Rating: 
Summary: WARNING - OBSOLETE DEVICE!
Review: According to the Netgear website, the WGE101 does not and will not support WPA. WPA is the only way to guarantee security on this device, so unless you want your neighbors to be able to hijack your data, steer clear of this obsolete junk.
Rating: 
Summary: Works as advertised w/ minimum fuss
Review: Basically, just worked as advertised. Connected to D-LINK 624 (802.11g) on wireless side and small 10/100 switch on the other. Full 128 bit WEP encryption is in place and works splendidly, with no noticable impact on performance. DHCP services provided by router accross bridge to multiple PC's on wired network w/out issue. This device is able to serve as a DHCP client as well, making network configuration pretty easy. Because of the IP range I use, I did have to set the network configuration while connected only to a single PC, then power down and attach to network. Once configuration was complete, however, fired right up and got itself and IP and was off and running. Overall, very pleased. Good purchase for a good price.
Rating:
Summary: Decent speeds in mixed mode
Review: I already own the WGT 624 that goes b/g/super-g, and my laptop was just b, but I bought for the future when I got a g-bridge (mainly for my xbox). With the router setup as b and g, I got throughput speeds of 2.5 megabytes a second from a different floor of the house from bridge to router, which is about 20Mbps. I've always bought netgear products and I like the whole slick-silver design, and the ability to stack the units on top of each other. I already own the FS608 and could stack the bridge ontop of that. My only problems with the router was how to add it to the access list. I figured out that you do NOT add the bridge's mac address, but instead any device that connects through the bridge to the router... so if you have 15 computers being bridged to the router, you have to add all 15 mac addresses to the router... that sounds like somewhat of a pain, but if you think about it, your network is that much more secure... The reason I say that is, suppose you had a bridge connecting to an accesspoint to further spread signals within your network... well by having to add every mac address that goes through the bridge, you are individually authorizing everyone, instead of just allowing the bridge itself. Anyways... I feel it's a good product and will continue to buy from netgear.
Rating:
Summary: Not useful for longer distance links
Review: I am quite disappointed about the product. I run a 5 mile link with two large external antennas with an old Orinoco AP-1000 and a Avaya PCMCIA client since over a year. It offers a stable performance and around 4 MBit/s on the application level (e.g. ftp) - this ist what you can expect from a 802.11b device. The link has about 10dB margin. I tried to replace the PCMCIA client through the WGE101. After a lot of configuration trials I found out that Netgears algorithm that generates WEP keys from a passphrase is different from that of other manufacturers (Proxim/Orinoco and D-Link use compatible ones), and after filling in the right key the link worked basically. It has the same 10dB margin (tested with an attenuator), but the throughput is ridiculous - about 500 kbit/s downstream and 80 kbit/s (!!) upstream. The signal strength of the WGE101 at the AP is even higher than that of the PCMCIA card; nevertheless the AP monitors a lot of FCS errors. Either the transmitted signal modulation quality of the WGE101 is so much inferior to the Avaya card, or there is a protocol incompatibility. The WGE101 displays RSSI of "39...56 %" (whatever this may mean in true dBm - it should be around -91...-81 dBm), always with a "green" bar, depending upon the extra attenuation. There is nearly nothing to tune or to monitor on the WGE101, you don't see error rates or even the used data rate. No chance to e.g. lock the rate to 5.5 or 2 Mb/s. Nice for dumb users in simple cases but annoying otherwise. Though I managed to come through to the 2nd level support at Netgear they couldn't help me while being friendly. Maybe the box works well for short indoor links. But do not use it for serious applications. Conclusion: if you buy trash you get trash...
Rating: 
Summary: Works great--but only after lots of configuration/support
Review: I decided to piggyback off the wifi signal of a neighbor. Out of the box, the WGE101 refused to connect to the signal. After a couple of calls to NetGear support in India, a firmware upgrade solved the problem. But then I tried to connect the WGE101 to my NetGear wireless router/switch (the WGE101 does not have a switch so it can be directly connected to only one device), nothing connected to the switch could connect to the Internet. After a few more calls to NetGear support, turning off DHCP and manually configuring the IP settings seemed to solve the problem. Later, I decided not having DHCP was a hassle, so I turned DHCP back on, and everything seems to be working fine.
The WGE101 is a new product, so if you're a newbie who wants to plug-n-play, you'll be disappointed. But if you're a little bit technical (e.g., you know how to configure IP settings and update firmware), and you don't mind having to spend a few hours on the phone with technical support and messing around with settings, then the final result will be worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Works great with the Netgear WGT624
Review: I just picked up the WGE101 from zoomfly.com, it works great. DIdn't have a difficult time setting it up, everything went smoothly.
Rating:
Summary: Check the MAC Address
Review: I purchased this product to re-connect my wired network to my wireless network. I have a Linkys WET54G which I moved to another location in the house. To make a long story short, I found that the WGE101 MAC address was being incorrectly reported by the setup software it comes with. I finally got it to connect with WRT54G after I put in the MAC address it was seeing. Works great now that its set up and connected.
Rating:
Summary: Great Bridge......After you update the firmware.
Review: I use this bridge connected to a linksys switch for my Xbox, Playstation 2, and my ReplayTV. When I first purchased the bridge I had a hard time getting it to link to my roommate's wireless router (Buffalo Wireless). It was seeing great signal strength, but wouldn't connect to it. I went online and got the latest firmware for the bridge, and in 10 seconds had it working great. It has pretty good speed, and I don't get any lag (usually) when playing online games. I still think it's a little pricey for what you get though, but that's just me.
Rating:
Summary: Great Wireless Bridge
Review: I'm using the Netgear WGE101 to contect to a Netgear WGR614 router/switch which in turn is connected to a cable modem for internet access. It works flawslessly with 99% signal strength at 40 feet and several walls between the two devices. The security features that you can use with the combined Netgear setup is really outstanding.
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.
| 
