With Netgear's MA101 802.11b wireless USB adapter, you can easily network all of your employees at 11 Mbps speed without installing any new wires. Because the MA101 is USB-powered, there is no need to open the case of the PC. Set up a new wireless network or extend your existing workplace to remote sites in your building in no time, and escape the hassles and expense of Ethernet cabling. Your work force can immediately use your wireless network to access e-mail, file servers, printers, and cable/DSL Internet access.
Standards-based 802.11b technology plus Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption provide your wireless network with the highest level of reliability and privacy. The MA101 is equipped with automatic speed adjustment to extend the communication range for longer distances from other 802.11b PC nodes or 802.11b access points. Designed for PCs running Windows 98, Me, and 2000, the MA101 performs with the vast majority of PCs, supports plug-and-play installation, and includes a five-year limited warranty.
With NETGEAR's MA101 802.11b Wireless USB Adapter you can easily network all of your employees at 11 Mbps speed without installing any new wires. Since the MA101 is USB powered, there is no need to open the case of the PC. Set up a new wireless network or extend your existing workplace to remote sites in your building in no time, and escape the hassles and expense of Ethernet cabling. Your workforce can immediately use your wireless network to access e-mail, file servers, printers, and cable/DSL Internet access. Standards-based 802.11b technology plus Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption provide your wireless network with the highest level of reliability and privacy. The MA101 is equipped with automatic speed adjustment to extend the communication range for longer distances from other 802.11b PC nodes or 802.11b access points.
1 Works great in spite of abuse
This unit set right up on my daughters desktop computer. It wasn't quite plug and play, as I did have to load the driver from the disc that came with the unit. But, it didn't have any issues with loading.
It was worked fine for the most part, in spite of my daughter throwing it across the room. She also kicks it around and steps on it. The little plastic that goes around the antenna has popped off, but we were able to pop it back on.
We did have a couple of occasions where it did cease to work. I am not sure what happened. My daughter's computer was a mess due to viruses and spyware from all the sites she visited. To get it working again, we just had to plug it into a different USB port on the computer.
2 Poor Reliability
Easy to set up and worked great except two different routers failed within the first 8 hours of use. The outsourced tech support (email and voice) was marginally acceptable with garbled email due to different ascii character sets.
Be sure of vendors return policie before you buy.
3 Simply the best!!!
I must confess that this is one of the equipment I ever had without hassel in configuring it. It works straight right out of the box. It still keeps me connected. It's surely the best!!! I will highly recommend it... Signal strength is great!!!
4 WORKS GREAT
I did a lot of reading before I bought this... I bought it refurbed for 20 dollars and was really worried about getting it hooked up right.. I have XP Pro and an SMC router so reading the reviews I was left a little unsure if it would work or not... plugged in and installed... and worked great.. I am streaming music working remotely and writing this review.. I am no techy nor am I a network admin.. but I know how to plug things in and install them.. so far no stalls in music or in remote access... in fact I dare to say its rippin fast... I turned off windows ability to shut down the device when not in use so that may solve some XP headaches.. but as far as I am concerned this was a great investment.. I no longer have the cable from my living room to my room have two doors closed and am getting a "very good" signal... so I say if you are thinking about it.. get it..
5 Works great with TiVo
I got this for my Tivo Series2 and it works great. It was easy to set up. I actually bought this used from Amazon, from some dude. I'm 100% satisfied with the process and the purchase.
6 Great, easy to use
I have both the ma111 and the ma101, they both run flawlessly. The set up is easy and well explained. I didn't want to run cat 5 cables all over my house to connect my pc's. I have 3 pc's that are on my network. 2 desktops and one laptop......I have played around with my laptop in different rooms and have no problems maintaining connections.
Max range is about 150 foot in the clear, and about half that through walls and such. I'm sure I could get better range but I would be in my neighbors yard, I don't see me needing that kind of range..... my point is that it works great indoors at my house, 2 story with 4 walls still no problems.
