Netgear ME101 802.11b Wireless Bridge

Bring it all together å? your PC, gaming console, Internet Radio, and wireless network. NETGEAR's Wireless Ethernet Bridge makes it easy to create or extend a wireless network to include Ethernet devices without having to add Ethernet wiring to your home. This powerful bridge delivers greater range and signal strength than most other 802.11b adapters so that you can enjoy uninterrupted wireless network access to Ethernet devices within range of your router. Compact, portable, and wall-mountable, it gives you the freedom to place it anywhere in your home. High level 128-bit WEP encryption provides a high degree of privacy.Integrates Ethernet devices to a wireless network to make high-speed wireless Internet access available to any such device. A powerful detachable antenna provides access at distances greater than most 802.11b devices. Enjoy networked gaming at blazing speed from the most convenient spot in your home, regardless of where your router may be.Quickly and easily links an Ethernet device such as a gaming console or TiVo to your wireless network without having to rearrange the furnishings of your home. Sleek, wall-mountable design can blend in nicely into your home decor without the need for any additional cables. Detachable antenna allows you to choose optimal signal strength.Powerful 40/64-bit and 128-bit WEP encryption protects your network from wireless eavesdroppers. Tested and proven technology using advanced, high-quality components ensures reliable performance. NETGEAR round-the-clock technical support is always at your service.

1 It works
It is very straight forward to configure if you you know about it.
a) use "http://192.168.0.200" to configure
b) use crossover cable to connection your computer to me101

PROS:
a) simple and straight forward.
b) very good reception (better than any USB or PCMCI cards.
c) works with SMC, LINKSYS, of course netgear access point and creates smooth internet sharing using any switch or wireless router (I used linksys and ATT and worked equally weel)
CONS:
a) too fewer features.
b) for weeks, it needs to be power-off/power-on.

I got a recertified one and pretty happy with it.

2 ME101 Not Intuitive, but good
I wanted to write a review that covered the steps I took to get this connected because it was not easy. I searched quite a bit on the internet and didn't find too much help. You do not need to be a networking guru to set this up, but if you are a complete novice, you might need some help from a savvy friend. I have a Microsoft MN500 wireless router. I went through many attempts to get this working and wanted to let you know the steps that finally worked in order to help others out. The key element ended up being the manual reset button on the back of the ME101. I tried everything except that, which finally did the trick! Here are the steps I went through to get it working.
1) Plug in the ME101 and connected it to a computer (I used my wireless laptop)
2) Locate the Firmware Version (mine was V1.0)
3) Download the software from Netgear's site if necessary. (I downloaded both the V2.0 firmware and V2.0 of the configuration utility)
4) First, install V2.0 of the configuration software
5) Launch the utility and log in (it should detect your wireless bridge at this point)
6) Click on the upgrade tab, browse to the V2.0 firmware and upgrade the firmware to v2.0
7) Apply and Log Out
8) Before proceeding, I disabled my wireless network card on my laptop
9) Use a toothpick (or pointy object) to press the manual reset button on the back of the ME101 - KEY ELEMENT!!!!!
10) Log into the ME101 Config Utility
11) Set options according to your wireless network. (Mine is DHCP, so I selected my wireless SSID and told it to get the IP automatically, If your network has static IP addresses, you can set those as needed) TIP: Make sure your wireless router is broadcasting your SSID or the ME101 mostly likely will not connect)
12) Log out of the config utility
13) Disable the Local Network Connection, then re-enable it (by right-clicking on the Network Connection (I went to my network connections on the laptop and disabled the Local Network (the RJ-45 port), then I enabled the port)
14) The network status gave me "connected", then "acquiring network address" then "connected". I was able to browse the internet! - Success!

Connecting this to my XBox was another story. I had to manually configure the IP Address and DNS servers on the Xbox using XBox Live and then it worked like a charm. No problems since. Its been running several days now with no disconnects or reboots necessary. The ME101 is connecting at 88% from our 1st floor to my router on the 2nd floor. So once you get this going, it is a great little Ethernet bridge, especially for the price. I gave it 4/5 because it should have been much easier to configure.

3 Flawless performance under the right conditions
I bought the ME101 after hours of frustration with trying to get my Linux OSs to recognize the wireless network card already in my laptop. I've been using the ME101 bridge for a few weeks with 2 laptops running Windows XP and various Linux distributions, and I've also used it successfully with my Playstation 2.

