Netgear N 900 Manual

							Administration71
 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500
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  Ve r s i o n. The version 
 of the router firmware. It changes if you upgrade the router 
firmware.
GUI Language Version . The localized langua
 ge of the user interface.
LAN Port .
• MAC Address
. The
  Media Access Control address . This is the unique physical address 
being used by the Ethernet (LAN) port of the router. 
• IP Address . The
  IP address being 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 Provider (WAN) Setup
MAC Address . The Media Access Control address . This is the unique physical address 
being used by the Internet (WAN) port of the router.
IP  Address . The IP address b

eing used by the Internet (WAN) port of the router. 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 WNDR4500 
Connection. This shows if the router is using a fix
ed IP address on t he WAN. If the value is 
DHCP Client, the router obtains an  IP address dynamically from the ISP.
IP Subnet Mask.  The IP subnet

 mask being used by the Internet (WAN) port of the router. 
Domain Name Server . The Domain Name
  Server addresses being used by the router. 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 Provider (WAN) Setup pane, click the 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 st a
 tistics for the WAN (Internet) and LAN (Ethernet) ports. For each port, the 
screen displays:
• Status. The link status of the port.
• TxPkt s. The number of packets transmitted on this port since reset or manual clear.
• RxPkt s. T
 he number of packets received on th is port since reset or manual clear.
• Collision s
 . The number of collisions on this port since reset or manual clear.
• Tx B/s. The current tran smission (ou
 tbound) bandwidth used on the WAN and LAN ports.
• Rx B/s . The curre
 nt reception (inbound) bandwidth used on the WAN and LAN ports.
• Up T ime. The 
 time elapsed since this port acquired the link.
• Poll Inte rva
 l. 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  St
o
 p. 
						

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 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500
Connection Status Button
On the Router Status screen in t
he Internet Connection 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 cl oses the Connection Status screen.
IP Address . The IP address t

hat is assigned to the router.
Subnet Mask . The sub
 net mask that is assigned to the router.
Default Gateway . Th
 e IP address for the default gateway that the router communicates with.
DHCP Server . The IP address f
 or the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server that 
provides the TCP/IP configuration for all th e computers that are connected to the router.
DNS Server . 

The IP address of the Domain Name Serv ice server that provides translation of 
network names to IP addresses.
Lease Obtained. The  date a

nd time when the lease was obtained.
Lease Expires . The date a
 nd time that the lease expires. 
						

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N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500 
Wireless Settings (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz)
The following settings are displayed:
Name (SSID
). The wirele
 ss network name (SSID) used by the router. The default names for 
the 5 GHz ends in -5G to distinguish it from the 2.4 GHz network.
Region. T he geographic region where the router is being used. It might be illegal to use the 
wireless feature
 s of the router in some parts of the world.
Channel.  Identifies the operating channel of the wireless port being used. The default 
cha
 nnel is Auto. When Auto is selected, the  router will find the best operating channel 
available. If you notice interference from nearby devices, you can select a different channel. 
Channels 1, 6, and 11 will not interfere with each other. 
Mode . Indicate s the
  wireless communication mode: Up to 54 Mbps, Up to 217 Mbps 
(default), and Up to 450 Mbps.
Wireless AP . Indi

cates whether the radio feature of the router is enabled. If this feature is not 
enabled, the Wireless LED on the front panel is off.
Broadcast Name. Ind i

cates whether the router is broadcasting its SSID.
Wireless Isolation . Select this check 
 box only if you want to prevent wireless connections to 
the router.
Wi-Fi Protected Setup . Indi

cates whether Wi-Fi Protected Setup is configured for this 
network. 
						

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 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500
Guest Network (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz)
Name (SSID). The 11N wireless network name (SSID) used by the router. The default names 
are NETGEAR-Guest and NETGEAR-5G-Guest.
Wireless AP
. Indicates whe
 ther the radio feature of the router is enabled. If this feature is not 
enabled, the Wireless LED on the front panel is off.
Broadcast Name. Indicates whethe r the 
 router is broadcasting its SSID.
Wireless Isolation . Select this che
 ck box only if you want to prevent wireless connections to 
the router.
Allow guest to access My Local Network . If se

lected, any user who connects to this SSID 
can access local networks associated with the router.
View Logs of Web Access  or Attempted Web Access
The log is a detailed record of the websites you have accessed or attempted to access. Up to 
256 entries are stored in the log. Log entries appear only when keyword blocking is enabled 
a nd no 

log entries are made for the trusted user. 
						