I feel for the money I spent I got more than what I paid for, these days that's a bargain.
7 Elated Customer
I was very impressed with the speed that it arrived and more over the appearance of it. It was well kept. It works great and the price was great. Thanks!
8 Fine for web browsing, but that's about it.
The good: It installs easily enough, and I've always had excellent signal strength with it.
The bad: If you're using Windows XP and want to do anything but browse the Internet, return this adapter immediately! It is NOT compatible with the Wireless Zero Config service in XP. Every 60 seconds, it drops the connection and reconnects in about 5 seconds. So this adapter is fairly useless for online games, streaming mp3's from another pc on the network, SSH connections, or anything else that requires constant connections.
The ugly: It seems as if NetGear has completely abandoned this product! The software download page makes you guess which driver is the right one, and it hasn't been updated in forever... Maybe there's just not a way to fix it...
My verdict: If you just want to browse the web, and you can pick one up cheap, go for it. But with Linksys adapters selling for the same price, I can't see why you would.
9 Worked great for me!
I've used the MA101 with two different routers and it has worked great on them both. The computer runs Windows 98. I've gotten good signal strength even through it has to travel through a few walls. I enabled 128-bit encryption without any noticeable decrease in performance.
10 Great for internet and TiVO
I am currently using this on my Win98 system w/o any difficulties. The plug and play worked flawlessly. It's very reliable. I haven't had any problems. I just started using it on my TiVO Series 2 unit without any problems. No more wires. After I changed the settings thru the TiVO menu, it takes care of itself. This gets great reception thru 2 walls and 100 feet.
11 Works great
I use this on my laptop and haven't had any connection problems anywhere. I can go anywhere in my house and about 25 feet outside my house without losing the connection. Great product!
12 Wireless Zero COnfiguration
I loved the MA101 when I used it on my Windows 98SE and Windows
2000 machines. It's a different story for Windows XP. Contrary
to some of the stuff posted to the google news groups you can
use either the old 1.1 version drivers or the newer version 2.1.
Most use the new drivers with XP. The "trick" is to let XP make
your connections, but then shut off wireless zero config AFTER
the connection is made. You can do this with services.msc or
write a script linked to a short-cut to do this. If you don't
shut off WZC the connection will hang every minute or so and
XP re-scans your NICs. This makes gaming impossible.
Netgear would get 5 stars if they just made a quality XP driver
available. This may not be possible because the firware cannot
be upgraded to the WZC MS standard AFAIK.
13 Netgear MA101 review
This is a great adapter. We use it on our desktop and laptop computers. It's faster than the cable modem attached to the computer and has never failed. It's usually connected to the computer in the basement three floors down and works without a problem. I believe if you buy it you won't be sorry
14 Troublesome on Windows XP
Tried (with Netgear wireless router MR814) many times on Win XP Home and failed. Talked with Tech Support several times and they can't fix it. Also find that Netgear MR814 drop SSH connections after 5 min's idle. Then return them all. Now I am using Siemens USB adapter and D-Link PC Card and they are working fine.
15 Netgear MA101 Troubles
I recently upgrade my internet connection to Verizon DSL, and I wanted to share my new connection with my secondary computer. I purchased this adapter along with a Siemens Speedstream Wireless USB adapter to go along with my MN-500 Wireless Base Station.
The setup was alright - the performance, was not. I plugged it in, Windows refused to recognize it. Rebooted, finally recognized it, installed the software. No response. Couldn't get anything working. Tried installing the other one - same results. Rebooted router, finally I got wireless running. The MA101, however, I saw very poor results. The adapter was no more than 40-50 feet away from the router, yet my signal and link strength barely reached 6%.
The signal constantly dropped, and the only way to get both signals above 6% was by holding it straight over the top of my head. From there I was able to get a little less than 20%. Tried all different positions on my desk, on top of my monitor, etc but to no avail. Tried all different antenna positions to no avail either. Plugged in the Speedstream and got a constant 46%/33%.