So far the performance has been excellent, but only when the antenna is directly up in the air. If it's at a slight angle, the performance starts to degrade. The closer the antenna gets to the base, the worse the reception becomes. I have my wireless router on 1 floor and the bridge on another floor.

When setting up the bridge with my Netgear MR814 router's configuration, I added the MAC address of the bridge to my router's access list, which I knew I had to do, but I found out from reading reviews here that you also have to add the MAC address of the device *connected to* the ME101 (my thanks goes to the person who mentioned this). This is assuming you want to limit the MAC addresses that can connect to your wireless LAN. If you allow any and all devices to connect, then you don't need to worry about access control lists.

The configuration program included with the ME101 is simple to use assuming your wireless network is already configured correctly. I had to allow/enable broadcast of my SSID for the ME101 configuration program to detect the LAN, which I didn't really want to do.

Overall I've been very happy with this bridge and would recommend it to others. But if you don't know how to set up a wireless lan, read up on the subject first. The documentation included with the ME101 is VERY limited, and despite already having experience with my wireless LAN I had to do a bit of googling to get info on this bridge's setup.

4 definitely works !!! (if you know what you're doing)
I read all the reviews both good and bad. I needed a hookup for my xbox (minus the wires and a high pricetag. So I bought the me101 anyways. A word to the wise if you are network setup savvy then this is 5min setup issue and your done,it took me about 10mins because I wanted to try it (test it) w/o broadcasting my SSID(of my network) and like the last reviewer said it found it but didnt lock on. Anyways I went down to my office got on my pc and went into the setup for my router (netgear mr814)and changed that setting and voila!!! the me101 works like a charm ... I've had no problems (its been 2weeks ) my wireless network sees my xbox just peachy. Hell I even connected my laptop to the me101 and was able to access the internet just fine. Its cheaper [...] than buying the xbox wiureless adaptor ($109) and its use is not restricted. If I want to link something else instead of my xbox I'm good to go. (lol) .
BUT IT DOES HELP IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!

5 Not sure about all the fuss here
I bought this product despite the negative reviews seen here. I also purchased a Netgear router at the same time. This product is a breeze to set up, just plug it in and go. I control access to my rounter via mac address screening, and had no problems setting that up. I have had absolutely no connection problems, this thing stays connected.

I highly reccomend this product-it's an affordable solution for sharing a network connection between computers, video game consoles, etc. Similar adapters exist for Video Game units specifically labeled for video game consoles but cost twice as much and are exactly the same product as this one.

6 Nocturnal Gnome
This is a good product for those of you who possess a reasonably good understanding of networking. If you don't, do not buy this product! Customer Service is outsourced from India (I've never had a good experience with any of it, expecially the struggle to understand and communicate with agents). First hand knowledge is extremely limited and they rely on databases driven support.

7 If only I could give 0 stars...
Please pay attention to the negative reviews. I purchased this product because a) it was less expensive than comparable products, 2) it was small, and 3) I could get it from Amazon.com.

After fiddling with the item for a while, I called support. The bridge came with version 1.0 of the firmware (purchased Oct. 24, 2004), so I don't care what some folks say, not all units are shipping with firmware v.2.

My problem was with functionality-after a lot of fiddling, I decided to turn MAC address filtering off to see if the bridge worked. It did. Turn MAC address filtering back on, and it stopped working. Quadruple-checked the MAC address I had on the allow list, and yes, it was the same.

Called tech support. Got hung up on once, and the other time was told that I had to register before receiving support. Nice try-I can't get online without the bridge working! After (politely, not rudely pointing this out, was told "Please hold to see what I can find out" and was disconnected.

Hours later, I called again, for the third time. Got to speak to someone who seemed to be nice. He tried to solve my problem, but after a certain point (maybe 5-7 minutes), he started rushing me off the phone. "Here is your case number, please call us back if it still doesn't fix the problem." Now, bear in mind that I was on hold for about 20 minutes, and this wasn't my first call to try to speak to someone, so all in all I was killing at least an hour of my day. He was desperately trying to hang up, and actually said "If this doesn't help, there's nothing we can do." then following up on that comment with "If you call back we can contact Tier 2 support and they will call you back." This all for a configuration change that took literally 20 seconds.

