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Netgear PA-101 Home Phoneline USB Adapter

Netgear PA-101 Home Phoneline USB Adapter

List Price: $60.00
Your Price: $45.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Netgear PA101 with a 2Wire Router
Review: I installed two PA101 on a Gateway 9300 and an IBM TP385. Both were up and running quickly using the drivers from the installation CD. Both computers are running Windows 98 SE with the IBM using a Belkin USB 4 port hub and the Gateway on the port replicator hub. With both computers in use, there is just a little degradation in internet access speeds (on a fixed wireless broadband, 1.5M connection) and no noticable speed degradation on LAN speeds.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Netgear PA101 with a 2Wire Router
Review: I installed two PA101 on a Gateway 9300 and an IBM TP385. Both were up and running quickly using the drivers from the installation CD. Both computers are running Windows 98 SE with the IBM using a Belkin USB 4 port hub and the Gateway on the port replicator hub. With both computers in use, there is just a little degradation in internet access speeds (on a fixed wireless broadband, 1.5M connection) and no noticable speed degradation on LAN speeds.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Okay hardware, bad news software and support
Review: I purchased this product to setup a home lan to my wife's laptop on the other side of the house. We wanted to share a cable modem and a printer. I installed and used their software. Could not get internect connection sharing working so I removed their software and went with ICS from Win 98SE. That seems to work well. The doc is very sparse and the tech support just gives you the usual reinstall the drivers etc. pitch. The adapters run pretty well except every once in a while the link drops between the machines and we have to reboot to get the link back. Not sure if this problem is Netgear's or Microsoft's. We also have a Toshiba Portage 3015 that refuses to work with the adapter. I had previously had problems with Laplink trying to use a USB to USB connection. I think it is a Toshiba problem but they don't seem to be coming up with a fix so beware.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: After 4 help desk calls, it still doesn't work!
Review: I wish I could give it no stars! What a mess. Looking to avoid drilling holes in my floors and running cable, I thought NetGear's Home Phoneline 10X (PA101) was the answer. I was wrong. I followed the sparse directions to the letter, but I couldn't establish communication. So I call tech support. In the recorded greeting, Netgear admitted that they're getting a high number of help calls. I'm not surprised. After wait times of a half hour or more (in their defense, NetGear has wonderful hold music) I finally get a tech that tells me that my house phone system is wired incorrectly so I would have to run a phone line from one PA101 to the other (using the home phone system so I wouldn't have to run cable is the whole reason why I bought their product in the first place! ) I was also told that I would have to reinstall the software, and I would need to hardcode the IP address in. None of this worked. Long story short, after a week of frustration, I have two weird looking but expensive paperweights, no LAN, and a great deal of buyer's remorse.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good product overall
Review: It works as advertized, and good for laptop use since phoneline PC card choices are limited and so-so. It would be good for desktop use if you do not want, or know how, to install a PCI card. However, for desktop use I would recommend the PA-301 PCI card. It is a great way to network home computers and share a high speed (broadband) internet connection without running wires through your house. The 10Mbs is very adequate, and comparable to wired ethernet, considering that (broad)bandwidth usually gets you 2-5Mbs. To some extent, the 10X phoneline networking through your existing phone wiring is more dependable than 802.11b wireless. However for laptop use, the whole idea of being mobile is to be free of wires. I bought it initially for laptop use, but decided in the end to go wireless. I use wired 10/100 for my main desktop, phoneline connection (PA-301) to network each of my kid's desktop, and wireless for my wife's laptop as well as mine. However, the PA-101 really works and does not interfere with regular phone use. You CAN actually surf the web (high speed connection) and talk on the phone at the same time....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good way to set up a fast, efficient, simple network at home
Review: No problems setting up this system which transfers data between rooms via the phone jacks . I have broadband internet access which works plenty fast on the networked computers in the house.
I'm under the impression that this system is being phased out as it's not being offered any more at the large stores in my area (Best Buy, Frys, etc.) I'm attributing this to the wireless push being made by Netgear and others.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perfect Product
Review: Not only did this device funtion exactly as it should, it works quickly and absolutely effortlessly on Windows XP. I've been using it for about a year now, and I've never had a single problem. Windows XP recognizes it and installs drivers for it without even asking for the CD. Great product!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perfect Product
Review: Not only did this device funtion exactly as it should, it works quickly and absolutely effortlessly on Windows XP. I've been using it for about a year now, and I've never had a single problem. Windows XP recognizes it and installs drivers for it without even asking for the CD. Great product!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Incompatible with Earthlink DSL
Review: The network part of this works fine, but I could not get this to work with my internet service (Earthlink DSL), which was one of the main reasons to put in the network.

Technical service took about 45 minutes to reach, but was friendly. They couldn't help me get it to work, however. They did suggest that one simply use Internet Connection Sharing in Windows SE rather than their software. Alas, I do not have SE . . .

Rating: 5 stars
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.


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