Netgear's networking hardware has a great reputation and I believe that this adapter, in short distances with line of sight between wireless components, could have the ability to perform outstandingly; however, if this is not the case for your network, you are much better off purchasing a different USB adapter.
16 Don't waste your time
After over 4 hours wasted with tech support, I'm convinced this is a poor product. Tech support was not helpful. I'm returning mine. BTW, it's getting horrible reviews outside of Amazon...
17 This item works pretty well
I bought this product just to have a back-up WiFi adapter in case something happened to my PC card. I seldom use it but when I do, it works pretty well. I intended to use it to turn a spare PC into an access point, but I haven't gotten around to that project yet.
The signal reception is very good -- on a par with the Lucent (now Proxim) Orinoco Gold PC card I normally use. I think that it may even be a little better. The hammock in the back yard will be the best test for this.
The out of the box experience was not as good however. First, the drivers which shipped with the unit were back-level and I had to download new ones from Netgear. This was no big deal but even the new driver and configuration tools don't accept ASCII WEP keys. It's nice that the MA101 can use 128 bit WEP but it's very easy to make a mistake in converting the key to HEX and, of course, I did. So the card appeared to work but wouldn't lease an IP address from my router. This was a very simple problem to correct, but it was still frustrating.
A lot of articles have been written recently about how most wireless networks aren't secured at all. WEP is a weak lock, but it keeps the honest people honest. Unfortunately, the configuration tool Netgear uses -- which is not actually Netgear's but is supplied by the chipset vendor -- is not friendly to casual users who might otherwise implement better security. B00005B9XJ
18 MA101 works with Apple Airport Extreme Base Station
If your looking to share broadband between a PC and Mac, the MA101 will get you half-way there. I was successful with this platform/OS/equipment combination:
PC: Win2000 Pro
Mac: OS 10.1.5
Apple M8930LL/A Airport Extreme Base Station
Plugged an ISP-provided DSL modem into the Base Station and configured the Base Station using the Mac. (Had no success with Apple's Airport Admin config software for the PC.)
Then plugged in the MA101 USB on the PC, installed the software from CD, and configured the settings to match the Mac security.
I got strong signal strength and throughput from both the MA101 and the Airport Card in a three story house.
40-bit WEP works fine. 128-bit is occasionally little buggy, requiring me to temporarily reset both platforms to 40-bit.
Haven't tried setting up file sharing yet, but will attempt the USB printer connection on the Base Station. (Caution, check Apple.com/airport for list if approved USB printers that will work with the Base Station. Also, this USB printer feature supposedly requires the Mac to run OS 10.2.3+)
19 Netgear Wireless USB Adapter
I purchased the Netgear MA101 802.11b Wirless USB Adapter and connected to my XP computer. Installed the driver that came with the adapter and it started working without any hitch. My PC is in a different room from the Wireless Router (around 25 ft and couple of walls) and signal strength is Max. Enabled WEP encryption and other security features available in XP and never had any problem. I am a network pro but did not have to do any tweaking to get it up and running. I have DSL at home and it runs lightening fast. I did not have to open my PC (that is why I did not buy the PCI card) which is a great convenience. It is more than 2 months now and so far no problem. I would recommend Netgear for wireless networking at home.
20 Had three running for over a year
Installed a Netgear wireless system in my house. Clean installation and it works great. The network runs 24 hours a day and no problems in over a year.
21 Plug and Play ! - Really !!!
If you want to be up and running in no time, buy this adapter. It takes more time to ghet the product out of the box than what it takes to configure it and get it functional.
I bought it in a local store because they did not have Linksys products available - I was anxious to get my home network active but at the same time, skeptical to a brand other than Linksys. After checking the return policy I bought the products (this one plus the Cable/DSL Wireless Router MR814) and I'm glad that I did!. Just FYI, I have an iMAC and a PC Dell, both sharing a cable modem conexion.
