You couldn't ask for an easier way to give your employees constant, untethered, fast 11 Mbps access to corporate resources, e-mail, and your cable/DSL Internet connection. Whether you're setting up a new office or relocating your employees to remote sites in your building, Netgear's 802.11b wireless PCI adapter networks any desktop PC without the time, trouble, or expense of Ethernet cabling. Standards-based 802.11b technology plus 128-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) data encryption provide your network with the highest level of reliability and protection.
It's incredibly easy to create a wireless network for sharing your broadband Internet access among multiple PCs anywhere in and around your office or home. All you need is Netgear's 802.11b wireless PCI adapter for desktop PCs. You'll save the hassle and expense of traditional Ethernet cabling, and everyone can benefit from cable/DSL Internet access, e-mail, and shared resources with a high, 11 Mbps data rate.
The MA311 is compatible with the vast majority of desktop PCs, supports Windows NT, 98, 2000, and Me, features easy plug-and-play installation, and comes with a three-year limited warranty.
You couldn't ask for an easier way to give your employees constant and untethered, fast 11 Mbps access to corporate resources, e-mail and your cable/DSL Internet connection. Whether you're setting up a new office or relocating your existing workplace to remote sites in your building, NETGEAR's 802.11b Wireless PCI Adapter networks any desktop PC without the time, trouble, or expense of Ethernet cabling. Standards-based 802.11b technology plus 128-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) data encryption provide your network with the highest level of reliability and protection. Compatible with the vast majority of desktop PCs, this wireless adapter supports Windows 98/Me/NT/2000 and features easy Plug and Play installation.It's incredibly easy to create a wireless network for sharing your broadband Internet access among multiple PCs anywhere in and around your home or office. All you need is NETGEAR's 802.11b Wireless PCI Adapter for desktop PCs. You'll save the time, trouble, and expense of traditional Ethernet cabling, and everyone can benefit from cable/DSL Internet access, e-mail, and shared resources with a high, 11 Mbps data rate. Your network is secure with 128-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) data encryption, while standards-based 802.11b technology provides the highest level of reliability.
1 Poor product; worse support
I purchased this card over two years ago. It has spent most of its time in a drawer. Why? Because it does not work well enough to use. Drops connection intermittently and requires that the netgear wireless router be power-cycled to clear open connections. I spent countless hours modifying settings and updating drivers to remediate the problem without resolution. Their tech support could only offer an update of drivers as a solution...when this did not work they would not respond to any of my emails. I left three voice mails with their tech support manager (Shelly) who would not return any of my calls. I do not recommend this product...and with the lack of support...i would not reccomend any product from this company.
2 Lousy Software & Support, Great Hardware
Software & support 1 star, card 5 stars. I have two of these, and they work quite well with M$ generic drivers for Windows 2000 & XP, and Linux Orinoco drivers.
Netgear's own software is lousy on Windows- aside from the installer corrupting my registry once and putting a bunch of icons on my desktop, it doesn't add anything beyond Microsoft's. Their drivers don't even exist for Linux, but since they use a generic chipset, most distributions can support it. Their telephone support doesn't exist, and it is nearly impossible to find any helpful information on the MA311 on their website.
Those negatives aside, the card works quite well, which is the most important issue for me. If you're technically competent and don't need any handholding, this isn't a bad card.
3 Continual pain
Never worked properly in windows 2000, but that could be due to something else. However:
If you have this MA311 card in a Windows 2000 computer then upgrade to XP, IT WILL NOT WORK!
I have tried this process on two separate PCs; the card is then unusable in that machine afterwards, no amount of changing PCI slots, un/reinstalling drivers helps, you just various annoying windows errors such as 'driver installation was unsuccessful'.
Tech support are quite useless and sound very much like they're reading from a script, mainly because that's exactly what they're doing.
4 MA311 - Nice as a cosmetic tail - but thats about it
Since I've put this into my PC, I've broken 3 keyboards through frustration. On top of list price its cost me £3000 in anger management courses! hehe (joke)
However, absolutely useless with Win2000, it makes no sense. Installing the drivers before you put the card in your pc is also bizarre.
Reverted back to an old netgear MA101, which doesnt let me see my network, but lets me use the net through our gateway. Odd, but it does me for what i need.
Regards
James
UK
5 Perfect
I used a D-link usb adapter before this one. The D-link would'nt connect everytime. I took it back and bought this one. It wouldnt connect everytime because I installed it over the D link adapter. After I formatted my hard drive and installed everything clean it never fails to work. It connects everytime I boot up.
Good Product
6 Very good and reliable card
I use this card with the Netgear MR814 802.11b Wireless 4-Port Cable/DSL Router and they work together flawlessly.
I've had my network up since November every single day without spending more than 2 hours to set it all up. The signal strength I get is really good even with two floors between the router and the wireless card.
