I don't know the netgear router menus.

But it might be under something like Respond to ICMP ping or block it, etc.

I run Tomato after market firmware in a Buffalo and that is why mine says.

I leave mine turned off and the default for most routers is to leave it off. The nice thing about it being off is if a hacker is rolling through the known dynamic IP addresses of an ISP and gets a ping back, he knows he found a router somewhere to try and play with. So I leave mine off unless I need it for someone to find me.

Turning it on for a line test is ok to do. I have done that before myself to see what the system sees.

One thing not to do is open any extra ports. ICMP is on port 7 and all the routers I have seen what becoming pingable actually means is they open port 7 and turn on echo requests at the same time. So doubtful if just turning on port 7 will allow pings from the router.

Ok, I did it, looked up your manual online http://kbserver.netgear.com/pdf/wgr6...an_20Apr05.pdf, searched and found this:

(from reading the rest of the page, I would think this would be on a menu page called "The WAN Setup menu"

Responding to Ping on Internet WAN Port
If you want the router to respond to a 'ping' from the Internet, click the ‘Respond to Ping on
Internet WAN Port’ check box. This should only be used as a diagnostic tool, since it allows your
router to be discovered. Don't check this box unless you have a specific reason to do so.