Rating: Summary: Couldn't Be Happier Review: After reading some bad reviews, I was a little concerned, but bought the card anyway. I was glad I did!!! I have a two year old Sony Vaio PCG-R505EL with XP Home. Setup was cake. I plugged in the card, loaded the software, it found my wireless router, and total installation to online time took about 2 minutes. It has great range, even detecting what must be my neighbor's wireless network and when on the road, it has no problems tapping into hotel networks. And with it being Super G, I know the technology will last awhile. I don't know what went wrong with those other computers, but I can tell you my experience has been nothing but great. No heat problems, no range problems, no installation/software problems...I can't name a thing that has gone wrong with this card, it even looks great!
Rating: Summary: Works as Advertised! Review: At least when paired with the Netgear WGT624 WAP/Router this card does indeed have a significant farther range than for instance the DLINK 614+ was was currently using. I can go from one corner of the house downstairs to a bedroom at the opposite corner of the house upstairs, on a waterbed at almost full speed (this gave the DLINK some trouble).It also comes with a nifty utility that does a better job than Windows with settings and statistics (like actual network throughput). One minor issue may be with how hot this card gets which is always a concern with a laptop. To the cards credit there are settings for Power Save and Transmit Power which may help.
Rating: Summary: You get: Blue Screen of Death and Useless Tech Support Review: Causes my Dell C600 laptop running XP to Blue Screen -- often. Sometimes it reboots and works; sometimes it hoses up something in the registry that prevents it from working without reinstalling Windows. Contacted Tech Support [sic] on 28 December 03 and they (silently) gave upon 1 March 04. They make no effort to debug, they just say try an older driver. And these useless suggestions take them days to make. You don't need this headache; buy from a different manufacturer.
Rating: Summary: Expect a little less range than promised- excellent overall Review: CNET recommends using the WG511T card with the accompanying router WGT624. Nonetheless, the card works fine with others too. The router seemed a little bit of a challenge to set up. But a call to Netgear and 20 mintues later, it worked beautifully. The card has good range, and covers my entire 2 bedroom, 1700 sq ft apartment and the backyard to boot. No blind spots yet. I live in a crowded part of town, lots of other wireless router signals around -my card has performed well nonetheless. In fact, it picks up ALL the signals around (with and without security), but you can choose which one your card should link to (assuming none of your neighbours have the security feature activated on their router). The only word of caution I give is that if your wg511T card freezes your computer or locks it up, then send it back for a replacement. Do not listen to the million and one recommendations Netgear customer service gives for correcting the problem with updates of your firmware, and computer BIOS, and changing the "IRQ" and the such. That is all nonsense. Amazon swapped out my first card, no questions asked and the new one arrived today and works absolutely perfectly.
Rating: Summary: turns my new laptop to sludge Review: from the moment this was plugged in it slowed my new laptop to an all but grinding halt.... I dearly wanted it to work, have tried everything.... But it is going back
Rating: Summary: Backup your files before installing! Review: I actually got this card to use in wifi hot spots or at friends' places that have a wireless connections setup since I myself only have dial-up at home. My laptop is a 2001 Compaq Presario 12XL325 purchased in 2001 running Windows ME, 650mhz Pentium III, 192MB RAM. The 1st card I got from Amazon during installation caused a fatal registry error to my laptop requiring me to reformat my PC...yes! REFORMAT, which means I had to use my factory recovery CDs, reload all software programs again, and all files. Luckily, I religiously backup my files periodically so I didn't lose anything, but what a hassle! Well after reformatting, I tried loading the driver and Netgear card again. Everytime, the driver would install fine, then when I stuck the card in, ME would recognize new hardware and then try to install the card....that's when it froze my PC everytime just like the 1st time...I tried this about 3 times. And on the 3rd time, it made ME have a fatal registry error again...yes, another REFORMAT-UGH!
I called Tech Support and the dude from India (?) told me to download the latest driver from their website. The installed driver from Netgear's website did seem to install better; however, this didn't work...everytime, my laptop would freeze after I inserted the card in the PCMCIA slot for the 1st time after downloading the software. The tech guy then said to put the card into another laptop to which I told him heck no...no way I would risk my friends' laptop having a fatal registry error. So basically, the tech guy told me to exchange it which Amazon did no problem.
I got my second card, used the website driver instead of the one from the CD and then crossed my finger and inserted the card into the PCI slot. Yikes...another freeze. But this time, after rebooting, magically my laptop now read the card. I was able to then use it at a wifi spot effortlessly. Plus I can read 3-4 connections where I live, although I can't use those connections since I don't have my neighbor's security codes.
Overall, the card seems to be a good value for it's price and Super G, G, and b compatibility. However, watch out before you install it...it may cause a fatal registry error so backup everything prior to installation. Now that the card is up and running, I love it. I don't have any comparison for reception strength, but the card seems to have a fairly strong reception.
Rating: Summary: It works great Review: I dont want to repeat all the good things said about this product. I have always been a netgear fan, because they make solid network equipment. This is my first netgear wireless equipment, and it works great just like other netgear products. One thing to remember though...you need to download and install the new driver in order to take advantage of the new WPA firewall security feature.
Rating: Summary: drastically changed my wireless experience at home! Review: I have a laptop at home and had been using a Dell wireless card to access the internet. In recent weeks, the card had begun to fail. So I got the WG511T... One word: amazing! I can surf from anywhere in the house with a strong signal.. it's great. Totally love the wireless again!
Rating: Summary: Fantastic card!! Review: I picked this baby up and have had no problems with it. Before I had this card I thought that there were only 2 wireless hubs in my apartment building, now that I have this card I know that there are 8 wireless hubs in my apt building. The reception on this card is incredible. If you are needing range and speed this is the way to go!! You don't need to have a super G router, it hooks up to my regular G router with no problems. It's great for Wifi spots too. I hit Panera and am on their wireless network in about 1 minute. It is expensive, but now that I have it, I think it's so worth it.
Rating: Summary: Excellent card for the novice or intermediate user. Review: I purchased my Netgear card at Fry's electronics for $49.00 (a real steal)in mid December 2003 and have been happy with its performance. I was unable to connect to a wirless router in my house. After calling tech support, I realized the fault was my own. I did not have the profile or proper WEP key enabled. Since then it has worked perfectly. It has never lost or dropped my connection even with a weaker signal of about 45%. Anything below that puts you in the 5.5 Mbps to 1Mbps and can be unrealiable. The user interface config utility is very easy to use. You can scan for availble access points and display type, signal strength, security, and address. I love this thing. I've had poor experience with D-link. Fed my old one to the dog. Netgear rocks! Enough said
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