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Microsoft Home Networking Wireless Notebook Kit

Microsoft Home Networking Wireless Notebook Kit

List Price: $109.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Very limitted
Review: I just received and set up this unit. First let me say setup was very easy and painless.

The product works, I now have a notebook that operates wirelessly.

That is about the extent of my praise. One major drawback for me is the limitted distance. This isn't a complaint about this product so much as it is a complaint about wireless routers/base stations in general.

What makes it such a problem with this product is that as far as I can tell there is no way to increase the range. Products like the "Cantenna" won't attach to the basestation or PC card whereas most units such as Linksys do.

Also, the wired PC connected to the router now has apparent DNS issues. When visiting a web site I frequently get the old IE Cannot find server message. Refreshing 1-10 times fixes the problem, but it is now a persistent problem. I have disabled my software firewall so that isn't the problem.

If I was to do it again (and I may return the unit) I would go with Linksys simply because they are a dominant player, their products have good 3rd party support and they seem to work well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Use a good channel!!!
Review: I made the mistake of using channel 5 when I first set up this router. I got an excellent signal, but I would loose my wireless connection every minute for no reason. Then I decided to try the DEFAULT CHANNEL 6 and it has been working great ever since.

Thanks Amazon and Microsoft for a great deal on a great product.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Use a good channel!!!
Review: I made the mistake of using channel 5 when I first set up this router. I got an excellent signal, but I would loose my wireless connection every minute for no reason. Then I decided to try the DEFAULT CHANNEL 6 and it has been working great ever since.

Thanks Amazon and Microsoft for a great deal on a great product.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is an amazing product
Review: I ordered mine one month ago and I am just fascinated with this product. I can share a broadband connection across my flat and I even connected my Pocket PC to the network.

I highly recommend this item. Is cheap, is reliable and is easy to setup. Just don't forget to get the firmware update and install it before you start connecting computers to the network.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works Great!!
Review: I run 2 computers with this setup, one desktop running Windows 98se and a laptop running XP Home. Needless to say I had both running and on the network in less than an hour, including a call to Microsoft support. I have the desktop linked with an ethernet connection and the laptop wireless.
First of all I ran through the setup of the Wireless Basestation and encountered a problem which led to a call to support. Got thru quickly (2 years 24/7 support included) and had my issue solved in minutes. Turned out that I had to just unplug power from the modem and basestation and re-apply the power to finish configuring the basestation. Voila! Everything worked great. I couldn't be happier with this setup and the wireless range works throughout a 1200 sq.ft. apartment with excellent signal strength throughout.
One thing to keep in mind is that their is a firmware upgrade to the basestation software that solves all the issues stated in earlier reviews regarding the wireless connection.
I am very happy with this product!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: try netgear instead
Review: I tried this despite the mixed reviews. If you value your time at all, I would say buy Netgear instead. I wasted hours with this before sending it back. I think there is a reason why the price on this thing is dropping. I think Microsoft owes an apology for the quality of this product

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Absolutely Disappointed
Review: I tried to configure this product 4 times and it just didnt work. The icons on my computer said connected to the internet but none of my online applications could connect. Spent tons of paper downloading help from Microsoft's website, yet no luck.
The notebook adapter would just not recognise my home wireless network. So, after hours of endless hope i gave the kit back to Best Buy and got a linksys kit instead. It was cheaper and i had my entire network setup in less than 20 minutes. I might be the ony one out there who loves Microsoft products, but this was a major disapointment.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easy to Install
Review: I was so proud that I did this one myself! I hooked it up to a wired Linksys router as a WAP for my XP laptop. Total installation time to get everything working was about 25 minutes. I have a two-story home and the base unit is in the laundry room in the basement. I can sit on my bed in the furthest corner of the top floor and get an excellent quality signal. I can't believe it was so easy and affordable with this kit.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easy to setup / use
Review: It was pretty easy to get this installed and start using right away. I'm one of those people who wants to get things working right away instead of spending even a minute with tech support and I wasn't disappointed.

I have one Win98 desktop connected to the base station and a Win2K laptop connected using the wireless adaptor. If you have only Win2K note that there may be some limitations. For example you cannot manage the base station from a Win2K station.

Instead of the kit I bought the base station and the notebook adaptor separately (couldn't find the kit in the store). The base station has 4 ethernet ports and according to the user guide you can connect upto 200 wireless devices using this base station. More ethernet devices can be connected using a hub.

The only hitch that I hit was that the Broadband Network Utility did not start up (GPFed). This was because my display driver did not support DirectX. Upgrading the driver set this right. BTW, you do need to get this utility up and running because you'll need to do a firmware upgrade right away (SP1 came out Dec 11, 2002). This is a critical update and as another reviewer mentioned should fix any communication issues you may have.

All in all it's been a good experience with this product.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: so you want to go wi-fi (aka 802.11) on me???
Review: Last summer the local parks went wi-fi, and when I finally decided to buy a new computer I decided on a 802.11b notebook. When my new roommate started having difficulties dialing up, it seemed a natural progression to go 'wireless'. Her notebook is older(running 98se, no modem, low memory pentium mmx et al) so I decided to go with the commonality between our two systems microsoft OS.

While I didn't need the 802.11b adapter, my roommate did so I went with the kit. I was prepared to be disappointed with microsoft and to have to spend much time trying to set up my roommates older notebook.

But I was shocked to say the least when everything loaded quickly and as laid out in the set up guide. In fact it loaded quicker than setting up my dsl connection. I think part of it was due to me making sure that my viruscan firewall was down.

My roommate has had no problems with her notebook adapter and has used it outside of the house through other hotspots. My third roommate who has an ibook (which also has an intergrated 802.11b) also hasn't had much problem logging onto the network.

Our apartment consists of two floors in a townhouse and the signal is consistently strong throughout the apartment. It was worth the 90 dollars spent and worth the less than 15 minutes of set up time. After two weeks of use I have not seen any of the problems described and feel confident that I won't.


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