22 Not compatible with Windows XP
This adapter works well in Windows ME, but its "network utility" software will not install and run properly in Windows XP. Do not buy this adapter if you plan on using XP.
23 Destroyed my computer!
I've managed to keep my Windows 98 system stable for over five years now, mostly through a rigorous and sometimes annoying process of keeping my system files safe, my registry clean, and the startup files to a minimum. I thought I might even set a world record for "longest use of a Microsoft product without a major system crash." Unfortunately, this diminuitive little terror was too much for my poor system and it finally gave up the ghost.
I bought the Netgear MR814 router and two of these MA101 adapters; one for my Win98 system and another for my WinXP system. I will say the router installed without a hitch. These things on the other hand are junk, to put it mildly, and the tech support staff were about as helpful as a blindfold.
First off, the Win98 system just could not recognize the device upon startup. It would show up in the device manager but as disabled. The only way to get it working was to remove the device, reinstall it, and reconnect to the network every time I started the computer. Even this process was slow and annoying, taking well over two minutes while the system hangs and tries to figure out what this foreign object is. Based on the other reviews here, you will note that I'm not the only reviewer that has had this problem.
Tech support? Well, this can take anywhere from five to forty-five minutes and, assuming you're not hung up on, you might as well start dialing the instant you have problems. Reason? Even though I told the techs repeatedly that I've done all the "basic" troubleshooting like removing and reinstalling drivers, removing, unplugging, and reinstalling the device, etc... they make you go through the entire process anyway. After three separate calls, totalling an hour and a half of hold time and another hour and a half of reinstalling things, the best the tech could say was "reinstall Windows." This is techspeak for "I have no clue." Against my better judgement, I did it anyway except Windows messed up the reinstall. One computer dead, one to go.
I'm "happy" to report the WinXP computer did install the device but there was just one slight problem. It could recognize the network and even saw the router's SSID, but it would not connect to it. Here we go again. After two different phone calls, and a lot of inane disconnecting and reconnecting, the best the techs could tell me was it was due to interference. Strange, considering my other computer could recognize the network fine before meeting its untimely death and it's the same distance from the router. Again, techspeak for "I have no clue." Ironically, I did manage to get it to work after I hung up on the tech. Don't ask me how because I really don't know.
So now, after the added expense of a Windows XP "upgrade" and the loss of an entire weekend, I have my network set up. One final problem. If I try any WEP encryption keys, I will lose the connections on both computers. I was able to get the router to allow access to these two computers only. Assuming this actually works, that should be secure enough, but I'm still not too keen about all my data passing back and forth unencrypted.
Hopefully this review will convince you to look elsewhere.
24 Did not get it to work...
Bought this device to ad-hoc connect my desktop PC to my new Centrino laptop.
I read the installation manual carefully, ran setup first before plugging the device - lo and behold! The configuration utility was nowhere to be seen. Thought it was a glitch and ran the setup in the "utility"-directory on the CD. It only gave me the option to "modify" (resulting in a blank list!), repair or uninstall. Well, repair still did nothing.
Then I look in my programs-folder and found this utility. Wlandfu.exe told me matrix-like that "There is no WLAN-adapter."
WlanMonitor.exe just told me the status and the about. And gave me the red light.
Well, the succeeding driver revisions 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2RC2 (beta!) did nothing to change the situation.
I'll return this beautiful little piece tomorrow and get something that works...
25 Exceeds expectations
Purchased two after reading the recommendation from ralphhh and others. Connection and configuration was a breeze. Connected one to Win XP Pro box and the other to Win ME box. Both up and running in just a few minutes. Don't forget to follow the instructions on ME and install the software first. Signal strength on both was excellent. Can't wait to configure a laptop and roam the yard.
26 Mostly great
This works great with my Netgear router/wireless base station, but won't work with my university's wireless areas. I've used the university wireless service with my girlfriend's Linksys adapter, but not even the computing center's gurus could make this play nice with the authentication system. Too bad, I just use it at home on the couch.