Anyway, I'm ranting, so my apologies. Please learn from my (and other's) mistakes and DO NOT buy this product! You'll end up, like me, raving and ranting in a public forum.

8 ABSOLUTELY AWFUL - DOESN'T WORK.
This device is an abomination. This may sound a bit severe, but it won't even work with a second generation Netgear wireless router. Thinking it was perhaps a problem with the Netgear Router, I tried to use it with an Airport Express base station, and the results were exactly the same....Sees connections, drops connection, endless "reboot"...doesn't work.

The web based configuration software is poorly implemented and doesn't allow for setting the bridge to see the router (gateway) and receive an IP address (DHCP) in the same domain. In other words, all you are allowed to do is select DHCP without further stipulation, i.e. IP address of the router it is seeking an IP address from. When the directions are properly followed the device continues to drop its connection to the wireless gateway. There is nothing more to say, it just doesn't work. A total waste of time and money. I agree, Amazon should drop this product from the catalog. JUNK!

9 This one is going back
I've had nothing but problems with this thing, and, after spending hours in an infinite hold loop with their offshore tech support, I'm giving up.

10 Great Bridge
The best bridge i have used, and i absolutely love netgear.
Ive had it for close to a year with absolutely no problems, never once has it disconected.
I set it up once and that was it.
I have used it other places also and its very easy to find a network though its connection percent is wrong.
I am not sure if i have v2.0 or v1.0 cause i havent connected to it in forever.

11 It's easy and it works
I was hesitant to purchase this bridge due to the poor customer reviews, but I'm glad I did. I had my old Bondi Blue iMac, running Mac OS 9.2, on the Internet within five minutes. It only took that long because my wireless router's set up with shared key encryption, MAC filtering, and no beaconing. This little unit does what it's supposed to do right out of the box, and it's easily configurable, if needed, using the Web browser of any machine you plug into it. I haven't even opened the CD.

The only drawbacks--which are all minor--are 1) it doesn't seem to get as good of a signal as my other devices, but since it has a replaceable antenna and comes with very long cords I can fix that; 2) its form factor and LED displays don't match other typical Netgear products' style (like their routers and access points) so it looks kind of odd; and 3) whenever you click Apply in the Web configuration screens, it requires the bridge to reboot, which takes a minute or two, and if you switch from a static IP to DHCP, you'll probably lose your connection entirely and have to figure out what the bridge's new IP is to get back to the configuration page.

None of the complaints I have are a big deal, and I'm very happy with this product. I just wish it was a little cheaper, since it's basically just a wireless "card" for PCs that can't use a real wireless card.

12 Happy-meal network hardware
I am in total agreement with the poor reviews of the ME101. It is a clunker of a product. I returned it after a week of fiddling and well-meaning but useless support from Netgear's phone support temps. In my case, it would only work if WEP was disabled and I used static IP addresses on client PCs behind the bridge. If the ME101 was a product released into a older, well-established market, it would be recalled immediately. It is only because consumer wireless networking is relatively new that Netgear can get away with selling this junk with a straight face. The ME101 is not worth your money.

13 Perfect for online gaming...
Just to let everyone know: the ME101 now comes with firmware v2.0 and configuration utility v2.0 out of the box, so there's no need to download and install anything when you buy it.

I bought this wireless bridge for the sole reason of hooking up my PlayStation 2 to my home network for online games without running 50 feet of Cat5 cable down the hallway. And, for this purpose, the ME101 is perfect. Simply: this thing just works.

I configured the bridge with another computer, but found that it actually works best with the default settings. I plugged one end of the cable into my PS2's network adaptor, and the other into the ME101, and a few minutes later I'm online! One of the great things about this device is that it just "disappears" on the network when another device is plugged in (when checking my attached devices on my router, only the PS2 and my other PCs show up, not the ME101). Throughput is great, no lags, and my wireless router is two rooms and 30 feet away.

Granted, the signal strength is lower than my other wireless devices on the network, but it's speed that's important to me, and this thing delivers.

In conclusion: if you need to hook up a device such as a PS2 or Xbox, and don't want to run yards of ethernet cable thru your house, this little number does the trick. It's simple to set up, and does what it's supposed to do. I recommend it for this purpose.

