Rating: 
Summary: Great Product
Review: Like many out there, I was biased by the fact that this is a Microsoft system. Throughout the years, I too have grown to greatly dislike anything from Microsoft. Man, was I shocked with this product! Everything works flawlessly. I first purchased the Linksys wireless kit, but it gave me the same problems everyone else was saying, "no signal range, and the support is terrible." When I called Linksys customer support, someone from another country basically was typing every question I said into a search engine, and was then reading the screen. They appeared to have absolutely no technical knowledge. After several hours of tech support (long hold times), I immediately brought the router and card back. My time is simply worth way more than any savings they could give me on the cheaper system. Then, after much research this time, I purchased the Microsoft kit. It installed very quickly on XP (desktop) and believe it or not, even quicker on Windows 2000 (laptop)--go figure. The 128 (or 64) encryption was also a breeze to setup. Also, with the router located in the identical location the Linksys router was previously in, I was able to reach every corner of my house. Believe me, I tried everything with the Linksys. The Microsoft system software is intelligent enough to give up transfer speed to maintain signal strength. This is great! After all, who cares that they can transfer at full speed half of the time if you need to reboot the router and computer the other half of the time. Even at the reduced transfer speeds (~2 Mbits/s), it's still faster than my broadband connection at 1.5 Mbits/s. I tried everything with the Linksys, but the Microsoft system lived up to the hype. I still think they are too much of a monopoly, but to end the frustrations with this issue, they can stay a monopoly for now. I'm using it now, and it's great.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a good solution, try D-Link
Review: OK, I had high hopes for this product. I thought, "Well, it IS Micro$oft, so it should work." Setup of the router was fairly easy and the istructions were very easy to follow. The problems started almost right away, when I tried going out to some common web sites and noticed LONG delays (163 ms or more, with 25-50% dropped packets). I dropped my old router back in and the delays were much smaller (60 ms with no dropped packets). I confirmed this to several other web sites and could duplicate it, so I called the Micro$oft help desk. This was a very bad experence with a helpdesk person reading from a script. She told me just to reset the router anytime the connection got slow (no kidding!). I packed up the whole kit and replaced it with the D-Link. Had no problems at all.
Rating: 
Summary: Base Station is flawed
Review: The notebook card in this kit works well, easily as nice as competitors products. The wireless router itself is another story. This unit while attractive and easy to install compared to competing Linksys products has some major flaws at the current time. Namely dozens of people in just the first week this has been onsale (look at their newsgroup) including myself have experienced a strange problem where every 6 hours or so the 802.11b signal stops cold and can only be restored by removing and restoring power to the base station. While the flaw isn't fatal, maybe annoying it is totally unacceptable to release units in this shape. Until a fix is in, and right now it appears Microsoft is trying to see if it is a hardware flaw or firmware fix that is needed I would hold off. UPDATE: About 2 months after I wrote this review, MS introduced a firmware update that fixed all my problems. At this point this is a good solid buy, but you might still want to go with a competitor because you have to wonder about buying from a company that would introduce such a product with so many flaws initially.
Rating: 
Summary: Great wireless kit once you get it working.
Review: This product has allowed me to use a new notebook with Windows 2000 professional on a network with a desktop running Windows 98, sharing a cable internet connection with great speed and range. I can also use the printer through the wireless connection, which is a great convenience. The range is greater than I expected, with little signal loss in other parts of my modest home and even outside on the deck. The setup was not simple. After consulting two tech reps with Microsoft, the second suggested unplugging the power cord to the cable company modem for 5 minutes, plugging it back in, allowing it to reset for a little while, then unplugging the power to the base station for a few seconds and plugging it back in. This got the internet connection working. (I see another Amazon reviewer had to do this.) Then, the printer would not work, even though I had enabled sharing of the printer. Finally, another call to Microsoft (good thing there is good support for this product) and I logged in as a guest on the base station computer. Now the printer can be used on the network. The setup was much more complicated than I expected, but the wireless network was worth the trouble for me. It works beautifully. (I did download the patches right away.)
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This Router Is A Great Buy I Would Never Give it Up For Any Other Router AND NO I DONT WORK FOR MICROSOFT. Ha But The Card And The Router Works Fine With Me There Was No Problem Setting It Up Or Anything Like That Its Was A Great Purchase. And The One Problem I Did Had Was Well After I Set It Up And Microsoft Support Worked Fine And Helped me Fix In In About 10 mins. If Your Looking For A Good Router And A Card This Is The One
Rating:
Summary: Better than expected performance
Review: Though configuring (particularly the PC-Card) took more time than I expected, when finished I realized the excellent performance and ease of use of the pack. I got really happy for the value of my purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product....but call Customer Support 1st!
Review: While I hate to admit it, Microsoft's wireless notebook kit works extremely well! (Sorry, I'm a former Mac user) I have a cable modem with Adelphi.net and noticed NO discernable reduction in web page viewing when I switched to wireless. (I think downloading large files may be ever so slightly slower, but not so you can notice) If you're like me and plan to use the wireless connection solely with a notebook, call technical support as soon as you take it out of the box. They are extremely helpful and will guide you through the installation process. As you can read on the product box, the wireless network works 'best' if you have a WIRE Ethernet connection to a desktop computer AND set up the wireless port for use with a laptop. If you don't have a desktop, it just takes a few extra steps to set it up. The techs at customer support are very helpful and can take you through the set-up in 10 minutes....but go ahead and call them 1st. You'll save yourself a headache. Microsoft also gives you the ability to add WAP secuity, which is a must. I have no complaints and am very happy with my purchase! (The [money amount]rebate is a great thing as well)
Rating:
Summary: works great, but....
Review: works great but I highly recommend visiting microsoft.com and downloading the fixware patch for the wireless router before instalation. I have a sony pentium 4 desktop and when i installed the wireless system (with help from the tech support at microsoft) the computer began restarting its self every two minutes and would not stop. After I downloaded the fixware patch it works perfectly.
Rating:
Summary: Microsoft Has Done It Again
Review: Yes, MS does it again, they have taken a product and made it better by making it easier to use. They did it with DOS, they did it with a Windows OS, they did it with productivity tools, AND now they did it with WiFi products. All of the MS Wifi products are made by Intersil PRISM-based 802.11b product line. What MS has done with this product is made the setup wizard simple to use for those who are technically challenged and a full feature manual configuration application for those who know what to do with it. Ofcourse it comes with MS's quality customer support if needed. I have setup many wireless networks using many different brands such as Compaq, Linksys, SMC and Netgear, and found the MN500 easy to configure a secure wireless network within minutes. It was even simple to add to an existing LAN. I found the documentation to be better than most others. Signal strength was very good between floors right from the start with no tweaking. Other brands took much longer to configure and tweak. Firmware upgrade was a snap and recommended. A great product for the price, I highly recommend it.
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