For those of you interested this card works great with Linux as well. I use kernel 2.4.24 and I never have a problem, while I had some issues with versions up to 2.4.20.
It works equally well with XP and 2K as well.
7 Works ok after debugging and I never got rebate from netgear
I purchased this to go with my 814 router. I set up the card in my kid's computer and I could not get it to work. Even though the machines could see each other, data wouldn't transmit. It looked like the WEP encryption was incorrect. I spent many hours trying to get it working and finally contacted tech support. I got a reply with a list of suggestions which I had already tried. I had a hunch that the WEP encryption probably changed the upper/lower case to something else(can't verify it since all you see is '***' because I could put in the WEP code and it would work until restarting, when it wouldn't work again. The workaround was to change my WEP to numbers only, no ascii. It has been working fine since.
8 Trouble free wireless connection
I bought 2 of these unites along with a MR814802.11b wireless routher to establish wireless cable connection for 2 computers. Neither is connected directly to the router. Install the router in the cable line somewhere in the house, install the cards in the computers. Install the software. I cannot imagine what could be easier. I am totally satisfied with these products.
9 Could not make it work under W98SE
I spent a good 4 hours trying to make this card work under WIndows 98SE. The documentation is pretty much useless as far as troubleshooting. Actually, the online documentation for the MA814 router is more usefull in term of configuration of the wireless cards. What is strange is that the card could "see" the router, but it would not connect eventhough the router was located next to it and the security options were all disabled. So I decided to out this card in my XP machine instead and it worked fine there.
10 Easy setup, works great
I bought this card with the Netgear MR814 router and I couldn't have been happier. All of the issues I had with installing the card were due to my own screwups. The reception is not bad. My PC is about 150 feet & one floor away in a big old house that my cell doesn't work to well in, so I was a little worried about signal strength, but it's just fine.
11 locks up under linux
Talking to the MR814 router it hangs on large outgoing data transfers after 70-80 Megs, and won't do anything at all until the machine is power-cycled. Works fine for web-surfing and downloads, but don't expect to do backups through it.
12 Fails to work in WEP mode
My MA311 PCI card works well when it's not in WEP (wireless equivalent protocol) mode. WEP is basically encryption that encodes the wireless traffic, providing some protection from hackers.
The MA311 does NOT work in WEP mode with the MR814 router. Period.
Technical support hold times for Netgear are typically over 2 hours. After spending a total of 3 hours on the phone with their technical support person, my problem was "forwarded" to an "engineer" at Netgear for follow-up. That was 2 months ago. They never bothered to contact me.
Not terribly impressive, the company or their product. Avoid Netgear.
13 Works Great.... =W2K Pro SP5=
people must know know how to work a wireless network
i installed this without any problems
be sure to install the drivers first....
NetGear & Linksys Rocks dude....
14 Why ship trash?
Take a look at Netgear's knowledgebase and you'll see that some of these adapters are sent out misconfigured--you need to use a driver for the MA312 instead of the MA311. I'm not sure if that's the problem with mine--still waiting after an hour in the support queue. And this is the second call. Email also went unanswered. I love Netgear products and always buy them over other companies networking products but this is too much. They are forcing me to reinstall the card before they'll issue an RMA. This is despite my trying for three hours, downloading the latest drivers and everything else in their knowledgebase. (I'm a software developer so I do have some inkling of what I'm doing.)
15 Range Claims exagerated
Wire less Router MR814V2. I got everything to work right out of the box pretty quickly and easily. Have three computers running through it, one using a standard rj45 cable, which works quite well. The other is using the MA311 PCI wireless card, and a Dell laptop using MA401. At a distance of 80 to 90 feet through the house the MA311 gets a 30% signal at best, and the MA401 gets 0% and will not connect to router. Tech support stepped me though a few things. But ended up telling me it's too far away from the base station, and that it was not really designed to function in a 2-Story Environment. I have limited experience with this type of networking but it seems that with a claim of 500 feet max range, an 80 foot distance should be working much better.
16 Netgear in denial about problems
Like "electronics fan from Holmdel, NJ United States" I too have had problems installing both the Netgear MA 311 and the DG 824m router. I finally got the router installed but only after I ignored the instruction pamphlet and used commonsense and trial and error. To date, the MA 311 refuses to install on my Windows 2000 machine and I have wasted way too much of my precious time trying. Windows 2000 recognises there's a new piece of hardware there, and that it's a network adapter but won't load the drivers. In both cases, whenever I call tech support (here in Australia) I am met with every excuse - it's the OS ... it's the PC ... it's my stupidity - and a reluctance to admit that there are problems with software compatibility on some machines. However, if you read their release notes in the latest firmware, they admit that there are some issues with Windows ME . This also extends to Win98 and, as far as I can tell, Win 2000. They also told me the router isn't compatible with my ADSL providor and said I should have checked on their website before I paid 600 bucks for the gear. Turns out it IS compatible - it works... what more can I say? - but only if you don't follow their instructions. I'm sure the MA 311 is a great piece of equipment provided you've got a middle-of-the-road machine running Windows XP but I'd be very wary if you have anything else. Maybe if they weren't in denial about the problems, they'd be able to provide decent support for those of us who encounter them.