14 Very poor performance, 35% to 65% packet loss
In its defense, version 2.0 of the firmware will make it a real bridge and pass thru the DHCP requests to the DHCP server, and it will assign itself an address from the DHCP server. But this is not the DEFAULT configuration, so you have to install their configuration (PC-only) utility to force that mode (BTW the password is "password").

After upgrading the firmware and seeing 12 hours of fine performance, I started getting HUGE packet losses. I'm running 3 PCs and 2 Mac OS X boxes thru it. Rebooting cleaned up the problem for about 5 minutes. It is UNUSABLE in this state.

I called their customer service -- which they've outsourced to India -- a corporate trend I cannot support.

It's going back to the store >:-p

15 Don't Buy This Product
I set this unit up 6 inches from the wireless router, upgraded the firmware, talked to tech support, and it still didn't work. I have over 20 years of experience with networking and have to say this is a very disappointing product. I have the Netgear MR814 wireless router and Netgear 802.11B and G PCI wireless cards that work fine. This product is no good.

16 Works.. if you know what you are doing
I think this is a very good product. However, I do have two complains:

-You need to know what you are doing to set it up correctly since the instructions aren't a lot of help. If you are not familiar with networking terms, seek a friend that does, get another product that has a friendlier manual or prepare yourself with a lot of patience and trial-and-error.

-It won't "connect" to my wireless network if my access point does not broadcast the SSID. It finds it, but it never locks on it even if you enter the SSID in the bridge configuration.

First of all, you need the firmware upgrade. Don't try anything without upgrading first. I connected the cross-over cable included to my computer, installed the utility program included in the cd and upgraded the firmware (you also have to upgrade the utility program).

Once that was done, I had 100% signal strenght across the room (lets say 8 feet.) It was about 70% before the firmware upgrade. The 64-bit encription takes it back to about 84% however. I then took it to my basement (1 floor down, about 20 feet away through 3 walls) to its final location where my Playstation is. It worked without any problems. I've had it on for days now and it doesn't lock up or loses signal strength. I used to run a network cable all the way down there and I can't tell that I am using a wireless bridge instead of an ethernet cable. It is just as fast and reliable.

I also was curious about how the bridge was going to work with access control by MAC id (I have my wireless access point set up this way). It worked great. It locks on the network but it will throw itself out if the device you have connected to it is not in the MAC access control list.

Overall I am very satisfied with it, but I can see how it would get frustrating if I didn't know about networking.

17 The worst wireless device I've ever used
The ME101 worked great - for a few hours at a time. After many calls to Netgear, finally got a replacement. Unfortuantely, it stopped working completely within a month or so. Since then I have called many times, and have been promised a return call from Level 2 support. That never happened. Just today, I called four times, and all four times was disconnected when transferred to Level 2. I've given up on this product.

18 Not a Wi-Fi Bridge a Wi-Fi piece of trash
Plain and simple, this item does not work. I fought with it for about a day trying to set it up as a bridge. Whenever anything connected to the eathernet port tried to access the network wireless through this "bridge" the bridge lost its connection with the wireless network. Buy a Linksys WET11 before you buy this.

19 A very poor choice
I use Netgear products exclusively but this is a real dog. I bought the ME101 based on assurances from Netgear support that the ME101 would act as a wireless repeater after a firmware upgrade. it would not configure properly, the configuration utility failed to recognize the bridge even after I specified an IP address and therefore I was never able to upgrade the firmware. It took 4 calls to Netgear support and an escalation before I was told the product would not operate as I had been advised. This product did not perform adequately

20 OK device, needs a little work
1. High price should be about $30 (my guess is that the price is higher because of the very nice, compact, switching power supply)
2. MUST upgrade to 2.0 software to cure instability (would lock-up all the time before upgrade, now it's very stable)
3. Would be great if someone sold a small bridge like this with an integrated hub ...
4. Setup is OK ... SNMP based custom application requireing a static IP for the device ... needs a little work, how about DHCP and web setup?

I bought this to connect a small lab in my basement to the rest of the house network ... house has no cabling and I got tired of dragging a 100 foot cable down the hall from the office. Out of the box it had firmware version 1.0 on it ... it would lock up after about 20 minutes and need to be power cycled ... Netgear's web site has a 2.0 firmware load available ... Once I did the upgrade it has been rock solid and does the trick for me.

