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Netgear MA101 802.11b Wireless USB Adapter

Netgear MA101 802.11b Wireless USB Adapter

List Price: $69.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Netgear MA101 Troubles
Review: I recently upgrade my internet connection to Verizon DSL, and I wanted to share my new connection with my secondary computer. I purchased this adapter along with a Siemens Speedstream Wireless USB adapter to go along with my MN-500 Wireless Base Station.

The setup was alright - the performance, was not. I plugged it in, Windows refused to recognize it. Rebooted, finally recognized it, installed the software. No response. Couldn't get anything working. Tried installing the other one - same results. Rebooted router, finally I got wireless running. The MA101, however, I saw very poor results. The adapter was no more than 40-50 feet away from the router, yet my signal and link strength barely reached 6%.

The signal constantly dropped, and the only way to get both signals above 6% was by holding it straight over the top of my head. From there I was able to get a little less than 20%. Tried all different positions on my desk, on top of my monitor, etc but to no avail. Tried all different antenna positions to no avail either. Plugged in the Speedstream and got a constant 46%/33%.

Netgear's networking hardware has a great reputation and I believe that this adapter, in short distances with line of sight between wireless components, could have the ability to perform outstandingly; however, if this is not the case for your network, you are much better off purchasing a different USB adapter.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent performance
Review: I had this hooked up in 5 minutes and running. I was able to see this newly connected machine on my LAN with my wireless laptop and easily share files. I have straight windows 98 on this machine and had no problems. I have read that the LinkSys USB wireless adapter requires 98SE and higher. Works great with my Netgear MR814 wireless cable/DSL router. I currently have the router on the other side of the second floor ~50 ft away and both the link and signal strength are at 100%. Working great with 128 bit WEP enabled and full transmission speed. GREAT PRODUCT!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Elated Customer
Review: I was very impressed with the speed that it arrived and more over the appearance of it. It was well kept. It works great and the price was great. Thanks!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Wireless Zero COnfiguration
Review: I loved the MA101 when I used it on my Windows 98SE and Windows
2000 machines. It's a different story for Windows XP. Contrary
to some of the stuff posted to the google news groups you can
use either the old 1.1 version drivers or the newer version 2.1.
Most use the new drivers with XP. The "trick" is to let XP make
your connections, but then shut off wireless zero config AFTER
the connection is made. You can do this with services.msc or
write a script linked to a short-cut to do this. If you don't
shut off WZC the connection will hang every minute or so and
XP re-scans your NICs. This makes gaming impossible.

Netgear would get 5 stars if they just made a quality XP driver
available. This may not be possible because the firware cannot
be upgraded to the WZC MS standard AFAIK.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Netgear Wireless USB Adapter
Review: I purchased the Netgear MA101 802.11b Wirless USB Adapter and connected to my XP computer. Installed the driver that came with the adapter and it started working without any hitch. My PC is in a different room from the Wireless Router (around 25 ft and couple of walls) and signal strength is Max. Enabled WEP encryption and other security features available in XP and never had any problem. I am a network pro but did not have to do any tweaking to get it up and running. I have DSL at home and it runs lightening fast. I did not have to open my PC (that is why I did not buy the PCI card) which is a great convenience. It is more than 2 months now and so far no problem. I would recommend Netgear for wireless networking at home.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works perfectly, installs instantly
Review: It took me all of 20 minutes to set up a network using this terrific USB wireless adapter and the MR314 wireless router/switch/access point. Of the total time, maybe five minutes was spent installing the MA101 adapter. As a network novice, I was amazed that everything worked exactly as it was supposed to, without my having to reinstall anything, call tech support or tear my hair out.

The PC with the adapter is located two floors up from the router, about 50 feet point to point. Signal strength registers as "low" (2 pips out of 5 on the utility display), but I am getting an unbroken connection at a speed indistinguishable from that of the PC that's wired to the router.

I'm running Windows XP. The Netgear Web site has an updated driver, but I decided to live dangerously and use the driver on the CD-ROM that's supplied with the adapter. No problem -- I clicked through the warning about an "unsigned" driver, and it installed and worked fine. At this point I'm going to leave well enough alone and not install the new driver.

Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply the best!!!
Review: I must confess that this is one of the equipment I ever had without hassel in configuring it. It works straight right out of the box. It still keeps me connected. It's surely the best!!! I will highly recommend it... Signal strength is great!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WORKS GREAT
Review: I did a lot of reading before I bought this... I bought it refurbed for 20 dollars and was really worried about getting it hooked up right.. I have XP Pro and an SMC router so reading the reviews I was left a little unsure if it would work or not... plugged in and installed... and worked great.. I am streaming music working remotely and writing this review.. I am no techy nor am I a network admin.. but I know how to plug things in and install them.. so far no stalls in music or in remote access... in fact I dare to say its rippin fast... I turned off windows ability to shut down the device when not in use so that may solve some XP headaches.. but as far as I am concerned this was a great investment.. I no longer have the cable from my living room to my room have two doors closed and am getting a "very good" signal... so I say if you are thinking about it.. get it..

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works great with TiVo
Review: I got this for my Tivo Series2 and it works great. It was easy to set up.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great, easy to use
Review: I have both the ma111 and the ma101, they both run flawlessly. The set up is easy and well explained. I didn't want to run cat 5 cables all over my house to connect my pc's. I have 3 pc's that are on my network. 2 desktops and one laptop......I have played around with my laptop in different rooms and have no problems maintaining connections.

Max range is about 150 foot in the clear, and about half that through walls and such. I'm sure I could get better range but I would be in my neighbors yard, I don't see me needing that kind of range..... my point is that it works great indoors at my house, 2 story with 4 walls still no problems.

I feel for the money I spent I got more than what I paid for, these days that's a bargain.


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