27 Easy to Install. Works perfect
I recently installed a Netgear MA814 router and two remote MA101 wireless adapters without a single issue. Being a networking novice, I was hesitant, but I just installed on Windows XP operating systems/Cable ISP and followed the directions and had no issues. Up and running in 20 minutes with a strong signal from basement family room to 2nd floor office. Haven't lost the signal since. Totally pleased...
28 unstable after reboot
I have the same problem list the other user. The MA101 always stop working after I restarted the computer. I have to reinstall the driver and reboot several times before it works again. The problem occurs almost every time I shutdown the PC. I installed the new driver from their website but still didn't help either. It's very frustrating. I rather go back to my wire network. I can't recommend this product.
29 Excellent performance
I had this hooked up in 5 minutes and running. I was able to see this newly connected machine on my LAN with my wireless laptop and easily share files. I have straight windows 98 on this machine and had no problems. I have read that the LinkSys USB wireless adapter requires 98SE and higher. Works great with my Netgear MR814 wireless cable/DSL router. I currently have the router on the other side of the second floor ~50 ft away and both the link and signal strength are at 100%. Working great with 128 bit WEP enabled and full transmission speed. GREAT PRODUCT!
30 Very easy networking!
I'm good with PCs, building them, fixing them, blah blah but I have NO clue when it comes to networking. This is virtually plug and play with windows XP. I had no problems setting this network up, am getting a signal strength of "very good" from about 20' away from the router in another room. I am however experiencing lag every 60-120 seconds when gaming, something I didn't experience prior to installing this. At this point I'm not sure if it's normal or something wrong with this device. But other than that (gaming isn't everything), it's fine.
31 Not very reliable.
Not very good card. I got this,instead of the MA401, so that I can use it for both laptop and desktop. I have to say it is disappointing and, at times, frustrating to use. It frequently disappear from the desktop and the system reports that it has problem loading the driver. I have to uninstall and reinstall the driver and go through multiple reboots.. Even that sometime fails to help. I sometime spend an hour or so playing with the device and still cannot get the device to show up.
Admittedly, when it shows up and stays on, it works just fine. I sometime suspect the its diappearance has much to do with the moving nature of a laptop computer. But this also happened to my desktop computer, although not as frequently... I strongly recommend against it if you intend to use this on a laptop.
32 SLOW!!!!
Don't buy this unit. Connection speed is similiar if not less than standard 28.8 connection. Furthermore, it drops connection. I have this unit is 15 ft away from the base.
33 Wonderfully easy to install and use
The title says it all. I am somewhat technically challenged, and it worked quickly and well. Highly recommended!
34 not fully compatible with windows xp
I am using this adapter under ad-hoc mode to connect my laptop.
It seems windows xp's wireless zero configuration service will stop the wireless connection very 50 seconds for about 2 or 3 seconds, which makes watch stream video and voice chat almost impossible.
After disabling this service, it works ok. So if you do not need to change configuration frequently please disable it.
35 I Got a Lemon
My MA101 has been nothing but trouble running on a new Emachines 1220 Windows XP system. Even though I have downloaded the latest driver from the NetGear site, there have been all sorts of conflicts. In particular, I have had real problems using MS Word when the MA101 was attached. The MA101 incompatibilities also triggered enough problems that I have had to reload XP twice in 6 months.
As soon as I switched to a regular PCI network card and a long cable, all my problems went away.
Signal strength was also a problem between a computer on the second floor and the wireless receiver on the first floor of our house.
I'd stay away from the MA101 unless one gets a 30 day trial with a full money back guarantee.
36 Good Product
I am not a hardware/software guy, but was able to install this fairly easily on a Compaq Ipaq running Windows 98SE. After installing a Netgear MR814 wireless router in my downstairs living room, I went back upstairs to my kids bedroom where the Ipaq is, and got a successful connection the first time. You will have to open a browser window and type in 192.168.0.1 in order to do any additional configurations to the router, but it looks straightforward. I'm getting a consistent speed and since the router has a built-in firewall, I can disable the firewall supplied with McAfee virus scan, so the computer doesn't have to work so hard. I watched my kid go out to the Internet, and it looks as fast as the my computer at work that is connected to a T1 line.