21 i am sad ...
very instabil product much packet loss, hangs often und must be
cold started, BUG: con not operate with hidden SSID !!

22 BAD BAD BAD
I also own a Netgear wireless router. Configuring ME101 to work with my Netgear router wasn't an issue. However, the wireless bridge only works for several hours and hang. Sometimes it only works for mintues. I've updated the firmware and it's not helping at all. It's a piece of crap.

23 Netgear Misses the Mark with the ME101
The first thing wrong with this device is how you interface with it. You have to install a configuration program first to set it up. A web-based interface would have been far easier. No serious user wants the clutter of yet nbother configuration program on their computer.

The second worst feature about it is you have to enter your own IP address. This means you've got to ask your cranky network administrator what address is available to you and key it in manually. Being to obtain an address automatically via DHCP is ESSENTIAL for the visitor who only wants to use your wireless temporarily.

The worst part is the set up program itself. I installed it in XP. At one point it prompted you for the password but it never accepts it! It's right there in the skimpy documentation what you have to put in the password field and then it refuss to take it!

I can't remember a device that has ever inspired such total contempt from me. This device is a complete waste of money. I boxed it back up and took it right back where I bought it the next morning.

24 Works great... 15 minutes at a time!!!
This has got to be one of the worst wireless products to come out of Netgear.
If you want a reliable unit, buy something else.
If you want something easy to configure and install, buy something else.
If you want something that won't get confused when it starts seeing your neighbor's wireless access point, buy something else.
If you would like to be able to call technical support and get a meaningful response, buy something else.

This thing locks up all the time. Sometimes it lasts 15 minutes, sometimes you might get 30 minutes of use out of it. Then you have to power cycle it to make it work again for another 15 minutes. I have tried to mate it to wireless access points made by Netgear, D-Link, Linksys, Adaptec, Cisco. I have tried having only one AP "visible" in its pitiful range; having multiple access points; upgrading the firmware. Nothing changes its behavior of random locks after a relatively short period of time from the moment you turn it on.

Finally, if you don't want to end up like me writing reviews on here, BUY SOMETHING ELSE! Anything.

It can not possibly be any worse than this utter failure and ripoff.

25 Great...if it would work more than a few hours
I bought this little bridge to connect to my D-Link 614+ access point. During setup, it immediately found the D-Link and I was connected without issue. Unfortunately, this would only last for a random amount of time, usually a few hours, but could go for a day before disconnecting. The only solution was to power cycle the bridge. I returned it and bought a D-Link 900+ AP and it works flawlessly. My advice: Use the same vendor for all of your wireless equipment if you can. So far, if I don't, I usually have irritating problems like this.

26 Difficult to Configure
After three hours battling with the so-call "easy to configure" device, I finally got it to work. However, I still don't have a clue what I had done to make it work.

Unlike, the WET11, it doesn't have a switch to let you switch to x-over mode. So if you want to plug it onto your PC and configure it, you need to get yourself a x-over cable.

Also the new firmware can only be upgrade through the Windows based Utility. So if you are using OS other than Windows, you may have problem to upgrade your ME101.

In addition, the web configuration page is slow and buggy. If you access it through the wired port, you are okay. But if you try to open it wirelessly, it is like lottory. You can open it sometimes, and can't others.

Bottom line is, if you can affort a bit more, the WET11 seems like a better solution.

27 Over 450 feet with 49% signal strength
I am using the me101 with a netgear bridge over 450 feet with a wall and several trees in between. We consistantly have %49 signal strength. I am very pleased with the performance. Hard to beat a 5dbi antenna right off the shelf.

28 What a nightmare!!
This must be the worst product from Netgear which typically has fairly stable products. First of all I'd strongly recommend getting the latest firmware from netgear.

To name a few things:

1- Very poor Range. I have a netgear PC card in a laptop sitting right next to ME101 and it showed a signal strength of 100% for a router 25 feet away, whereas the ME101 was totally blind.

2- After the firmware upgrade (V2.0 07/13/03) ME101 got some vision back with a very week (35%-40%) router signal. For some strange reason, I had to configure my router to broadcast its(router's) SSID before it can be detected by ME101. The laptop and PC wireless cards (also from netgear) automatically detect the router, but ME101 cannot, unless router is broadcasting its SSID.