17 Another great Netgear product
Great wireless card for Windows XP. Installation was very easy and performance has been very good.
18 Lovely Product
I needed a wireless card for my PC. I did some research and found this card to be the best I could find for my price range. After installing the card, it took about 30 seconds to configure, yes 30 seconds. My wireless access point requires authentication, otherwise it probably would of taken 0 seconds to configure. The card is getting great reception. The signal strength is about 85%. I recommend getting this card if you need a wireless card.
19 Doesn't interwork well with other Netgear products
It took me about 2 weeks of off-and-on work to finally get this card to work. I had to call tech support, spent 20 mintues on hold, and then another 50 minutes talking with a person who didn't help and was vaguely insulting. In the end, he incorrectly diagnosed a hardware problem. I finally fixed the problem after the call by reloading the driver.
The basic problem is that the card's encryption options are difficult to use and don't match those of the Netgear MR814 router. I would NOT buy any more Netgear products.
20 Fantasic with XP
Intstalled as promised and worked great with my Linksys router. Much better than the Linksys PCI card
21 Bad reception
I was expecting better, keeping the good Netgear reputation in mind. However, I was very disappointed by the reception. My computer that I used this card in, is no more than 30 feet from the router, which has proven itself to me in many ways. But, the wireless Netgear card's reception stinks! Signal quality and strength typically stays around 20-30%, and 35% if I'm lucky. This was not the case with certain USB wireless cards and the Linksys PCI Wireless network card. I attribute the poor reception to the small size of antenna. The Linksys counterpart has a much larger one and receives wireless signal much better.
I strongly recommend you not buy this item and go with the Linksys counterpart.
22 An Excellent Product
Between D-Link, Linksys and other manufactures of wireless PCI Cards, Netgear offers the best performance, efficiency and support. I am using MA311 with the NetGear Wireless Router MR814. It works perfectly as the description says. I installed it on a AMD with WindowsXP Pro, everything is working fine. The signal strength is great as well as the link quality. I recommend buying this product if you are using NetGear MR814 as well as other wireless routers using 802.11b standard. Excellent technical support and a solid product from NetGear.
23 Another great product from NetGear
NetGear makes the best wireless products hands down. I used to have the LinkSys WMP11 wich was unreliable. now I bought this card with the MR814 Wireless router works seamlessly together for seamless wireless connectivity. I have had no problems at all with this and I have owned it for about 4 months now. It is very easy to install. It is a must have for all wireless networks.
24 Can't get any easier than this
I bought a netgear 814 wireless router, an ma401 laptop wireless nic and 3 ma311 pci wireless nics (for my desktops). Can't believe how easy to use this stuff is. Plugged in the router, attached my laptop (windows 2000 pro os) and presto, was online via the router. Installed 1 ma311 wireless nic in windows me desktop (so far) and same thing. Brought the desktop up, messed with the antenna orientation a little bit (my router is in the basement and this computer is on the 2nd floor) and got 80% signal strenght and 100% link quality. No settings required! Took me all of 1 hour to install the router and the nic.
This is great stuff!
25 Easy to install, excellent connection on windows 98 desktop.
Turned off power, took off cover, installed card, replaced cover, booted, pc found new hardware, loaded cd in drive, pointed to it in dialogue, driver was loaded, network was found, connection made, no problem. I adjusted the antennae and connection is now consistently excellent. All in about five minutes.
Much better than the approx. eight hours I spent on the linksys usb adaptor before I gave up and returned it.
26 This was so easy!
I put in a wireless router, this into a desktop pc & another netgear item into a laptop. I would say it took less time than it stated in the directions. This is so cool to have & works great!
27 A perfectly fine wireless networking card
I purchased a couple of MA311s and MA401 and a MR814 access point. Installation was very simple. It installs like most other PCI cards but the instructions say to install the drivers and configuration utility first. I installed the MA311s in a Windows Me machine and a Windows 98SE box and both went in without a hitch. The antenna is removeable which facilitates installation and onced installed is easily oriented to maximize signal reception. Signal strength is very good. The router is on the third floor and one computer is on the first. Signal strength is well above 70% and Link strength is >80%.
The configuration software is easy to use and setup. Offers basic functions that support WEP and MAC address filtering of the router.
Overall a solid wireless networking card and with the current rebate offered by Netgear a fair deal.
28 Great Product at a great price!
I purchased three of these cards(for myself and my kids). Installation of each card went well(no problem with win XP) configured each machine and we were on line in minutes with great range from each machine to the router(router is in the basement) I would hightly recommend this product to anyone who is thinking of going wireless!!