37 Nice gadget, but ...
I got Netgear MA101 with the netgear FM114 cable/dsl router with the printer port. Both the gadgets were very easy to connect and configure. The whole thing was up and running in 10 minutes. I had no connectivity problems at all with the computers connected by wires.
The computer connected using MA101 did not provide that stable connectivity. From time to time, the signal was totally lost when the router was in the next room- not very far. When I connected other computers to MA101 the problem did not go away. The quick and dirty solution is unplug the USB cable and plug it back again. It quickly re-connects and you are back in business. Also, I use Microsoft Windows XP (professional) and the drivers that came with the hardware are not Microsoft XP certified. You get a warning which you can ignore. The problem comes if you re-boot the computer without MA101 connected. You will get the infamous blue screen, and will have to unplug the USB cable and re-boot again. These are minor conveniences. I have a sense that these are more software rather than hardware problems. I will be contacting technical support to see if they have a more recent Windows XP certified drivers. The problem may not exist if do not use Windows XP.
38 TECH SUPPORT IS USELESS!
If you are technically competent and do not expect to require any support for this product, then by all means take a chance!
However, if you are not technically competent or are technically competent, but require that a question be answered or guidelines provided on finding new drivers, etc..., you are out of luck here. Why bother with a product that will surely NOT provide any assistance? You can find much better support with LinkSys or D-Link. I had a question about how I can reinstall my Netgear adapter and the support people (I called back twice) told me to uninstall any Anti-Virus software and disable my firewall! When I asked him what that will do for me, he told me that the Netgear adapter will not run correctly while any anti-virus or firewall software is loaded on my machine! How irresponsible! When I asked Sabu (that is the 2nd support guy I spoke to) if I could speak to his supervisor, he told me that their policy does not allow them to transfer me to their supervisor. Needless to say, I fixed the problem on my own, but it would've been alot easier had they shown even a little interest in their product!
39 MA101 RF Flaw
I purchased the MA101 in the UK which may have a slightly lower output power that the US version mandated by the FCC. I must admit that the software installed easily enough on Win 98 and had some nice features like scanning for new SSIDs to find your network however it did not install properly on my XP machine.
The problem with the unit is that it is POORLY designed RF wise. I was attempting to connect to my neighbor who lives 250 feet up the street with little success. Even when the two antennas were line of site between the access point and Netgear MA101, the link seemed very poor.
Having worked in the wireless industry for the past three years as an engineer, my curiousity go the best of me and I opened the Netgear MA101 to discover to my horror that the antenna lead is just a piece of wire soldered into the motherboard that travels down the length of the unit and then up into the plastic antenna. In other words, the actual wire antenna will always act as if it is in a L shape when the platic anntenna is up and as two parallel antennas when the plastic antenna is down. This is very bad as the antenna is supposed to act as an isotropic radiator.
To prove just how poor the design is, I was able to increase the signal strength significatly by adding a piece aluminum foil to the bottom and back side of the antenna to act as a ground plane/ reflecting back. After doing this, my signal strength shot up by more than 50%.
I wish Netgear would put a little more effort into their RF design even though the case looks nice and the user interface was good.
40 Up and running in no time
I spent an hour reading the instruction manuals; then spent the next two hours to get things up and running. Equipment used: Netgear's MR814 wireless router and MA101 USB adapter. The MR814 is attached to Windows98 machine and the MA101 is attached to a Windows XP machine. The adapter has been working flawlessly running at 11Mbps from about 80 ft away [the adapter and the wireless router are on separate floors]. I activated WEP-encryption to maintain a layer of security. Keying in the encryption-code during MA101-activation was a very minor irritation.