3- Initially dropped the connection a little too frequently (re-scaning all the time) but its a little better now after the firmware upgrade.

4- Installation Guide/User manual is very week - again as compared to other Netgear products.

On the whole I'd not recommend it unless you are a technical savy person and don't mind trying different things to make it work. Firmware upgrade is a must.

Btw I am using a switch behind ME101 thus allowing my multiple physically wired PC's to use the wireless connection via ME101.

29 What a nightmare!!
This must be the worst product from Netgear which typically has fairly stable products. First of all I'd strongly recommend getting the latest firmware from netgear.

To name a few things:

1- Very poor Range. I have a netgear PC card in a laptop sitting right next to ME101 and it showed a signal strength of 100% for a router 25 feet away, whereas the ME101 was totally blind.

3- Initially dropped the connection a little too frequently (re-scaning all the time) but its a little better now after the firmware upgrade.

4- Installation Guide/User manual is very week - again as compared to other Netgear products.

On the whole I'd not recommend it unless you are a technical savy person and don't mind trying different things to make it work. Firmware upgrade is a must.

Btw I am using a switch behind ME101 thus allowing my multiple physically wired PC's to use the wireless connection via ME101.

30 Do yourself a favor and get the Linksys WET11 instead...
As with the other posters, I have little good to say about my experience with this device.

I spent way too many hours trying to set this thing up. To no avail.

How badly does the ME101 suck? Let me count the ways:
1) The instructions are terrible - and in my case they were plain wrong. I spent way too much time trying to access the bridge via the web console only to later discover that the enclosed instructions were OUTDATED. Sure enough, there on the Netgear site was an updated version of the user guide with a completely different set of information (specifically the defaul IP address was different). Gee, thanks Netgear.
2) I bought this device because I already have a Netgear wireless router. You'd like to think that they'd make the devices easy to use out of the box given the same make. Of course not -- the stupid IP address doesn't even conform to the standard Netgear router IP. Not a big deal, but it's little details like this that are so annoying.
3) Netgear's tech support. AWOL. The first night I tried to call these guys I got the phone tree of death. Had to go through 5-6 levels of menu to get to the right queue. By the time I did, I got a message saying my call is important to them, blah blah blah, followed by a prompt that indicated a 30 minute waiting period. 30 minutes later after Vivaldi's Four Seasons, I hear a ring. Yes - help is on the way! Only to hear my line be disconnected. I call back - now the voice says 40 minutes. I try again an hour later -- now we're at 80 minutes.
4) Second night of Netgear tech support I call back. After another 30 minute wait, the tech tells me I'm in teh wrong queue. Before I can respond, he transfers me - ring followed by nothing (I'm cut off AGAIN). So now I'm mad. I call back yet again (glutton for punishment). After another interminable wait I get a live human. From the start he tells me that since I have a Mac I can't use the ME101, I need an ME102 OR, get this, I need to configure the ME101 with a Windows machine and THEN use it with my Mac. He then insists that I need "drivers" for the device which arent' compatible with the Mac and when I press him on why this information is not present in any of the user guide materials, he patronizingly tells me "you wouldn't understand". In any event, a short argument ensues in which I ask the tech if he's ever read the manual they've packaged with the unit, because everything he's tell me is constradicting the friggin manual. After hanging up on the guy, I later manage to access the web console which only furthers my assertion that Netgear tech support folk are morons (turns out I had to reset to the factory settings b/c for some reason the thing wasn't even set to the factory defaults to begin with!!!)
5) The range - the range on this thing stinks. I had it literally NEXT to the router and the signal strength was at 50%. 15 feet away? Nada...nothing. On top of that the unit couldn't even keep a consistent connection and kept dropping out.

In any event, I bought a Linksys WET11 to boost my flagging spirit (and for the need to convince myself that I wasn't a moron). As with the other reviewer, the Linksys was easily configured, worked almost immediately and had great range.

Let me end by saying I was in the local Fry's yesterday and noticed they had a bunch of ME101 boxes on display. On closer inspection I noticed that almost ALL of the boxes had been previously opened and then returned. A couple of them clearly had been returned not once, but MULTIPLE TIMES. All this tells me that I'm not the only that has had problems with this piece o' garbaggio.

