Rating: 
Summary: DOA out of the box twice!
Review: Of the three computers that I tried this card in, none of them even recognized its existence, yet when I put the similar Netgear 802.11b PCMCIA card in the network came up instantly. So I sent it back and got another one and that one was dead too!I can only assume there's a bad batch of these cards out there, so I'd wait about 6 months before I looked at them again.
Rating:
Summary: DOA out of the box twice!
Review: Of the three computers that I tried this card in, none of them even recognized its existence, yet when I put the similar Netgear 802.11b PCMCIA card in the network came up instantly. So I sent it back and got another one and that one was dead too! I can only assume there's a bad batch of these cards out there, so I'd wait about 6 months before I looked at them again.
Rating: 
Summary: Netgear Equals Superb Service
Review: This holiday season I was a good santa and purchased numerous wireless networking products for my various family members. Sure it was partially a selfish act as I wanted to be able to easily connect when I went to visit, but for the most part it was just an act of giving. I purchased mainly G products and they varied from routers to USB adapters to PC Card adapters. I did also purchase a couple of B products for those in the family that already had some wireless networking products (yes, I know they are backwards compatible but I didn't want to take any chances).
Only two members of the family had installation problems (considering my family is very non-technical I was quite impressed) and those two people both had yet to upgrade to Windows XP SP2. The rest of the family members were up and running within minutes.
As for the couple of family members that did have problems, well they called me first (of course) and I told them to just run back through the installation procedure again. This solved the problem for Uncle Dennis but Grandma Joyce still couldn't get it to work properly. I reluctantly told her to call Netgear's technical support (hey the reviews on Amazon haven't been too pretty for their tech support). I however was quite pleased when an hour later I got an email from Grandma Joyce thanking me for the great gift. I called her back and she told me that after fiddling with the settings with the Netgear people she was up and running within 30 minutes.
Overall, I consider this the ultimate test of product quality and support and I would give Netgear two thumbs up.
I hope this review was helpful to you in putting your mind at ease regarding ease of setup and trust of technical support if needed.
Rating: 
Summary: Great speed at a limited range.
Review: This system was EASY to install. You plug it into your computer, insert the cd-rom, and it will pretty much install itself in a couple of minutes. This installation is almost as easy as the access point where you plug it in and it broadcasts. It's speed level is fantastic. However, I found that its range was not nearly as good as with my SMC 802.11b system. I am still glad I bought this product, but it is shocking to me that the system doesn't always get good reception from but one room away (It works, but not always particularly well). I should mention how the system works speedwise. It's speeds are significantly higher than the 802.11b, but there is more of a lag. So, you might go to a website, get a slight lag where nothing shows up on the page, and then boom... it all appears instantaneously. I am sure that some of this delay is because I've created another point for data to go through - I am using this system through my SMC barricade. Besides the limited range, there is one other annoying feature of the product - it lights. They blink and flash in a way that I find rather annoying, although one does get used to it for a while. So, should you buy and use this? Yes and no, depending upon your set-up. NO: If you live in a big home where you don't have to worry about outside disturbances (ie multiple microwave ovens and 2.4 gig phones.) In this situation go with 802.11b for the greater range at a lower price. YES: If you need to move massive amounts of data though your network. 802.11a is MUCH faster when it works, and you do notice the difference with larger files. YES: If you live in a high density area such as a condominium were you have to worry about interference from your neighbors. This netgear system will bypass most interference since it operates at a higher frequency, and the lessend range actually becomes an advantage since it means you are less likely to get interference from other 802.11a systems as well.
Rating:
Summary: Great speed at a limited range.
Review: This system was EASY to install. You plug it into your computer, insert the cd-rom, and it will pretty much install itself in a couple of minutes. This installation is almost as easy as the access point where you plug it in and it broadcasts. It's speed level is fantastic. However, I found that its range was not nearly as good as with my SMC 802.11b system. I am still glad I bought this product, but it is shocking to me that the system doesn't always get good reception from but one room away (It works, but not always particularly well). I should mention how the system works speedwise. It's speeds are significantly higher than the 802.11b, but there is more of a lag. So, you might go to a website, get a slight lag where nothing shows up on the page, and then boom... it all appears instantaneously. I am sure that some of this delay is because I've created another point for data to go through - I am using this system through my SMC barricade. Besides the limited range, there is one other annoying feature of the product - it lights. They blink and flash in a way that I find rather annoying, although one does get used to it for a while. So, should you buy and use this? Yes and no, depending upon your set-up. NO: If you live in a big home where you don't have to worry about outside disturbances (ie multiple microwave ovens and 2.4 gig phones.) In this situation go with 802.11b for the greater range at a lower price. YES: If you need to move massive amounts of data though your network. 802.11a is MUCH faster when it works, and you do notice the difference with larger files. YES: If you live in a high density area such as a condominium were you have to worry about interference from your neighbors. This netgear system will bypass most interference since it operates at a higher frequency, and the lessend range actually becomes an advantage since it means you are less likely to get interference from other 802.11a systems as well.
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