41 Netgear worked where Linksys didn't
After first trying Linksys PC card and USB adaptors to make a peer-to-peer network between a notebook and a desktop, I was never able to get the two devises to connect. I ended up returning the Linksys equipment and buying Netgear. The Netgear hardware worked almost instantly and it has been great since. Even though I am only using dial up for my Internet, having the flexibility and connectivity anywhere in the house has made a big difference. It really is the way to go.
42 Works Great!
Finally, a great product hits the market! My daughter's computer is about 60 feet from the Router and the Netgear MA101 Wireless 11 Mbps USB Adapter works fine! I saved a bundle on cable installation!
43 Highly recommended, but must understand networking...
I highly recommend this product, especially for outdoor connections.
However, the setup guide walks you through the hardware and driver installation but you're on your own to get the device to recognize the WAP.
Issues are usually based on the manual setup of the SSID of the WAP (wireless Access Point) and the WEP (Wireless Encryption Protocol) Keys.
Once you get it setup, it's off to the races!
44 the good & the bad
This wireless modem is great, I can take my computer anywhere in my house and I get great speeds. I download stuff at up to 200kbps, and my computer is about 30 ft from the DSL. The only bad I have found with it, is if you are an avid Counter-Strike player, it causes spikes about every 2 minutes (I think this only happens with Windows XP, which I have). If you can find a way to fix this please tell me.
45 Some problems but made it work.
First attempt at a wireless network using MA101 and MR314 router. Router worked great with no problems. Could not get MA101 to talk with router at all. Called tech support and was on hold about 30 minutes. Worked with them about 20 minutes. The three machines I tried this on all had regular NIC's as well. Finally had to setup two hardware profiles (one for wireless, one for wired) with the wired NIC disabled in the Wireless profile and vice-versa. This works although it means the MA101 is not really hot-swappable and requires a reboot. Not a big deal as the user on boot will know which way they are going.
As far as distance it is OK, but not great (certainly no where near advertised). My house and the installation site has several dead spots around mechanical rooms. Large basements with inside corners are a problem as it doesn't broadcast through dirt (to be expected). I guess I was a bit naive about how well it would work. Overall I would definitely recommend the MR314 router and perhaps try a different 802.11b NIC.
46 Disconnects you and gives very signal warning.
I spent days with technicians who could not help me. The signal is low and nobody knows where. It disconnets you from internet.
The distance from the router is not 1/100th of what the specifications say.
47 Elegant unit design. Works well.
It works as promised. A little pricey but it had the best unit design (not bulky or ugly like the others). Never really tested the range.
48 Very easy to use
The adapter has been working flawlessly in Windows XP (downloaded latest drivers from the Netgear website). I'm able to maintain an 11 Mbps link about 100 ft away (through a couple of walls and a floor), which suits my needs. My only complaint is that the signal strength isn't as good as what my wife's laptop is able to achieve from the same location. This is likely due to the fact that her laptop has an antenna built-in to the LCD screen, which is much larger than the Netgear's could be. In all, this adapter has been great so far. I wasn't able to use a normal PCI card in my low-profile PCI slot case, so a small USB device was a perfect alternative.
49 Great Product - Easy to use
I just received this product in the mail today and had my wireless home network up and running in no time. It installed easily and since I'm using Windows XP I did not have to install the LAN Utility, XP already has one. What could be better, top speeds, excellent signal strength and NO WIRES. I would recommend this to everyone. Great things do come in small packages.
50 Even Tech Support Couldn't Help
I purchased this item simply to share an internet connection with a Linksys wireless cable router. Setup was simple, and the software configuration tool that came with the usb adapter indicated that it was, in fact, communicating with the router. The only problem was that the adapter was only sending, not receiving, from the router. After about forty minutes of trying to figure it out myself, I called tech support.
To Netgear's credit, I was only on hold a few minutes before someone came on to help. Unfortunately, after nearly an hour on the phone, we could not get this to work. The technician's final thought was that it might be a problem with interference from wireless phones in the house. I thought this unlikely, as I had already gotten a wireless card to work in my laptop (an Airport card on a Mac, no less!). He told me to try again after I hung up with him, and said he'd keep his fingers crossed that it would work.
