Rating: 
Summary: Still dubious about both the product and XP.
Review: You'll notice a pattern to these reviews: they tend to be either 5 stars ("I have no IT background, and even I got it to work in 2 minutes!") or 1 star ("I have years of experience, and not even sacrificing a goat helped!"). I fall into the latter. Which is true? Both, probably. Yes, I fully believe that there are those out there who got this working with XP in under 2 minutes. But trust me when I say that, using the very latest drivers (downloaded from the Netgear site, Nov. 2002), and spending several hours on the phone with Netgear support, on more than one occasion, I have not gotten this thing to work properly. (I have tried exchanging the card in case it was hardware related.) Windows 98 had the problem of being very unhappy about having more than 4 TCP/IP devices (this card, internal ethernet card, internal modem X 3 [1 for the modem, 1 each for the modem with the MSN and AOL #'s pre-loaded, the latter two I had forgotten about], and yes, that is a known "issue" with Windows 98). So, that prompted me to get Windows 98 replaced with XP. Windows XP refused to read the driver off the CD, refused to read the driver from file, and basically had to be force fed the driver, which then didn't work. Deleting the driver to try over from scratch, XP now refuses to believe the card even exists, let alone needs a driver. After talking to many people with various wireless cards and various machines, I keep hearing the same story over and over again. Depending upon *what specific machine* you have running XP, and what card you use, things either tend to work immediately, or not at all, with it being a crap shoot as to which it is going to be. So, yes, with XP this card *might* work immediately. But it also might not, and Netgear technical support won't be very helpful in making it work for you. So, you'll either end up in the 5 star or 1 star category, and unless you have a friend with an *identical* set-up, good luck guessing which it will be. Best advice seems to be: go ahead and try it. If it works immediately, enjoy it. If not, return it and try again with another brand, and hope for better luck. Feb. 2003 Update: True to the above, I downloaded Driver Version 2.6 (Dec. 2003), and it *still* doesn't work, although another person I know (who's card hasn't worked for the past year) did just update the firmware and driver on his MA401, and it worked for him on XP. I gave my MA401 card to a friend with XP, and it worked immediately on his machine. Lest you think somehow it is me or my machine, I just tried a Linksys WMP11 (version 3, I hear
Rating: 
Summary: Works great
Review: I bought this card with the MR314 AP and a Linksys WCF11 Compactflash for my IPAQ PDA. The 401 was a breeze to install, I connected to the router with no problems, for about 5 minutes. It seemed that intermittently, every 10 minutes or so, the connection would just die and I would have to reset the Access point to reconnect. I went to bed and took the laptop and the card to work to connect to the Access point there and spent the whole day connected. It turns out if you buy a Netgear MR314, it's best to upgrade to the 2.59 firmware if you want to use it with Verizon DSL. Problem solved. Compared to the linksys WCF11 and now the MA701 Netgear CF card that I swapped that for this card seems to hold a conneciton better and consistently picks up a better signal. I did have a range issue for a while in my small apartment, until I mounted the access point on a table about a foot off the ground and it all seems good now. I'd recommend this card over they Linksys that I borrowed from a friend which seemed to have less range at my office. Overall for the [$$] I payed I think it was a good deal.
Rating: 
Summary: Works perfectly ...!
Review: I am using both the netgear MA401 card and the cisco aironet 350 series card as i'm running a few laptops at the same time. while the cisco card gives better utilities and looks a lot better, it is more than twice the price of the netgear. If you are gonna get a netgear or any other router for home or small office use, i would strongly recommend this card. Installation was fuss free and took just around 5mins to link with my netgear router.
Rating:
Summary: About this card, it's from the same manufactory as Linksys
Review: Well, this card and Linksys's 802.11b wireless PC card are the same. They all got poor reception and the card is even worst than Linksys. For University's wireless zone, it couldn't establish the connection and it even connects, it keeps disconnecting and reconnecting all the time... Same as Linksys, but Linksys got a little bit stablility and not quite stable... I would recommend to buy Oninoco's Silver/Gold card(Agree, a Division from Lucent) or Siemen SpeedStream Wireless Card. Because of Linksys and Netgear Wireless, they waste my time to return. I tried many times and brought them to University Computing Center to let technician help me out for setup. They said both cards are not good and they are all from the same manufactory.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good wireless card.
Review: I use my card mainly in the office and it works pretty well there. It was very easy to setup. I use it with 128-bit encryption. I haven't setup a network @ home so I dont know how it would work there. If how it works in the office is any indication, then I am sure that it would do a great job. I dont have any problems with link quality/strength. Only time I have had a problem is when I was moving between floors. It lost connection for a while. Apart from that one incident, its worked like a charm.
Rating:
Summary: Great card, great deal
Review: What an easy wireless network card to install! It was as easy as placing the card in the slot, popping in the software cd, and letting the computer do the rest of the work. In addition, the card holds very good reception, and came at an outstanding price here on Amazon.com. I am very please with this card, and recommend it to everyone who asks. Netgear service, from what I've heard, is pretty decent too.
Rating:
Summary: Much easier than expected to install...works very well
Review: I just installed the MA401 card on my laptop running XP Home addition (and using the MR314 wireless router as my access point to my roadrunner cable modem service). I was a bit worried about the other posts I had read about problems with XP, but I had no trouble at all. I slapped the card in (which XP instantly recognized as a netgear card, which was a good sign), ran the CD and rebooted. At first the connection was unavailable, but then I went to the control panel and manually chose the wireless network connection and I have been live ever since (I am writing this wirelessly now...). I do have to say that some of the posts about signal range are right...it works fine a few rooms away, but the numbers netgear states are the range are a little optimistic...then again for about [money]for the card and router (after rebates) what can you expect.
Rating:
Summary: Can't go wrong.
Review: I bought this card to go along with the Netgear ME 102 802.11b Wireless Access Point. Setup was a breeze with installing the driver for Windows 2000 that came on the enclosed cd. Range is excellent for me and I have no dead spots in my house. I'm very pleased with the product.
Rating:
Summary: Works a Treat
Review: Just like the title says, stick the card in, load the software and it works just fine.
Rating:
Summary: Does not work with XP
Review: Tried several hours to get it to work with windows XP. Customer support was no help. Even though the box stated that it is xp compatible...it's not.
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