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N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500 
Select Advanced > Administration > Logs
. The Logs screen displays.
The log screen shows the following information:
•Date and time . The date
  and time the log entry was recorded.
• Source IP . The IP 
 address of the initiating device for this log entry.
• Target address . Th
 e name or IP address of the website or news group visited or to which 
access was attempted.
• Action. Wh ether t
 he access was blocked or allowed.
To refresh the log screen, click the  Refre
 sh button.
To clear the log entries, click the  Clear Log  bu
 tton.
To email the log immediately, click the  Send Log bu
 tton. 
						

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 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500
Manage the Configuration File
The configuration settings of the N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router are stored within 
the router in a configuration file. You can back up (save) this file to your computer, restore it, 
or reset it to the factory default settings.
Back Up Settings
To back up the router’s configuration settings:
1.
Select  Advanced
  > Administration > Backup Settings  to display the following screen:
2.Click  Back Up  to save a copy of the current settings.
3. Choo se a location to store the .cfg file that is on a computer on your network.
Restore Configuration Settings
To restore configuration settings that you backed up:
1.Enter the full path to the file on your network, or click the  Br
 owse button to find the file. 
2. When you  have locat
 ed the .cfg file, click the Restore button to upload the file to the router.
Upon completion, the router reboots.
WARNING:
Do not interrupt the reboot process. 
						

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N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500 
Erase
Under some circumstances (for example, if you move the router to a different network or if 
you have forgotten the password), you might w
ant to erase the configuration and restore the 
factory default settings. 
You can either use the Restore Factory Settings button on the back of the router (see  Factory 
Settings  o
n page  120), or you can click the  Erase button in this screen.
Erase sets the user name to admin, the passw ord
  to password, and the LAN IP address to 
192.168.1.1, and enables the router’s DHCP. 
						

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 N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500
Set Password
This feature allows you to change the default passwo
rd that is used to log in to the router with 
the user name  admin. 
This is not the same as changing the password for wireless access. The label on the bottom 
o f you

r router shows your unique wireless network name (SSID) and password for wireless 
access (see Label  on page 11 ).
To set the password for the user name admin:
1. Select  Advanced > Admin
 istration > Set Password to display the following screen:
2.Type the old password, and type the new password twice in the fields on this screen.
3. If you want  
 to be able to recover the password, select the  Enable Password Recovery 
check box.
4. Click  Appl
 y so that your changes take effect.
Password Recovery
NETGEAR recommends that you enable password recovery if you change the password for 
the router’s user name of admin. Then you will  have an easy way to recover the password if 
it is forgotten. This recovery process is supported in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome 
browsers, but not in the Safari browser.
To set up password recovery:
1. Select  the Enable Pas
 sword Recovery check box.
2. Select two security quest i
 ons, and provide answers to them.
3. Click  Appl
 y to save your changes.
When you use your browser to access the rout er, the
  login window displays. If password 
recovery is enabled, when you click Cancel, the password recovery process starts. You can 
then enter the saved answers to the security questions to recover the password. 
						

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N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4500 
Time Machine
Time Machine works only on Mac computers. 
It automatically backs up everything on your 
computer to a USB hard drive that is connected to the Mac.
Set Up Time Machine
If you are already using Time Machine software with your USB hard drive, you can skip the 
set up and go directly to the following section, Access the Connected USB Hard Drive.
To set up Time Machine:
1. Physically con nect
  the USB hard drive to your Mac.
2. On your Mac, go to the magnifying glass at the top right of the desktop, and search for  disk 
utility . 
3. Open the  
 Disk Utility and format your drive, as shown here. 
The router supports GUID and MBR partitions  only. To see how to change the partition 
scheme, see  Change the Partition Scheme  on p
 age 85. 
You can now use Time Machine wirelessly by  connecting the USB hard drive 
 to your C router.