It didn't. I exchanged the netgear for a Linksys usb adapter, which worked immediately out of the box. Since the Airport card and the Linksys usb adapter were up and working in less than a minute or two, I can only assume there was a problem with my netgear unit, or the product just isn't as good or compatible as the others. I hate to leave negative reviews, but this product just didn't work for me. If you have a Linksys router, get Linksys adapters for your network -- they work like a charm!
By the way, I rate this two stars because tech support promptly picked up the phone, and patiently walked me through many tests and configurations.
51 Great 802.11b adapter!
I am running a Mac network through an Apple Airport. I have only one Wintel machine, which was wired. I decided to make it wireless like my Macs. So, I read much information about many different USB adapters, and I chose this one. It took no more than 5 minutes to get it running, and it works perfectly with the Airport. My Wintel machine is running XP, so all it needed was the driver.
Great product! I recommend to all!
52 Works perfectly, installs instantly
It took me all of 20 minutes to set up a network using this terrific USB wireless adapter and the MR314 wireless router/switch/access point. Of the total time, maybe five minutes was spent installing the MA101 adapter. As a network novice, I was amazed that everything worked exactly as it was supposed to, without my having to reinstall anything, call tech support or tear my hair out.
The PC with the adapter is located two floors up from the router, about 50 feet point to point. Signal strength registers as "low" (2 pips out of 5 on the utility display), but I am getting an unbroken connection at a speed indistinguishable from that of the PC that's wired to the router.
I'm running Windows XP. The Netgear Web site has an updated driver, but I decided to live dangerously and use the driver on the CD-ROM that's supplied with the adapter. No problem -- I clicked through the warning about an "unsigned" driver, and it installed and worked fine. At this point I'm going to leave well enough alone and not install the new driver.
Highly recommended.
53 better range, more stable
I previously had d-link USB wireless cards on 2 computers. One with ME, the other with Win 98. The ME computer could not hold a signal and would routinely crash. The netgear device gives a better and more stable signal. I found tech support quite helpful. (d-link was a disaster) I don't know about XP compatablity, but I have a new laptop arriving this week.
54 No SMP support and horrible tech support
This device caused two different dual cpu Xp systems to bluescreen every hour or so. Booting the same systems with only one cpu enabled fixes the problem. Netgear tech support was no help at all because they had no known issues about xp compatibility. They offered no solutions to my problem. I grow tired of companies that slap NT compatibilty on the box but don't even bother with SMP compatibility. Due to the horrible tech support and poor drivers I recommend you avoid this product no matter what type of system you have. The one time I don't buy linksys... :( Thank goodness it isn't too late to exchange it.
55 Great
This is a great price for a wireless card! It is a way better deal than going with the MA401 deal.
56 No Luck With This Adapter
For a month now I have been trying to get my MA101 to work with my Cisco 340 base station with no luck. I can associate with my base station but I have not luck when I try to connect to the Internet. Successful pings are intermittent at best. I spent some time with Netgear tech support and they have not been very helpful. Truthfully, I was surprised at their lack of trouble shooting effort. I'm going back for one more shot to see if I can get it to work.
I have been able to use this very same base station successfully with 3 other 802.11 adapters from other vendors so I am confident that the problem is with the Netgear. I have also tried 2 different Netgear adapters.
If you buy this adapter keep your receipt.
57 MA101 Great USB - IEEE 802.11b adapter for Win98+
If you have a PC with Win98 or better and a spare USB port, the MA101 is really great. The installation is easy - you don't have to open up the PC, just plug it in and run the installation CD. The big advantage of the MA101 over the alternative, an MA301/MA401 combination is that you can position the unit on your table or desk to get the best link quality and signal strength.
If you are running XP, this unit may require a driver update to run properly. That should be available on the netgear website.
Konrad Roeder (...)
