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Netgear MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card

Netgear MA401 802.11b Wireless PC Card

List Price: $59.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A good alternative to LinkSys
Review: If you get annoyed by some issues with Linksys cards, or don't like the flimsy antenna on the D-link card. Try the Netgear, this card installed somewhat easily on my laptop running win2k, initially it didnt work and replaced the "wireless" value in my infrastructure with "ANY" and it worked like a dream. I later formatted and went with Debian Linux (Woody distro) and it worked just as well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply amazing
Review: Wow. That was all I could say when I got this card and the MR314 router home and connected. I have to admit that I haven't used any other wireless networking products, so I cannot compare NetGear's products with any others. But I did do a good deal of research when deciding which company to use. At first I was only considering the Linksys and D-Link products, and had a tough time deciding which to try. Last week, Best Buy was offering a rebate on the NetGear products, so I thought that I would research them, too. I am SO glad that I did! I found very few (if any) disparaging remarks in regards to these products, and now, after using them myself, I know why.

Once I had the products home, I plugged the card into my wife's notebook (running Windows 98), inserted the installation disk into her CD-ROM, and 3 minutes later it was completed. Then, I plugged the router (MR314) into the outlet in my office and ran the ethernet line from the router to a NIC card in my PC in there. The LED lights for power and the local PC instantly lit up, but the wireless one did not. So, I walked back into the room with the laptop to check the status light on the card to see if it was lit. By the time I got back to the laptop, the light on the wireless card was lit up. So I walked back into the office, and the wireless light was not lit. It synched up that fast. I was amazed.

I then used the Windows XP built-in functionality on my PC to setup the network. This was also very simple, thanks to XP. I finished this, shared the folders/files/whatever I wanted to on my PC, did the same on my wife's laptop, and I was finished.

The entire process took approximately 15 minutes. And there was no issue whatsoever using Windows XP. I had read some reviews for both the Linksys and D-Link products, and some people had issues with XP, which was another reason I tried the NetGear products.

A few days later my cable company (Insight) came out to install my internet service, and I plugged my Motorola SB4100 modem into the router, and again had no issues (besides my own inexperience). I had everything running through the router in about 20 minutes. Again, very simple.

I would definitely suggest this product if you are considering a wireless network. This card will also work with any 802.11b network, so you don't HAVE to purchase the NetGear router with this card; but I would suggest you did.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works great, but if using WinXP...
Review: I started my wireless treck one week ago. I started off with this card, and got it connected for 3 minutes. Then it never re-connected. I returned it and tried 4 other brands, none of which seemed to work with Windows XP Pro. I returned all other cards and re-purchased the NetGear...thinking maybe my first card was faulty. I connected it up in 2 minutes and the card is running strong.

If you are using this with Windows XP, download the newest drivers from the NetGear website. Although there is no mention in the documentation of setting up this card in WinXP, tech support told me to use the Win2000 drivers. Worked like a charm!

Also works great in a Windows 2000 laptop. I recommend this card!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Netgear redefines poor technical support!
Review: In my many years working and playing with computers I've dealt with many technical support folks. Netgear's support is the worst!! I kept calling back again and again hoping to get a technician who could either speak English or who had a tiny bit of networking knowledge. Apparently none of them have either skill sets. Everyone I talked to kept saying "you have green icon, dis goot."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good card
Review: Setup was straightforward. Card has worked flawlessly for three weeks now under Windows 2000, XP and Mandrake 8.2 (Mandrake detected and configured the card without any intervention from me at all!!!). Range is fair, with the limit in my apartment being the number of walls it has to go through (a long narrow apartment). I'm very happy with this product, having coupled it with a dlink di-713p switch.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not compatible with Windows XP
Review: The box says "Works with Windows XP" - this is Netgears own logo, not the offical Microsoft compatiblity
Seems Netgear used a "loophole" to get the card to work with XP, and Microsoft have closed the loophole in a recent update patch, so the cards won't work, at least until Netgear release proper Windows XP driver.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easy install, good range, XP drivers included
Review: This card works just like they say, it installed super easy, set up was a snap and despite what some websites say, the driver disc DOES come with Windows XP drivers. A great buy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great wireless card
Review: I recently upgraded my computer network at home to Windows XP and also added a new computer, a laptop. Naturally I wanted to add a wireless network along with my laptop. I did a lot of searching on the net and decided to purchase a Siemens Speedstream (Efficient) wireless router and PCMCIA wireless card. I hadn't bothered to check to see if it was supported under WinXP. After 8 frustrating hours, I decided it wasn't (although the Efficient website does have XP drivers, I couldn't get them to work). Because it was a package deal, I had to send both router and card back.

Another search and a new set of components: SMC Barricade wireless router and a Netgear MA401 PCMCIA wireless card. They set up without a hitch! Great products and installation software. Their websites also had a lot of information on how to configure for WinXP. Although the Netgear MA401 does not say it supports WinXP here on Amazon, the boxed unit I bought specifically says supports XP. The drivers were included on the install CDROM.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I like the slim feature best!
Review: This card works great. It is easy to install. It has decent software to configure settings. I really like the fact that it is slim enough that you can insert this card in either slot and also fit another card. I did purchase the IBM High Rate wireless adapter after getting this one. I have an application that required a specific chipset that only a few wireless adapters use to run.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent card, no problems with setup
Review: I was up and running using this card and my Linksys wireless router within about 5 minutes of opening the package. The only "trick" was remembering to set the ESSID correctly so that the names on the router and the card match. Voila!

I get perfect (100%) throughput when I'm in the same room as the router (not surprisingly). From a room or two away, through a couple of walls, signal strength drops to about 70%, but there's no noticable lag. From a few more rooms away and more walls, the signal is actually pretty [not good], hovering around 30% at best. I'm not sure whether to blame the card, my router, or my house.

Anyway, overall, I'm quite satisfied.


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