The router model.

Firmware Version

. The version of the router firmware. It changes if you upgrade the router

firmware.

GUI Language Version

. The version of the localized language of the user interface.

LAN Port

.

•

MAC Address

. The Media Access Control address is the unique physical address used

by the Ethernet (LAN) port of the router.

•

IP Address

. The IP address used by the Ethernet (LAN) port of the router. The default is

192.168.1.1.

•

DHCP Server

. Identifies whether the router’s built-in DHCP server is active for the

LAN-attached devices.

Internet Port

MAC Address

. The Media Access Control address is the unique physical address that the

Internet (WAN) port of the router uses.

IP Address

. The IP address that the Internet (WAN) port of the router uses. If no address is

shown or the address is 0.0.0, the router cannot connect to the Internet.

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N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500v2

Connection

. This shows if the router is using a fixed IP address on the WAN. If the value is

DHCP Client, the router obtains an IP address dynamically from the ISP.

IP Subnet Mask

. The IP subnet mask that the Internet (WAN) port of the router uses.

Domain Name Server

. The Domain Name Server addresses that the router uses. A Domain

Name Server translates human-language URLs such as www.netgear.com into IP

addresses.

Statistics Button

On the Router Status screen, in the Internet Port pane, click the

Show Statistics

button to

display the following screen:

Figure 6. System up time and poll interval statistics

System Up Time

. The time elapsed since the router was last restarted.

Port

. The statistics for the WAN (Internet) and LAN (Ethernet) ports. For each port, the

screen displays:

•

Status

. The link status of the port.

•

TxPkts

. The number of packets transmitted on this port since reset or manual clear.

•

RxPkts

. The number of packets received on this port since reset or manual clear.

•

Collisions

. The number of collisions on this port since reset or manual clear.

•

Tx B/s

. The current transmission (outbound) bandwidth used on the WAN and LAN ports.

•

Rx B/s

. The current reception (inbound) bandwidth used on the WAN and LAN ports.

•

Up Time

. The time elapsed since this port acquired the link.

•

Poll Interval

. The interval at which the statistics are updated in this screen.

To change the polling frequency, enter a time in seconds in the Poll Interval field, and click

Set Interval

.

To stop the polling entirely, click

Stop

.

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N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500v2

Connection Status Button

On the Router Status screen in the Internet Port pane, click the

Connection Status

button to

view connection status information.

Figure 7. View connection status information

The Release button returns the status of all items to 0. The Renew button refreshes the

items. The Close Window button closes the Connection Status screen.

IP Address

. The IP address that is assigned to the router.

Subnet Mask

. The subnet mask that is assigned to the router.

Default Gateway

. The IP address for the default gateway that the router communicates with.

DHCP Server

. The IP address for the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server that

provides the TCP/IP configuration for all the computers that are connected to the router.

DNS Server

. The IP address of the Domain Name Service server that provides translation of

network names to IP addresses.

Lease Obtained

. The date and time when the lease was obtained.

Lease Expires

. The date and time that the lease expires.