recommendations

Not quite sure why you are asking about support in a Netgear group when you clearly don't like it. Most of the people here know about, and use, Netgear's support, except for a small band that turns up here solely to moan. Not, of course, that I am accusing you of that.

The best way to check the support for other brands is to visit their equivalents of this place. I try to keep my eye on a few alternatives, Asus, for example, but their user groups are pathetic in comparison with this one. And any messages I do see could easily come up here.

All brands seem to have the same generic problems, which isn't surprising since they most use the same chipsets and underlying software. Some brands don't even have official user groups.

Other places to look are your ISP's user groups. (BT in the UK has an active one with others users who know their stuff.) Most ISPs seem to have tech people who quickly get lost when someone turns up with a slightly tricky issue. And, of course,m they are there to support the hardware that they supply, which is usually overpriced and nothing like as capable as the hardware that comes from any of the recognised brands.

Then there are retailer review sites.