In the future, I'm sticking with Linksys. Forget Netgear. Save the tylenol for a better headache.

31 Do yourself a favor and get the Linksys WET11 instead...
As with the other posters, I have little good to say about my experience with this device.

I spent way too many hours trying to set this thing up. To no avail.

How badly does the ME101 [stink]? Let me count the ways:
1) The instructions are terrible - and in my case they were plain wrong. I spent way too much time trying to access the bridge via the web console only to later discover that the enclosed instructions were OUTDATED. Sure enough, there on the Netgear site was an updated version of the user guide with a completely different set of information (specifically the defaul IP address was different). Gee, thanks Netgear.
2) I bought this device because I already have a Netgear wireless router. You'd like to think that they'd make the devices easy to use out of the box given the same make. Of course not -- the stupid IP address doesn't even conform to the standard Netgear router IP. Not a big deal, but it's little details like this that are so annoying.
3) Netgear's tech support. AWOL. The first night I tried to call these guys I got the phone tree of death. Had to go through 5-6 levels of menu to get to the right queue. By the time I did, I got a message saying my call is important to them, blah blah blah, followed by a prompt that indicated a 30 minute waiting period. 30 minutes later after Vivaldi's Four Seasons, I hear a ring. Yes - help is on the way! Only to hear my line be disconnected. I call back - now the voice says 40 minutes. I try again an hour later -- now we're at 80 minutes.
4) Second night of Netgear tech support I call back. After another 30 minute wait, the tech tells me I'm in teh wrong queue. Before I can respond, he transfers me - ring followed by nothing (I'm cut off AGAIN). So now I'm [ticked]. I call back yet again (glutton for punishment). After another interminable wait I get a live human. From the start he tells me that since I have a Mac I can't use the ME101, I need an ME102 OR, get this, I need to configure the ME101 with a Windows machine and THEN use it with my Mac. He then insists that I need "drivers" for the device which arent' compatible with the Mac and when I press him on why this information is not present in any of the user guide materials, he patronizingly tells me "you wouldn't understand". In any event, a short argument ensues in which I ask the tech if he's ever read the manual they've packaged with the unit, because everything he's tell me is constradicting the friggin manual. After hanging up on the guy, I later manage to access the web console which only furthers my assertion that Netgear tech support folk are morons (turns out I had to reset to the factory settings b/c for some reason the thing wasn't even set to the factory defaults to begin with!!!)
5) The range - the range on this thing stinks. I had it literally NEXT to the router and the signal strength was at 50%. 15 feet away? Nada...nothing. On top of that the unit couldn't even keep a consistent connection and kept dropping out.

In the future, I'm sticking with Linksys. Forget Netgear. Save the tylenol for a better headache.

32 Looks Nice but doesn't work
I have spent about 2 hours too long trying to get this device to even see my wireless network. I started with it about 40 feet away from my router. I then moved it to 30....20......10....on top of my router and it was still unable to even detect that I had a wireless network running. I then tried to configure it with my laptop that has a wireless nic in it, The strength on the nic was 100% but 0% on the me101. Trust me save your time and shiping costs, just buy the linksys it works.

33 Major compatibility problems with this unit
The netgear ME101 is a compact wireless client mode bridge and a competitor to the Linksys WET11.

It is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and includes a removable antenna, power and an ethernet port. The ethernet port is not auto-sensing so you may need a crossover cable (included) and a standard ethernet cable.

The setup menu is web based and includes standard (SSID, fixed WEP keys, and preferred network). 802.11x security is not supported.

Setup was straightforward. My problems were with functionality.

I am using a 802.11b Intel/Symbol 2011 access point with WEP and Mac address filtering enabled with a wide variety of 802.11b equipment including Cisco, Intel, Orinoco, and Linksys client cards and bridges. The netgear ME101 was unable to lock on to my SSID for more than a few seconds at a time. Netgear tech support was unable to resolve the problem beyond suggesting to flash the firmware (did not help). Support also had long (30+ minutes) hold times during which I was disconnected twice and had to wait an additional 10-15 minutes to be reconnected. When I did get through to level 2 support the engineer was courteous but was unable to resolve the problem.

For now, try the Linksys WET11. The Linksys units work pretty well but are subject to loss of setup information without a UPS. I'm still waiting for a reliable and inexpensive bridge.